Study Makes Fans Think Twice About HGH In Pro Sports

Boston (dbTechno) - The media, along with fans, has always seen human-growth hormone, or HGH, as a tool professional athletes use to cheat and gain an unfair advantage. A new study has shown though, that HGH does not improve athletic performance in any way. With this new information, does the media, and fans, now owe athletes abused for using HGH an apology?

Human-growth hormone, HGH, is made by the pituitary gland and helps with growth. It is a supplement which has been in the focus of professional sports over the past few years, especially in the NFL and MLB. Many professional athletes, including Rodney Harrison of the New England Patriots, Andy Petitte of the New York Yankees, and others have been tied to using it.

The drug has been made to look like something which helps athletes prolong their careers and perform more effectively. Currently, legendary MLB pitcher Roger Clemens is in the middle of an HGH investigation, as many fans now pinpoint that the only reason he can still pitch in the big leagues, is because of HGH.

Many fans though, as well as media outlets, know very little about the actual make-up of HGH, and what it does to the body.

A report released looked at 27 different studies involving 440 athletes. The idea behind the report was to show if there were any performance enhancing effects of using HGH. What they found though has surprised many.

The report was based on research done at Stanford University, and was published on Monday by the Annals of Internal Medicine.

It revealed that HGH did not help athletic performance in any way. The lead author of the study, Dr. Hau Liu of Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, California, even stated it may worsen athletic performance.

What they found was that HGH does add muscle, but in terms of aiding actual performance in athletic exercises, it did nothing. The added muscle was merely found to be cosmetic, as it did not help with strength increases either.

It also was found to lead to side effects including swelling and extreme fatigue.

So now the real question comes up, what does this all mean? Should the media and fans apologize to these pro athletes for stating that they cheated because they used HGH? Does this study mean that these big name pro athletes received nothing from using HGH?

There is very likely much more that will be added to this story, but with the widespread use of HGH in professional sports continuing, and no real testing prevalent, should fans and the media even care anymore? Based on this report, HGH does next to nothing to help them anyways.