Are More Hollywood A-Listers Taking Human Growth Hormone to Stay Young?
By Vanity Fair12:00 AM, February 1 2012
“I’ll tell you why I took H.G.H. in the first place. I love fucking,” says a longtime filmmaker, speaking on the condition of anonymity about the growing trend of human-growth-hormone therapy, which can cost as much as $10,000 per year. “I like that sense of self that comes from confidence in that area. And when I hit my 50s, although I was still very sexually active, I was less so than when I was in my 20s. And like other pathetically insecure Hollywoodites, I had an internal panic that led me to curiously explore what options were available in the world.” He tells Vanity Fair’s Zeman, who reports on cosmetic use of H.G.H. in the March issue: “I am one of the pathetically insecure Hollywood people who, like everyone else who lives here, is overly concerned with looks.” The results: “My internal organs got healthier quickly. And I could feel it—the main impact of H.G.H. … is really useful, I found. It very much imbues you with a sense of clarity and confidence.”
This supposed fountain of youth is used by entertainment-industry A-listers, viewing it as the latest must-have treatment. According to a talent manager, “any actor over 50 you’re still seeing with a ripped stomach and veins in his forearms is probably taking H.G.H.” Zeman spoke to both users and the physicians who sell it—as well as medical professionals who dismiss H.G.H. as potentially hazardous.
“We treat a deficiency disease,” says Dr. Andre Berger, one of the top H.G.H. experts in Los Angeles. “Anti-aging medicine is about making people as vital, functional, happy, and active as they can be. It’s about maximizing their potential.” He continues, “People are going to be living longer. This is about preventing the chronic diseases and all the ravages that affect your quality of life.” Another top administrator of the therapy, Dr. Uzzi Reiss, tells Zeman, “The same doctors who criticize the uses of H.G.H. for anti-aging reasons take young, short children—the most vulnerable population—and give them much larger doses and claim it is safe. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Reiss, who calls H.G.H. “a rejuvenating force,” knows its supposed benefits firsthand. “I see it in myself. I’ve been taking H.G.H. for many years. I have the energy and vibrancy of a man half my age,” he says. “I don’t get sick, don’t get jet-lagged. I can’t see why anybody would inject H.G.H. if it doesn’t have any benefits.” He believes the definition of H.G.H. deficiency used by endocrinologists to be “too restrictive. Endocrinologists ignore a significant segment of the population that needs H.G.H.,” he says. “The F.D.A. doesn’t regulate off-label uses of H.G.H.,” says Dr. Dragos Roman, a lead endocrinologist at the F.D.A. “Sometimes it’s used appropriately. Sometimes it’s not.”
In the words of one actor who used H.G.H. for two years—and over that time noticed some improvement in his skin and muscle tone: “I guess the only thing I know for sure is that starring in movies is great until you get man tits.”
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