I went down a deep rabbit hole on this today.
I asked about his IGF, which was really low as well, and he mentioned his low Leptin level, so it got me curious. I had been looking at studies of AIDS muscle wasting patients who get enormous doses of serostim, 15-18iu a day for 12 weeks, twice a year, and wondering why they don’t experience acromegaly symptoms, only anabolism, and then it clicked. They have very low appetites, high inflammation, dropping Leptin to very low levels.
That signals the liver you’re starving so don’t waste energy on growth, ie, slow down IGF production.
So 18iu rHGH is used to overcome this liver “GH resistance” and results in normal IGF levels. That’s why they don’t develop acromegaly.
But what about all the free GH floating around that’s not converted to IGF? Doesn’t that have some major effect on tissues that respond to GH?
And where did all the GH he injected just an hour before the test go?
I learned the body deals with excess GH in low Leptin induced IGF suppressed states (like starvation) by increasing growth hormone binding hormone production to quickly clear GH out of the body.
So low Leptin gives you very low IGF, is anti-anabolic, lower GH direct effects (skin, hair), but MORE SIDES because it increases GH receptor sensitivity in the kidneys increasing edema and carpel. High Leptin levels, signaling nutrient abundance, does the opposite of all this.
Mystery solved.
Now I’m going to start checking Leptin levels when I get IGF-1, since that seems to be the major regulator of how much IGF the liver produces per unit of GH.
There are also a number of drugs that can raise Leptin despite being in a caloric deficit or low body fat, which drop Leptin levels. I’m going to check them out.
Keeping Leptin elevated may be a way of preventing the elimination of GH by keeping GH binding hormone levels low, so that GH isn’t eliminated and enhanced fat lipolysis doesn’t slow down as body fat gets lower, which is what normally happens, and IGF should also stay higher, possibly maintaining the full GH anabolic effect even while cutting fat.
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