Concerns regarding low-growth hormones are more common than you think, and more people are coming forward with the issue. But do you know the causes behind low HGH? We have found and listed five reasons for low growth hormones.
- Severe injury to the head
Experts are still studying human growth hormone deficiency in all kinds of people. Today, we know there are several causes of human growth hormone deficiency in children.
It is usually caused by some form of birth defect, but there is also a possibility of it being caused by an injury to the head.
And within this context, we see that sometimes infants suffer an injury to their head, which may also contribute to the condition of having human growth hormone deficiency.
The human growth hormone is naturally produced by the pituitary gland. The amount of human growth hormone that is produced here is constant and only surges during puberty.
But, in the case of children and teens who suffer from a blow to the head, the pituitary gland may have been affected so that it no longer produces an adequate amount of human growth hormone to support normal growth.
- Malnutrition in children
When it comes to children, proper nutrition is very important. Without proper nutrition, many children could suffer from many organ defects and stunted growth.
The human body needs proper nutrition to grow accordingly because nutrition supports the production of certain hormones, and that includes the human growth hormone.
When children live under malnutrition, such as lacking zinc, magnesium, protein, and other essential minerals and vitamins, the body fails to produce adequate amounts of human growth hormone.
This then affects the linear growth of a child. Many people believe that a person’s height is predetermined by genetics, but even this statement has many loopholes.
In many cases, the child of tall parents could still grow significantly shorter than their peers if their diet has never been nutritious since childhood.
Now you know how important it is for your children to eat healthy and nutritious foods during their formative years.
- Brain surgery
Brain surgery is a complicated procedure. Of course, it is also only performed when you have a major issue with your brain. In many cases, brain surgery could leave a patient with some form of damage to the brain.
Within this context, some brain surgical procedures could affect the way the brain produces human growth hormone, thus leading to a deficiency in both children and teens. The same could apply to adults, though.
In many paediatric cases, brain tumours in infant patients will need brain surgery as treatment.
In some cases, due to the complication of the surgery, some infants may develop human growth hormone deficiency as a consequence of their brain surgery. But the surgery itself is not entirely to blame.
In many cases, a human growth hormone deficiency in infants could have been caused by the tumour itself. In some cases, it could also be caused by cranial radiotherapy.
- Radiation treatments
As mentioned earlier, radiotherapy could cause a human growth hormone deficiency in children. Radiation treatments are commonly used to treat tumours and cancerous cells. Such therapy may also be used in children and infants.
The thing with using radiation therapy is that it comes with a side effect on some of the normal functions of the brain.
Some medical studies have observed that the use of radiation therapy to treat brain tumours in children and infants could isolate human growth hormone, then leading to an extreme deficiency.
Radiation therapy could typically be used on general brain tumours, pituitary tumours, and nasopharyngeal cancer.
The presence of a tumour itself could have caused the pituitary gland to produce a very little amount of human growth hormone, but the use of radiation therapy could also cause further deficiency.
This happens when hypopituitarism comes as a result of radiotherapy.
- A lack of blood in the pituitary gland
In some people, human growth hormone deficiency can be caused by a condition called pituitary apoplexy. This condition is when blood flow to the pituitary gland is obstructed.
That’s why, the pituitary gland then receives a very limited amount of blood, making it unable to function properly. The human growth hormone is mainly produced by the pituitary gland.
When the pituitary gland is obstructed, the production of human growth hormone becomes significantly reduced. This then affects the development of a child or a teen.
If this happens in adulthood, the patient may suffer from many illnesses that progress more quickly and heal very slowly. Pituitary apoplexy is often very dangerous as it can also cause a haemorrhage in the pituitary gland.
This condition often requires immediate medical intervention. Pituitary apoplexy is mostly known to be caused by bleeding of a tumour in the pituitary gland.
SIMILAR QUESTION
Is HGH Safe?
Recombinant or artificial human growth hormone, or HGH, still has some people believe it can harm health. Taking more than a sufficient amount can potentially harm the person. But the question is, is HGH itself safe?
While it is indeed one of the most important hormones for the body (physical growth, metabolism, and cell reproduction and generation, for instance), human growth hormone (HGH) is not without controversies. HGH, when used under proper medical supervision, is generally safe and beneficial for people with several particular diseases such as Turner syndrome and Noonan syndrome.
On the other hand, its use can be risky if its prescription is for off label purposes (without Food and Drug Administration’s approval) and it is illegally purchased from untrustworthy websites or beauty clinics. Aside from the possible counterfeit due to its high cost and abuse, regardless of its treatment forms (injection, drugs, and spray), there are no concrete evidences whether the hormone really could especially halt the aging process and enhance athletic performance.
Nonetheless, even if HGH is injected with proper doses, it still has several side effects:
- Joint swelling and pain; muscle aches
- Carpal tunnel syndrome
- Increased risk of diabetes
- Edema/fluid retention on arms and legs
- Numbness and tingling of the skin
- Headache
- Gynecomastia/breast enlargement in men
The long-term use of it may cause acromegaly (the excess amount of HGH in the body leading to type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and arthritis), commonly diagnosed in middle-aged adults. The hormone is also not recommended for people having tumors, cancer, breathing problems, multiple injuries, and complications from open-heart and abdominal surgery.
Between 1985 and 2006, the National Cooperative Growth Study (NCGS) wanted to assess whether its recombinant growth hormone products were entirely safe for 54,996 children with growth disorders (42% idiopathic GH deficiency, 15.2% organic GH deficiency, 9.3% Turner syndrome, 3.2% chronic renal failure, 17.8% idiopathic short stature, and 11.9% other conditions related to growth failure).
From the study, 4084 adverse effects were reported, 1559 of which were serious ones, including deaths. The causes of death included pneumonia, cardiac arrest, suicide, and sepsis. There were also some deaths unrelated to r-hGH and caused by pre-existing medical conditions, which were obesity, malignant tumors, and failed renal transplants.
