Table of contents:
- When does the height growth peak occur?
- Height increasing drugs, is it effective?
- Regarding growth hormone which can increase height
- Growth hormone side effects
Not only being thin, many also want to be taller. Just like efforts to lose weight, people who want to increase their height will also do various ways such as vigorous exercise and taking height-increasing drugs. Nowadays there are more and more height-enhancing medicinal products, but is it true that height-enhancing drugs can make height increase?
When does the height growth peak occur?
In fact, everyone will experience a period of very high growth and then it stops forever. This rapid growth occurs when a child is approaching puberty, which is 9 years in girls and 11 years in boys. The height increase that occurs at that time can reach 20% of the total height when it grows up.
This growth spurt will occur for about 24 to 36 months, depending on each child. After that, the child growth graph will decrease and stop at some point. The growth period will stop completely, the average occurs in women when he is 18 years old, and 20 years in men.
When you are at the end point of the growing period, the epiphyses - the very tip of the bone - which usually increases during growth, stops increasing at once.
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Height increasing drugs, is it effective?
There are many manufacturers that make height enhancing drugs and claim that their products can be successful and effective for heightening the body. However, almost all of these drugs usually do not have scientific evidence to show that they can increase a person's height or increase a person's height.
Even Food and Drug Administration , America states that they do not confirm and regulate height-enhancing drugs. This means that these drugs are not registered with the FDA and may have side effects that could be harmful to health. These various medicinal products for height increase claim that they contain growth hormone which can make a person taller than before. In fact, until now the use of growth hormone has to be approved by a doctor.
Regarding growth hormone which can increase height
In children and adolescents, growth hormone is produced by the pituitary gland and is responsible for growth processes, metabolism of sugar and fat, maintaining normal liver function, and regulating body composition. In some cases, using growth hormone is recommended by a doctor.
Growth hormone is usually given by injection and those who get this hormone are children who experience growth and metabolic problems such as Turner syndrome which is a genetic disease, Prader-Willi syndrome, chronic kidney dysfunction, growth hormone failure in the child's body, and children. who were born prematurely.
As for adults, its use is also strictly regulated, that is, it can only be given to people who have experienced it short bowel syndrome namely the inability of the intestine to absorb the nutrients that enter and the decrease in muscle mass that often occurs in people with HIV / AIDS. Growth hormone administration to date has to be approved by a doctor and is only given by injection. In fact, there are no rules that state that growth hormone can be taken in pill or medicinal form.
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Growth hormone side effects
In people who have normal growth, then taking height-increasing drugs which are thought to contain growth hormone in them, of course, will cause side effects that are not good for health. Basically, growth hormone can make the aging process faster, therefore use that is not according to the rules can cause premature aging.
Not only that, the risk of improper use of growth hormone will also cause the following:
- Pain in muscles, joints and nerves
- Experiencing swelling in several parts of the body (edema)
- Experience carpal tunnel syndrome , namely a syndrome that causes pain and loss of feeling in the hand due to pressure on the nervous system of the hand.
- Increase cholesterol levels in the blood
- Numb some parts of the skin
- The risk of experiencing gynecomastia (growing breasts) in men
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