I think we can also include no GH use as well. Unless we really think cadaver GH was readily available for bodybuilding use in the 80’s.
x2 . I think only the top bodybuilders would have had access to it. I've seen articles from the 1980's reporting children beating treated for dwarfism with cadaver growth hormone injections, facing shortages of the drug ,due to black market growth hormone use by athletes.
ATHLETES WARNED ON HORMONE
By Richard D. Lyons
June 14, 1984
New York TimesMany physicians concerned with the abuse of amphetamines and steroids in sports are warning that
a newer type of drug that can also have broad and dangerous effects is gaining popularity among American athletes.
The drug is growth hormone, a substance that is essential for normal development in humans and animals when naturally secreted by the pituitary gland. But
when artificially concentrated and taken in large doses to build muscle, it can lead to a wide variety of ailments, including diabetes, liver enlargement and bizarre warping and excessive growth of bones and joints.
''Taking growth hormone when it's not medically necessary is serious business, because you're fiddling with a very delicate chemical feedback mechanism, which may have very serious side effects,'' said Dr. Joseph Fetto, assistant professor of sports medicine at New York University.
It is not now possible to determine by medical tests whether a person is taking the hormone.
One proponent of the use of growth hormone by athletes, Dr. Robert P. Kerr of San Gabriel, Calif., insists that it does have a place in a training regimen, especially for weight lifters, field-event athletes and, to a lesser extent, football players.''I'm only one of several hundred doctors who have been prescribing growth hormone for selected athletes,'' he said.
Dr. Kerr, a general practitioner who has many athletes as patients, added that, because of the potential for side effects, ''we don't give out such drugs promiscuously.''
But
a dozen experts in sports medicine who were interviewed by The New York Times condemned the taking of growth hormone for body building, a situation they agreed was accelerating in popularity among American athletes despite the scarcity of the drug and its high cost.A similar warning was issued last fall by experts attending a meeting on growth hormone that was held in Baltimore under the auspices of the National Institutes of Health.
Abuse of the drug is a relatively recent phenomenon, because only in the past few years have supplies of human growth hormone, obtained from cadavers, become available, and even then in very limited quantities. These supplies have been used almost exclusively for the treatment of dwarfism among children whose pituitary glands fail to secrete normal amounts of the hormone.
The experts said, however, that demand was being spurred by word-of- mouth accounts of enormous weight gains through the use of growth hormone. The fact that it can build body tissue is not in dispute. But there is a medical issue, in that the tissue growth may be extreme, and a philosophical one, in that there are those who decry such an artificial approach to enhancing performance.
The specialists said there was no doubt that the drug's use had reached the point where underground sources of supply had emerged, so that growth hormone was being extracted from cattle and monkeys. The hormone derived from cattle, they said, is useless in humans because growth hormone will work only in the same kind of animal from which it is extracted. Yet, the specialists added, the sale of bovine growth hormone continues, because those athletes using it are unaware that it has no effect in humans.
2 Foreign Manufacturers
These experts stated that some athletes, particularly weight lifters and those specializing in such events as the javelin throw and the shot-put, had been spending during the month before a major competition as much as $500 a week for injections of growth hormone obtained from Sweden and Italy, where it is produced by drug manufacturers.The specialists emphasized that indiscriminate use of growth hormone could lead to serious physical consequences and warned that, since the hormone had recently been artificially produced by genetically modified bacteria, its cost would inevitably drop, which in turn could lead to an enormous potential for abuse.
''Growth hormone has become the new 'in' drug among athletes seeking to put on muscle mass,'' said Dr. Terry Todd, a professor of physical education at the University of Texas.
Dr. Todd, himself a former weight lifter, said the word had spread rapidly among athletes in the past year that growth hormone helps add body tissue. The substance ''is being sold all across the country under black- market conditions,'' he added.Dr. Alan Rogol, a former marathoner who is a professor of pediatrics at the University of Virginia, said: ''The use of growth hormone came into sports very suddenly, so fast that word of its potential dangers has yet to catch up with the glowing reports of its value to athletes.
''I do everything I can to discourage the use of growth hormone,'' Dr. Rogol said, ''yet it is apparent that athletes are not listening and that there is an underground source of supply.''His opinions were echoed by Dr. Melvin Grumbach of the University of California School of Medicine-San Francisco. ''The use of growth hormone is speading,'' Dr. Grumbach said, ''yet most of the athletes taking growth hormone haven't the vaguest idea of the problems that its abuse can lead to.'' No Means of Detection
The experts agreed that control of the drug in sports was impossible until a means of detecting excessive amounts could be developed.
Dr. Anthony Daly, the director of medical services for the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, said no efforts would be made to detect excess amounts of growth hormone among the contestants in the Games that are to be held this summer. Indeed, he said, growth hormone is not on the list of banned substances drawn up by the International Olympic Committee.
''Research is going on in England and Germany to develop a test,'' he said, ''but there is no test available now, so no one will be tested.''
Dr. Daly said that he knew of some athletes taking the drug but that, because price was serving to hold down its availability, he was unsure whether its abuse was currently a medical problem. ''But when the price falls, as it will,'' he added, ''you can be sure, based on our experiences with other drugs, that a lot more athletes are going to try it.'' Dr. Kerr, the proponent of the drug's use for certain athletes, said he saw nothing wrong with this. Indeed, he said, he has prescribed growth hormone for periods of up to six weeks and without any evidence of side effects. His concern is less the possible side effects, he said, than its availability on the black market.
''When growth hormone becomes more readily obtainable,'' Dr. Kerr said, ''there are going to be increased safety problems, such as overdosing, which is not happening now because of the short supply.''
Evidence of Adulteration
According the Dr. Kerr, the main problem with the misuse of growth hormone now is adulteration.
''Some of the material sold as growth hormone is nothing more than colored water, while some extracts have been made from monkey glands and cattle,'' Dr. Kerr warned, adding that he had heard of a few cases of acromegalia among weight lifters who had used monkey extract.
Acromegalia, or gigantism, is one of many serious side effects that may be caused by excessive amounts of growth hormone, which is one of 10 hormones produced by the pituitary gland, an organ about the size of a pea that lies beneath the brain at the base of the skull.
As explained by Dr. Fetto of the New York University School of Medicine, ''The side effects of growth hormone are so serious that I would never prescribe it for an athlete.
''It's known in medicine,'' he said, ''that a small number of individuals secrete too much growth hormone, which in adulthood can lead to bizarre growth of the jaw, feet and bones, as well as diabetes and severe problems with the endocrine glands. There are no beneficial effects from its use with athletes except for putting on weight.'
https://www.nytimes.com/1984/06/14/sports/athletes-warned-on-hormone.html
