Human growth hormone continues to provide major headlines. From athletes getting caught using it, to major actors using HGH to become strong, to scientists struggling to find a way to detect it, the excitement over this substance continues.

However, is human growth hormone all it’s made out to be? Recent research shows it may be.

In the March 2009 Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism an article was published entitled, “Testosterone and Growth Hormone Improve Body Composition and Muscle Performance in Older Men.”

What was this study all about? Quite simply, they were testing the hypothesis of whether human growth hormone and testosterone replacement supplementation combined provided improved body composition - specifically, less fat and more muscle.

The Results?

Upper and lower body muscle strength increased. Lean body mass increased (muscle). Total fat decreased. Aerobic ability increased.

They did notice increased systolic and diastolic blood pressure which was expected.

Their conclusion? Supplementing with testosterone produced significant gains in total lean body mass, aerobic activity, and decreases in fat. These results appeared to be increased by combining with human growth hormone.

Overall, quite an impressive picture of these hormones! Recent studies such as these continue to produce impressive results. Supplementing with testosterone and human growth hormone with these kinds of results is going to become easier and easier as the true results come out.

In the past the results of human growth hormone have only been known and used by doctors at the forefront of anti aging research. Lately, as more and more researchers take to investigating this substance, these hormones are becoming more mainstream.

The heavy use in sports of human growth hormone has certainly contributed to the widespread interest in the subject. Surely one must consider that if all these athletes are risking their careers to use human growth hormone, it must really help! What the professional athletes know is exactly what has been reported in this study, that is, for maximum results you need to combine testosterone replacement with human growth hormone replacement therapy. This provides the real benefits these studies are showing.

More and more people are realizing they don’t have to accept the way they are aging and can actually do something about it! From eating better and exercising more all the way up to supplementing with powerful hormones may help to slow down the effects of aging.

Is it the fountain of youth? Nope! But every step is a step forward!

The member physicians of this association have been on the forefront of helping people slow down the aging clock for years. It’s important that they are supported at every opportunity.

Some people with antiquated views on dietary supplements might wonder how legitimate the notion of fighting off aging is. It may seem almost hopeless, making the idea of fighting off the inevitable seem outrageous. This is true only if you think of it in fairy tale terms. You can never stop the clock, but 60 is most certainly “the new” 40.

So what is it about anti aging medicine that makes it among the top selling forms of medicine sold in pharmacies today? The fact remains that people are always looking for the fountain of youth. Fighting off “signs of aging” is no longer just about fighting off the physical signs; it’s about fighting off aging altogether.

Lots of people are buying up all sorts of vitamins, including vitamin B6 and various hair, skin and nail vitamins. These vitamins can contribute to a more youthful appearance. Getting rid of the signs of aging is half of the battle of keeping skin young. The other half of the battle includes keeping the skin moisturized and clean.

Still, for those who buy vitamin B6 as a skin care anti aging medicine, there are benefits to the vitamin that actually do contribute to aging gracefully. Vitamins and natural supplements are healthy, and can benefit you in the long run. The best way to actually combat any signs of aging is to remain as healthy as possible for as long as possible. However, all of the hair, skin and nail vitamins in the world can’t provide that kind of health.

The best way to remain healthy is to make healthy lifestyle choices including diet and supplementation. Exercise, a proper diet and plenty of rest and key nutrients are the key fundamentals to any sort of anti aging medicine plan. It all starts with building the foundation to a solid, healthy long life. No form of any natural hormone program will be able to accomplish the same goals that a healthy lifestyle can.

The only thing that stands in the way of slowing down aging is a closed mind. Keeping your mind open to new possibilities is mandatory. Otherwise you might as well just give up and let the “scooter store” mentality take over.

Part 2 of video:

According to the American Heart Association nearly one out of every three Americans (65 million people) has high blood pressure. In addition, high blood pressure was the significant cause of death in approximately 50,000 people as of 2002.

To make things worse, studies have shown that a 55-year-old person who has normal blood pressure has a lifetime chance of having high blood pressure. Besides the risk of heart attack and stroke, high blood pressure can cause damage to blood vessels in the eyes, heart, brain, and kidneys.

