A question about using HGH to treat arthritis

[Nursefoxfire]

I received an email from my sister who knows I suffer from degenerative knee joint problems. She'd heard about a doctor in Florida who injects arthritic knees with HGH and has apparently had some success in slowing or stopping arthritis in those joints.

I know next to nothing about the medical field, and although I tried to research on my own, I was lost in the maze of truly medical and "only-sounding-medical" sites that talked about it.

Here's the doctor's site: http://www.iagh.com/

and here's an article in LE magazine (probably a quack publication, judging by the fact that it sells anti-aging supplements): http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2000/may00-report2.html


I also found a study that was done to treat juvenile rheumatoid arthritis with HGH, and it looked promising, but again I don't know how to read such studies to judge their accuracy: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10895048

If anyone can shed some light on whether this seems a viable treatment, could you help me out? I'm always poo-pooing my sister's homeopathic and herbal remedies for everything, but is it just possible she's stumbled on an actual working treatment?

 

[macdoc]

fair bit of "spin" on the site ...leaves one with the impression that it's stem cell based and it's not.
Caveat emptor.

 

[fls]

I received an email from my sister who knows I suffer from degenerative knee joint problems. She'd heard about a doctor in Florida who injects arthritic knees with HGH and has apparently had some success in slowing or stopping arthritis in those joints.

I know next to nothing about the medical field, and although I tried to research on my own, I was lost in the maze of truly medical and "only-sounding-medical" sites that talked about it.

Here's the doctor's site: http://www.iagh.com/

Not legitimate. The clues are the style in which the page is written (lots of capitalization, lots of focus on how fabulous the doctor is), no references to clinical trials or mention of clinical trials (I couldn't find any on a literature search or as a registered trial, either), not a member of Hon Code, no mention of this treatment at trustworthy sites like mayoclinic.com or emedicine.

and here's an article in LE magazine (probably a quack publication, judging by the fact that it sells anti-aging supplements): http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2000/may00-report2.html

LEF is not a reliable source of information.

I also found a study that was done to treat juvenile rheumatoid arthritis with HGH, and it looked promising, but again I don't know how to read such studies to judge their accuracy: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10895048

This is not a study on intra-articular HGH.

If anyone can shed some light on whether this seems a viable treatment, could you help me out? I'm always poo-pooing my sister's homeopathic and herbal remedies for everything, but is it just possible she's stumbled on an actual working treatment?

If it's a viable treatment, it is first tested on a series of patients and then as a randomized, controlled trial. It is not offered as an expensive treatment by a single practitioner who has not bothered to discover whether it has any effect other than as a placebo.

Linda

 

[Nursefoxfire]

Not legitimate. The clues are the style in which the page is written (lots of capitalization, lots of focus on how fabulous the doctor is), no references to clinical trials or mention of clinical trials (I couldn't find any on a literature search or as a registered trial, either), not a member of Hon Code, no mention of this treatment at trustworthy sites like mayoclinic.com or emedicine.



LEF is not a reliable source of information.



This is not a study on intra-articular HGH.



If it's a viable treatment, it is first tested on a series of patients and then as a randomized, controlled trial. It is not offered as an expensive treatment by a single practitioner who has not bothered to discover whether it has any effect other than as a placebo.

Linda

Thanks Linda, that's exactly what I was looking for!

 

[casebro]

Linda, it sounds like an off-label use. "Off-label" means that the drug has not been approved for that use by the FDA. May or may not mean that no studies back that use. Other drugs are commonly used for off-label treatment.

Anyhow, questions worth studying start with somebody noticing an improvement, and spreading the word. If the use gets noticed by the NIH, a study may be sponsored. It's possible that intra-articular injections are in that earlier phase of 'experimental treatment'. Doubtful though it is, an open mind is a good thing in science.

So the question at this phase of inquiry should become "Is it possible that HGH can even work in this usage?"

Has HGH ever shown any benefit in healing injuries? How does HGH work- by stimulating the cells in question, or does it spur the body into making more stem cells in general? Isn't HGH the steroid used by muscle builders to bulk up? How do cartilage cells multiply? Meiosis or Mitosis?

Try some of the "E" in JREF?

 

[fls]

Linda, it sounds like an off-label use. "Off-label" means that the drug has not been approved for that use by the FDA. May or may not mean that no studies back that use. Other drugs are commonly used for off-label treatment.

Yes, it is an off-label use. The doctor specifically states that on his website.

Anyhow, questions worth studying start with somebody noticing an improvement, and spreading the word. If the use gets noticed by the NIH, a study may be sponsored.

Yes. And he started spreading the word almost 45 years ago, plus he was given an opportunity to perform a clinical trial and he turned it down (again, all on his website) in favour of continuing to provide the treatments without discovering whether or not he was doing anything above and beyond doing nothing.

It's possible that intra-articular injections are in that earlier phase of 'experimental treatment'. Doubtful though it is, an open mind is a good thing in science.

I presume that you were open-minded enough to read what was written on the website before writing this post. What did you make of his seeming inability to interest those who should be most interested in this idea?

So the question at this phase of inquiry should become "Is it possible that HGH can even work in this usage?"

Has HGH ever shown any benefit in healing injuries? How does HGH work- by stimulating the cells in question, or does it spur the body into making more stem cells in general? Isn't HGH the steroid used by muscle builders to bulk up? How do cartilage cells multiply? Meiosis or Mitosis?

Try some of the "E" in JREF?

Yes, those are all good questions, and we already have good information directed at the answers, and at further investigation. It is not the search for answers I was criticizing. It was the idea of foregoing the search for answers in favour of profiting from promoting the therapy.

Linda

 

[krx]

Has HGH ever shown any benefit in healing injuries?

We did a pilot study, many years ago, using bovine hGH transgenic mice and titanium implants. The transgenic mice healed much faster, the titanium grew into the bone faster, compared to the non-transgenic siblings.
Just my two cents...
krx