I’ve written about this before. In the 18 months since the Las Vegas Fox affiliate touted the amazing results that a local chiropractor has had with his patients and their amazing weight loss results little has changed here. Yesterday our generally better news station, the local CBS affiliate ran this piece which points to warnings from a local cosmetic surgeon about “black market HCG” or Human Chorionic Gonadotropin.

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This week’s Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reported a huge study from Denmark. Following over 900,000 women for 8 years, they found that post-menopausal women who had hormone therapy were 38% more likely to get ovarian cancer than peers who had not, and the higher risk persisted for 2 years after halting therapy. Moreover, “Regardless of the duration of use, the formulation, estrogen dose, regimen, progestin type, and route of administration, hormone therapy was associated with an increased risk of ovarian cancer.”

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It seems the guys at the Daniell Lab at the University of Central Florida are on the cusp of trials for a “cure” for diabetes. The molecular biology here is pretty hairy but the essence  of what researchers have done is use chloroplasts (the parts of plant cells that contain the green pigment chlorophyll) to impart genetic messages into animals eating the treated veg. In this case, Henry Daniell’s team used insulin production as the information to impart via treated lettuce. The result was that test mice that were diabetic at the beginning of the trial all had normal blood sugars by the end of eight weeks.

Whether these kinds of results transfer to humans remains an open question. The implications are broad, though. For persons deficient in a variety of hormones, using plant/food based vectors to stimulate production of hormones could someday replace injections and pill based hormone supplements. This could revolutionize replacement of human growth hormone (hGH) since today that requires daily injections.

It’s this kind of thinking that makes it possible to age against the machine.

So, Dr. Bhimu Patil at Texas A&M University decided that the 4th of July would be a great time to hype watermelon as a sex drug. Turns out that it’s all just hype. In this press release, Dr. Patil touts the citruline in watermelon as having “Viagra like effects.” To say that this overstates the case is understanding the wrongness of it. Citruline is converted to arginine in the body. Arginine is an amino acid that is important for a variety of things including production of nitric oxide which improves the elasticity of blood vessels and more importantly the expansile properties of erectile tissues.

Arginine is a great amino acid, I recommend it all the time not just for it’s blood vessel function improvement but almost more importantly to stimulate release of growth hormone. There is even some controversy over that and whether it should be taken only at night or with other amino acids. Injectable arginine definitely releases growth hormone, though it has to be IV and high dose. Regardless, citrulline is not going to convert magically to some incarnation of arginine that works as well as or even particularly like drugs like Viagra. There’s a great rant on that subject here.

To increase the absurdity of consuming watermelon for it’s citrulline, this study demonstrated increases in serum arginine with consumption of 3 glasses of watermelon juice per day. Every day. Nobody I know likes watermelon quite that much.

Dr. Patil does note something far more interesting, though.  Watermelon is apparently also a major source of lycopene. Mind you, tomotoes are a tremendous source of lycopene but getting a little more of this powerful anti-oxidant at a summer picnic isn’t a bad idea. Anti-oxidants are always a good idea, even if lycopene doesn’t cure anything in particular.

There’s much pressure in the news lately on the “anti-aging industry” and doctors who “peddle growth hormone.” These accusations are not entirely without entirely without merit. In the above link you’ll note that Dr. Thomas Perls is at the center of the controversy. According to his bio, he is solidly part of the Ivory Tower of medical establishment. He’s also a highly recognized geriatrician and researcher. That does create certain biases on his part, though he is certainly an authority on aging. The problem is that he discounts legitimate growth hormone deficiency. He and his counterpart, S. Jay Olshansky, PhD, have written a commentary in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association that paints all clinical use of hGH with a broad brush but ultimately issues the following somewhat loaded statement buried in the commentary:

Systematic reviews have found that hGH supplementation does not significantly increase muscle strength or aerobic exercise capacity in healthy individuals. Clinical evidence does support the therapeutic administration of hGH for children and adults with appropriate clinical indications. (unfortunately the full text isn’t available to the public)

JAMA has been a source of consternation for advocates of growth hormone therapies that are within the legitimate prescribing guidelines because of the kind of press coverage that JAMA commentaries receive, so much so that involved Universities pump the commentaries with press releases like this one. It’s hard for physicians practicing no matter how legitimately to overcome the media juggernaut that this creates.

I have specifically stated over and over that human growth hormone is not a panacea for all things that afflict the aging, though there is likely more legitimate growth hormone deficiency than is recognized by many physicians. Growth hormone replacement is a valid therapy when patients are deficient and requires regular monitoring often with repeated labs for patients that are on growth hormone. Any physician doing otherwise is doing so with at least a degree of wreckless abandon if not outright hazardous behavior.

Even the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, a group that generates no small amount of controversy on their own, has taken a position of responsible management of growth hormone that does not involve unmonitored or unwarranted prescribing.

Why JAMA feels compelled to repeatedly come out and make blanket statements with commentaries like these that make it appear that there is no legitimate use for hGH to the casual reader is something that I have always been confused by. Are there doctors who prescribe illegitimately? Yes. Are there people who use hGH and other hormones for illegitimate or sporting uses? Yes. Are those people at risk for complications from their abuse? Yes. Can they get their drugs from non-US sources making at least some of the furor displaced? You bet, this guy did.