All this would be very discouraging were it not for that fact that high blood pressure can be controlled by prescription drugs or by natural methods.

Prescription drugs can be effective in many cases but they are not a guaranteed solution. There is also the possibility of experiencing unpleasant side effects with prescription medications and for that reason many people are seeking non-drug means to lower blood pressure naturally.

Two of the best methods of lowering blood pressure naturally are exercise and diet. You don’t have to join a gym or engage in strenuous exercise to make a difference. If you merely commit to walking 20 to 30 minutes at least 3 times a week this can have a positive effect on blood pressure. In addition, there are other benefits for the joints, bones and muscles.

Watching your diet can have a major impact on lowering your blood pressure naturally. You should strive to keep your sodium intake to less than 2400 mg per day. Be aware that processed foods are often high in salt (sodium) so read the label. Potassium is a mineral that has a positive effect on lowering blood pressure naturally and you want to consume a minimum of 4700 mg per day.

Recent discoveries have revealed another method of lowering blood pressure naturally.

This is called nitric oxide therapy and is the result of the research by Nobel® Laureate Dr. Louis Ignarro.

Dr. Ignarro along with his team of researchers knew that nitrogen in the form of nitro-glycerin had been used for years to help relieve angina or heart distress but they didn’t know how it worked. They discovered that the nitric oxide molecule has a profound effect in dilating arteries and blood vessels, which could lower blood pressure naturally and support cardiovascular health.

But the question was how to create nitric oxide in the body? They discovered that the amino acid, arginine or L-arginine, causes nitric oxide to be produced in the arteries and blood vessels and produced the same effect that exercise does. Furthermore, they discovered that nitric oxide has other beneficial effects, which impact the immune system and the nervous system. In short, it seemed like nitric oxide was a miracle molecule.

So the next question was what foods are a good source of arginine? There were many on the list including nuts, red meat, chicken, and certain vegetables. Although these were a natural source, there wasn’t enough arginine to make a major difference.

Dr. Ignarro realized that he would have to create a supplement, which would provide enough arginine in significant quantity. Five years of history have shown that this supplement has been effective in lowering blood pressure naturally for many people. Even some individuals who were not able to effectively control their blood pressure with medication were able to do so using nitric oxide therapy.

Dr. Louis J. Ignarro,  (born May 31, 1941) is an American pharmacologist. He was co-recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Robert F. Furchgott and Ferid Murad for demonstrating the signaling properties of nitric oxide, (L-Arginine).Louis Ignarro receives award from D. Wink at National Cancer Institute - NIH.  He is currently professor of pharmacology at the UCLA School of Medicine’s department of molecular and medical pharmacology in Los Angeles, which he joined in 1985. Before relocating to California, he was a professor of pharmacology at Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans.

Dr. Louis J. Ignarro, (born May 31, 1941) is an American pharmacologist. He was co-recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Robert F. Furchgott and Ferid Murad for demonstrating the signaling properties of nitric oxide, (L-Arginine).Louis Ignarro receives award from D. Wink at National Cancer Institute - NIH.  He is currently professor of pharmacology at the UCLA School of Medicine’s department of molecular and medical pharmacology in Los Angeles, which he joined in 1985. Before relocating to California, he was a professor of pharmacology at Tulane University School of Medicine,  New Orleans.

The benefits and functions attributed to oral ingestion of L-arginine include:

• Precursor for the synthesis of nitric oxide (NO) Stimulation of the release of growth hormone.

• Improves immune function Reduces healing time of injuries (particularly bone).

• Quickens repair time of damaged tissue Reduces risk of heart disease Increases muscle mass.

• Reduces adipose tissue body fat Helps improve insulin sensitivity.

• Helps decrease blood pressure Alleviates male infertility, improving sperm production and motility.

• Increases blood circulation throughout the body, including the sex organs Improves reproductive ability in proteins.

