The Todd Mundt Show

The Todd Mundt Show
WUOM, University of Michigan
NPR, National Public Radio
December 19, 2000
Dean P. Kane, MD, FACS

Most of us don't really like getting old, there's no fountain of youth, but some people have been trying injections of growth hormone to regain some of their youthful vigor and studies show that injecting the hormone can produce more muscle mass and reduce fat levels.

We have reached Dr. Dean Kane, he is a plastic surgeon in Baltimore. Dr. Kane started an anti-aging clinic in early 2000 and is now treating about 50 patients.

Q. Growth hormone regulates our growth into adulthood but what role does it play in the aging process?

A. The growth hormone is the orchestrator of all the hormones in the aging process. Growth hormone actually has receptors on every single cell of the trillions of cells in our body and without growth hormone we would die, as a matter of fact patients without growth hormone do die. If you had trauma to your head, and your pituitary couldn't make growth hormone, you would die, so it really effects every part of aging and what we find is that after the age of 30 growth hormone starts decreasing immediately and so we do get laxity in our skin, diminished strength, osteoporosis, cardiac disease, Alzheimer's and different Dementia's and memory loss. All of those things can be maintained by having a higher growth hormone level.

Q. So if you inject someone who is older than 30 with additional growth hormone it, does it exactly sort of replace that hormone that they have lost?

A. Well, its not additional growth hormone, it's replacement hormone. We want to replace the growth hormone that the body can't produce by itself. It won't get rid of dying from trauma, it won't get rid of dying from other infectious diseases, but what it can do is maintain our vigor, our health and our immune system so that for the pre-determined amount of life that we do have we will live better.

Q. How do you inject someone? What's the course of the injection?

A. Most importantly, before anybody gets injected, we have to identify what their goals are. Are they looking for strength and vigor, or sexual libido. Are they looking for greater immune support. Are they looking strictly to make life better with more enjoyable mood and sense of well being? So we first start with a very comprehensive examination and discussion about what their goals are. Examination continues with making sure that growth hormone is the appropriate hormone or natural substance that they really need. There may be other deficits that will help them better. For example the other hormones that are provided to patients like estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, insulin, thyroid and so forth. What I am trying to state basically is that patients don't just get growth hormones. This is a partnership between the patient and the doctor to identify what are their goals, what are their problems and how can we best provide a anti-aging concept or healthy aging concept to them. Then if we identify that growth hormone is appropriate for them, growth hormone is by injection. It comes in a powder that needs to be reconstituted and so the liquid and the powder come together and then there is only about a two week life span for that particular vial of growth hormone. It is injected on a daily basis. Typically at night, some patients will inject twice daily and it's injected through a needle similar in size to those which diabetics use for insulin.

Q. What's the cost of the treatment?

A. The cost of treatment of course depends on the amount of growth hormone that needs to be injected. But the average is somewhere between $600 and $800 a month. Now you have to put that in context. Obviously that may not be right for a lot of people, but when patients are starting to consider cosmetic surgical procedures for example, and I'm a board certified plastic surgeon, so I do cosmetic surgical procedures, and they are saying "gee whiz, should I get a face lift for $10,000 or should I get growth hormone with all of the anti-aging effects that reach into every part of my body for $10,000", then you start reconsidering what your goals are in life.

Q. Would there be any long term implications of taking this growth hormone as one goes through the natural aging process?

A. That's a great question to ask. The reason I say that is because you know that growth hormone has been used for over 40 years now in short statured children. There have been no reports of these children having adverse effects for the 5, 10 or more years of injecting growth hormone that they needed in order to achieve normal stature. The name growth hormone should not be confused. The original name for growth hormone came from somatotropin, which is the hormone produced in the pituitary which in childhood does cause growth and therefore anabolic development of a child, or an adolescent. Growth hormone in the adult has a slightly different function. It's also anabolic in terms of repair and regrowth of tissues that have been aging or have been injured. So sometimes we think of growth hormone as possibly creating tumors or stimulating tumors to grow. I don't find any articles in the literature that I have read that that is true, so the long term effects actually will probably promote greater immune boosting and strengthening of our immune system to counteract or fight diseases such as cancer, colds, bacterial infections, stimulate healing of wounds and so forth. Right now growth hormone has really been found to have very few side effects. Those side effects may include swelling or arthritis type pain and a sense of aching, but if you remember when you were an adolescent you had all of those as your bones grew. That's why they're called growing pains, and growth hormone causes growing pains. Your bones grow, your joints change, your muscles ache because they are growing, and the same thing is happening in the body as it's reversing the downward trend towards degenerative disease.

Fascinating. Doctor I thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us.

Thank you Todd, I appreciate it.

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