Human Growth Hormone Diseases: Not A Child’s Game
Playing with human growth hormone diseases is not a child’s game. Furthermore, it is not a game to be played but rather a battle to win. Battling with HGH is basically a parent’s responsibility to ensure normal growth of a child.
Children are at a very high risk of being stricken with human growth hormone diseases. Human growth diseases concern the deficiency or excess in HGH that are present in a child. HGH is responsible for growth development and plays a role in metabolism processes. Children experience abnormalities in their height and body composition when they have HGH diseases.
HGH deficiency affects the child by being relatively small for his age and having a plump body composition. This disease is more frequent in children rather than the excessive presence of HGH. However, there is hope for children with HGH deficiency because there are different ways to augment this deficiency. Children have a high chance of reaching their normal height if they start their treatment immediately after being diagnosed with the deficiency disease.
In fact, the first patient that has been treated of HGH disease is a 17 year old boy with growth hormone deficiency. The treatment was administered by endocrinologist Maurice Raben in 1958. Raben used cadaver GH by purifying growth hormone from a dead body. However, this method of treatment is seldom used today because of side effects like the Creutzfeldt – Jakob disease.
Different pharmaceutical companies have manufactured their own products in response to HGH deficiency. These products are generally put in to use by injecting them under the child’s skin. Injections on children are done daily in relatively small doses to avoid possible side effects. These doses are raised regularly based on how the child reacts to the injections. After being injected, children undergo an evaluation every three to six months. This evaluation is to observe the effects of their treatment specifically on their height and rate of growth. This is also done to check if there are side effects and to determine the right dosage for the patient.
Excessive human growth hormone can also be treated. This disease is characterized by excessive height. This disease rarely happens in children. Methods of treatment for this disease include:
1.) Surgery
2.) Medications
3.) Pituitary Irradiation
Excessive growth hormone is commonly caused by a non cancerous tumor in the pituitary gland and therefore needs to be removed. However, surgery can not be performed on children with pituitary hyperplasia. Pituitary hyperplasia enlarges the pituitary gland making it impossible to determine an area to be removed.
Medications are available if surgery if not possible on a child. Some drugs that are used are somatostatin analogues, GH receptor antagonists and dopamine antagonists. Nonetheless, these medications do not cure the disease but reduces growth hormone levels and needs to be taken for a lifetime if the disease is not cured.
Pituitary irradiation is not recommended for children and considered as a last result for patients. It is done if surgery and medication are not effective methods to treat or neutralize the GH production. This method if effective but it takes time to fully achieve the benefits of this therapy. It also affects the brain development of a child. Children treated with this disease also need to be monitored for the possible side effects of the medications and therapies that he has undergone.
Human growth hormone excess and deficiency can both affect the child psychologically and physically. Children with these diseases frequently have low self-esteem because of the feeling of being different from other children. They tend to isolate themselves from others because of their physical abnormalities. Children with low stature are often bullied and may result in a phobia. Parents should guide and constantly console their children.
HGH diseases happen to any children and it is not the child’s fault if he has the disease. It is up to a parent to win the battle for her child.
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