As bleak as this may seem, the good news is that high blood pressure can be controlled by prescription drugs or by natural methods. Controlling blood pressure naturally is preferred by many people because you avoid the unpleasant side effects that can accompany prescription drugs.

Two of the best natural ways of lowering blood pressure are exercise and diet. You don’t have to join a gym to get the exercise you need. Simply committing to walk for 20 to 30 minutes at least 3 times a week can have a positive effect on blood pressure. In addition, there are other benefits for the joints, bones and muscles.

A few modifications to your diet can also do wonders for your blood pressure. Start with reducing the amount of salt. If this is hard for you to do then reduce the amount gradually until you have eliminated it completely. Be aware that processed foods are often high in salt (sodium) so read the label.

Recently another method of controlling blood pressure naturally has emerged. This is called nitric oxide therapy and is the result of the research by Nobel® Laureate Dr. Louis Ignarro. Dr. Ignarro and his team of researchers knew that nitrogen in the form of nitro- glycerin had been used for years to help relieve angina or heart distress but they didn’t know how it worked. They discovered that the nitric oxide molecule has a profound effect in dilating arteries and blood vessels which could reduce blood pressure and support cardiovascular health.

The next step was to determine how to create nitric oxide in the body. They found that the amino acid, arginine or L-arginine, causes nitric oxide to be produced in the arteries and blood vessels. They also learned that exercise will have the same effect.

In addition, they discovered that nitric oxide has other beneficial effects which impact the immune system and the nervous system. The popular prescription drug Viagra was developed as a direct result of Dr. Ignarro’s nitric oxide research.

The question then was what foods provide a source of arginine. They were many on the list including nuts, red meat, and certain vegetables. Although these were a natural source, there wasn’t enough arginine to make a major difference. Dr. Ignarro realized that he would have to create a supplement which would provide enough arginine in significant quantity. The result is a proprietary product called Niteworks™ sold by Herbalife. Those who are able to use Niteworks™  say that they have found that not only are able to control their blood pressure but have realized other benefits including a more restful sleep and greater stamina. Doing your own research for 10 minutes on the Net will probably reveal the exact ingredients of the product, so those that would rather not patronize the Herbalife Co. can have a DIY solution.

L-Arginine is a supplement that very rarely has side effects. Although adverse reactions with other medications have not been reported, as of a 2005 publication, the possibility exist for some. Such negative interactions include taking L-Arginine along with any type of blood thinner or blood pressure medication including Coumadin (however current research by experts such as Dr. Prendergast show no negative interactions). Other side effects that patients reported included mild cases of diarrhea, headache and recurrence of cold sores. As with any supplement or medication, you should be careful when you take L-Arginine if you are currently being treated for cancer or any other disease. The medications prescribed for these more serious conditions have a higher likelihood of having their effectiveness compromised by the introduction of any other supplement or drug.

L-Arginine is very safe for those that are in general good health. It is especially safe for those who take doses of L-Arginine at the recommended 4 to 6 grams per dose level. Dr. Louis J. Ignarro, Nobel Laureate in Medicine, explains in his book “NO More Heart Disease”, that “If you choose to take my recommended dose of L-Arginine (4-6 gram dose), you can expect no side effects.” Dr. Ignarro goes on to explain that even though there have been no side effect of L-Arginine reported in medical literature, it is always a good idea to check with your doctor before taking any supplement or drug.

L-Arginine is a supplement that in many cases may work best at a higher dosage level. This is because the liver and intestines break down a good part of the amino acid before it is absorbed by the vessels in the rest of the body. The higher dosage levels (sometimes up to 20 grams) will in most cases ensure that the benefits of L-Arginine reach the vessels throughout the entire body. For those who are considering taking L-Arginine as a supplement that they hope will provide some relief to symptoms of heart disease, the potential for side effects is generally not high enough to justify compromising the potential for relief from their discomfort. Although producers of L-Arginine do not make the claim that the compound provides a cure of any kind, there are many pieces of research that strongly support the possibility that it prevents the onset or rapid progression of a variety of heart related ailments by keeping the blood vessels and arteries clear from obstruction and allowing the heart to work with less resistance. Take the time to consider if L-Arginine can help you to live a more fulfilling lifestyle and talk about any concern that you may have about this supplement with your physician. You may find that you’ve been missing out on this opportunity to improve the health of your heart.

