Does growth hormone affect muscle and tendon growth?
Growth hormone is often claimed to play an important role in muscle and tendon growth. However, this suggestion is based on animal work. Is this also true in humans?
This study investigated the effect of daily human growth hormone injections on muscle protein synthesis (the process driving muscle growth), muscle collagen synthesis (the connective tissue inside the muscle), and tendon synthesis.
Subjects were tested two times, once following 14 days of daily placebo injections and a second time following 14 days of daily growth hormone injections.
The growth hormone injections did not increase muscle protein synthesis. However, growth hormone did increase tendon and muscle collagen synthesis.
Therefore, it seems that growth hormone does not result in muscle growth, but rather supports the connective tissue in and around the muscle. This would help with force transmission from the muscle to the bones.
Keep in mind this study uses daily injections to drastically increase growth hormone. While growth hormone can be influenced by nutrition and exercise, those effects are much smaller.
Go to the next infographic in the hormone series:
Insulin does not increase muscle growth?
So GH is more something for the injury recovery and prevention toolkit, not growth or muscle building per se. Makes sense really in my limited knowledge.
If i remember correctly this is also 1 of the pathways that make BPC-157 so effective.
Yes, GH injections seem to make sense for injury recovery, depending on what type of injury it is. I wonder it is also beneficial to recover a broken bone.