What Exactly is a Human Growth Hormone?
Whatever happens outside your body goes into a lot of process inside. For instance, you see your baby outgrowing her or his clothes. This tells you that your baby is growing…and fast. Normally, you would attribute this to the food and vitamins that is fed to your child. But, have you ever wondered what organ or cell is specifically responsible for making your baby double or triple in size?
Enter growth hormone. It is a small protein-based hormone that promotes cell regeneration and growth in all living things. For humans, the most obvious result is growing a few inches higher every month until you reach the maximum age when neither your bones nor muscles can expand. This happens around the age of 25. However, several factors such as genes, nutritional supplements, and over health can affect your growth rate.
Naturally, lacking the right level of growth hormone in your body can affect your height and weight. As mentioned, genetics plays a crucial part in all these as well as your lifestyle. Under hereditary circumstances, or when considering the height and weight of your parents, you can determine the maximum height that you can reach, more or less. Nevertheless, more technically speaking, it also determines the limits of your hormones.
However, like many things subjected under science’s microscope, a growth hormone can be manipulated and stimulated to maximize its function. It is further processed after taking from a natural source and injected into children or young adults with hormonal deficiencies. These are people whose physical forms are behind any standard levels. If your child is aged 5 years but has the built of a 2-year old, then he or she may need some hormonal boost.
But before jumping to any action, it is best to consult a medical professional. The doctor can run some tests and prescribe the best medical recourse for you and your child. This way, you do not cause or further worsen any risk that might be hinged on a determined hormonal deficiency. Remember, what is seen outside may show a different picture inside your body.
Aside from making you grow out of your clothes, growth hormone is also responsible for a lot of things. In one way or another, it affects different body functions with the end result seen from your overall physical health. Understanding what this hormone does may help you keeping sufficient levels at all times and taking steps to increase this if it falls behind the normal numbers.
Growth hormones can:
- Increase your bones mineralization function
It does this by helping retain any calcium intake for a prolonged period, which is necessary for your bones to absorb and benefit from.
- Promote growth of the brain and all internal organs
Because it helps increase body mass, these hormones expands the sizes of internal organs according to your growth rate. Moreover, the bigger your brain is, the more potential for absorbing all information to turn you into a genius.
- Fuels the immune system
Your immune system virtually feeds on these hormones because it needs to process cells that combat viral diseases and bacterial attacks. With sufficient levels of growth hormones, your immunity increases proportionately.