Many people are getting more and more afraid of facing the signs of aging. There is definitely no one in the world who would love seeing visible lines on their face or damaged skin complexions. Unfortunately, age sneaks up like a thief in the night. You might not like it nor appear to be combating it lightly but inevitably, you grow a year older after every three hundred sixty-five days.

As years add up to your age, they come with changes that take the youth in you. The function of the cells and organisms in your body shift, creating visible changes that sometimes come rapidly. The aging process may be different with each individual because there are many factors that contribute to it, but the bottom line is, everyone will surely get to it at one point of their lives or another.

Some of the bodily changes that you will experience include a significant difference in your weight and height. Weight increase is one of the major concerns that aging people wish to find a solution to. Reduced physical activity due to the weakness of the bones and muscles will definitely take its toll on your weight. Your height, on the other hand, naturally decreases as you get older. This is a result of a handful of factors like changes in posture and in the growth process of your spinal bones. Aside from these, your skin is also a fool proof sign that you are getting older. It becomes rough, loose, and dry. Women get more concerned about the skin changes than men because they tend to experience them faster. With the many hormonal changes women go through starting at the onset of puberty, pregnancy and menopause included, their skin rapidly becomes more vulnerable to age.

Your mental abilities may also become limiting as you grow older. Learning would be a lot more of hard work than, say, when you were on your twenties. Memory loss is also one of the more popular effects of aging. Older people are oftentimes forgetful because their brain process information slower than usual. Your mental fitness would also contribute to the many emotional combats that you will face. Anxiety and depression is very common among the older population because of the physical and mental limitations that they come across with.

Sexual performance is also greatly affected by aging. You may either lose the appetite or the ability to do it altogether.

Some say maintaining a constant supply of the magical Human Growth Hormones (HGH) is like enjoying a youthful life forever. HGH production peaks in adolescence and slowly decreases after you reach your twenties. The decrease is more significant as you grow older, which explains the overall difference that you experience if you are beyond your fifties. Low levels of HGH in your body system is the main reason behind the visibility of the signs of aging.

Among the many things that can be benefited from the aid of proper HGH levels are healthy skin, a more functional immune system, decreased body fat, increased muscle mass, increased bone density, low cholesterol, and high energy levels among others. The older population may submit themselves to an HGH Replacement Therapy to continuously enjoy the limitless possibilities of being young and healthy.

There are of course, things that you can do to enjoy the youthfulness of being young without having to go through pricey medications and therapies.

One is to maintain a healthy lifestyle, meaning, continuously participating in physical activities. Regular exercise is a good solution that will slow the aging process down without having to shell out bucks. A good exercise program that you follow regularly is the best answer to combat weight gain, muscle loss, bone density decline, or even any form of heart and cholesterol-related diseases for that matter.

Eating healthy is another trigger that could make you look and feel young longer. The right choices of foods and taking in the right amounts of them would create a great impact on your body’s vitality. Do away with less fat, less salt, less sugar, and more greens, so your body could enjoy the most benefits from eating rather than suffering from the ugly consequences of not eating right.

Avoiding harmful vices like smoking and alcohol drinking can do loads to you more than you can imagine. Smoking is detrimental to the whole body. It triggers premature death but will not let you go looking young as well. The major components of cigarettes have harmful effects that are especially reflected on your complexion. Dry and rough skin can be caused by the poor circulation and low oxygen levels in your blood, which are generated through puffing airs of smokes. Alcohol, on the other hand, depletes your body of the vitamins and minerals it needed to be functional. It also causes dehydration. Keeping a stress-free and happy life most of the time would surely make you feel better about a lot of things and in the process, would make you age gracefully. Stress affects your body and your well-being greatly so make sure that you manage all the aspects of your life well including your career and your personal and social relationships with people.

