I have aways heard it was a calcuim build up, and Joe Montana also had it, and he had it shaved down.
Someone shoot Chris an email and get the real 411.........
The GH claims are complete bullshit and ANYOEN that was around in the late 70's and then the 80's knows that. The only way to get GH before 1983 was thru an extraction thru the HUMAN pituitary gland, from people who had recently died. It was NOT available to athletes, because it the supply was almost non existant and children with defective pituitary glands needed that shit to grow to normal heights.
In 1983 Eli Lilly brought to market the FIRST synthetic GH, called Humatrope. I know people who used this in the 80's, and even the synthetic GH was thousands of dollars, thousands.
When Bob Paris won Nationals he was on a 4 week supply of GH, it ran him $2K. $2K back in the mid 80's was serious cash. I used to buy REAL deca back then for $5 an amp. D bol -100 for $20 bucks. So GH was not around when Dickerson was winning all his shows (78-82), and even if it was it would have been too costly to really slam it.