Admittedly, the fast-paced era held back people to keep a healthy, balanced, and stress-free life only realizing later on that they should have done so. But by that time, you may well be reaching old age and would find it difficult to repair the damages that your old habits created. The good news is, there are tried and tested ways to help counteract the symptoms of aging in a no sweat fashion.

In our contemporary setting, this longing for immortality is almost within mankind’s grasp with the promise of better technologies and sciences in the near future. However, to completely grasp and understand the means of acquiring eternal life or a very long life span in the very least, one must first see the process behind our aging. This question kept many brilliant scientists hell-bent on searching for clues and theories that may answer such relentless query.

Through the course of these scientific explorations on the realm of human aging, scientists were able to come up with a term that refers to the human aging process - senescence. This term refers to a degeneration implication that manifests itself as people get old. Senescence is believed to be the result of a biochemical deregulation that is a natural component of life.

However, the effects of senescence vary among different species. Take for example a bat and a rodent, both of them are classified as mammals and both are of the same size, but a bat generally lives longer than a rodent for the former can live up to 30 years while the latter usually have a life span of only two to three years. However, some animal species such as rockfish, turtles, and lobsters display a certain trait known as the negligible senescence. This trait enables these specific animal species to live through a longer period of time compared to other species. Some of these species can even live for an unbelievable span of 200 years.

Findings through extensive studies that were carried out by various scientists imply that this peculiar trait is a result of evolutionary and genetic factors that rule over these animals’ life longevity. However, scientists still find it hard to assimilate this kind of trait to humans and the reason behind it is fairly simple: we humans live under a completely different environment compared to those animals that possess the negligible senescence trait.

The best that we humans can do for now is to first determine the various factors that fuel the process of aging and to address these factors accordingly. One of the most obvious reasons or factors behind aging is stress. In a nutshell, the dynamics of stress simply say that constant beatings and punishments that our bodies take from everyday tasks lead to hormone disturbance which can ultimately lead to cell damage.

Furthermore, the degeneration of the hypothalamus, a gland that resides in your head, is also one of the determining factors of aging. The hypothalamus is solely responsible for setting the “traffic” of various hormones to other glands. Through the course of time, the hypothalamus becomes weary and tends to be inaccurate in releasing proper amounts of hormone to other glands in the human body. This leads to imbalanced hormone levels which cause damage to tissues.

External factors brought about by the environment are also some of the very viable reasons behind the aging process. Environmental harms such as pollution, radiation, contaminants coupled with self induced stress, and poor nutrition inflict damage on human cells. Significant damage is instantly inflicted upon these cells once they are exposed to such harmful external factors. Cells play a very substantial role on the process of aging because they contain valuable information for the human body’s development. Whenever a cell reproduces or divides itself, it makes sure that the new cell is of the same level with the previous cell that it originated from. If that previous cell received any slightest form of damaged from the previously mentioned factors, it will then spawn new cells that possess slightly deformed information sets. This will then start a trend of degenerated cells which leads to what is commonly known as the aging process.

Among these scientific theories that deal with the process of aging the Free Radical Theory tends to be the most popular among contemporary American health buffs. This theory suggests that extremely reactive chemicals, which the term free radicals refer to, are responsible for inflicting damage to the human body’s tissues. In general, however, these free radicals are not completely bad for the human body for they also serve numerous purposes for the body’s development. But what is damaging to the human body, especially to the tissues, is the free radicals’ ability to reproduce itself in excessive amounts. Free radicals are endowed with an extra electron which makes them more capable of stealing electrons from other molecules which they tend to do frequently. This act subsequently leads to a very dangerous cycle that can burnout the cells from constantly repairing damaged molecules.

With these various theories that try to decipher the process of aging, certain medical solutions are also devised to combat the inevitable aging ritual. The most common among these medical solutions are taking vitamin C and vitamin E supplements to combat stress and to balance out the damage induced by free radicals in the body. Another effective method is to lessen your average intake of junk foods and substituting it with healthier food choices such as fruits and vegetables.