Why can't HGH be administered orally?

#1 starr

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Posted 06 November 2006 - 12:50 AM

Does anyone know why HGH is so different than DHEA, melatonin, estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, etc? Why not just micronize it like other hormones? I can't seem to find a good answer through the search engines.

#2

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Posted 06 November 2006 - 04:11 AM

The short answer is that testosterone is a relatively simple structure composed of 4 carbon rings whilst human growth hormone is composed of a chain of about 190 amino acids and is folded in a specific 3-dimensional conformation. Because of the complexity of its structure, hGH is susceptible to pH and other factors present in the gastrointestinal tract that can quickly render it non-functional. This is the reason it needs to be administered intramuscularly or subcutaneously.

#3 maestro949

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Posted 06 November 2006 - 01:20 PM

What he said.

Perhaps a less technical summary would be that it gets zapped by first-pass metabolism. The liver (and other tissues) absorbs it fairly rapidly thus reducing it to inactive compounds which are then excreted in the urine and feces.

There are buccal tables for testosterone but I don't know much about them...

#4 Guest_da_sense_*

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Posted 06 November 2006 - 02:39 PM

Testosterone itself is also inactive if taken orally.

#5 DukeNukem

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Posted 06 November 2006 - 09:03 PM

hGH is a big-ass fragile molecule easily destroyed by our digestive system, starting quickly with sylvia, finished off with stomach acid. It's size, too, prevents trans-dermal absorption. Even as an injection it quickly metabolizes, having a very short half-life, I think quickly leading to the longer lived IGF-1.

I wonder if taking IGF-1 has similar effects as hGH? And could it be taken orally, like DHEA?

#6

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Posted 06 November 2006 - 11:41 PM

IGF-1 is composed of a chain of about 70 amino acids that are folded, like GH, in a specific 3D conformation that is essential to its function. It has the same administration restrictions as GH.

#7 starr

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Posted 07 November 2006 - 04:05 AM

I know it's a long and complex molecule, but I thought maybe it had a shot sublingually or even transdemally in the right delivery vehicle. Actually, I thought that I had read about transdermal HGH in the works.

#8 Guest_da_sense_*

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Posted 07 November 2006 - 08:41 AM

hGH is a big-ass fragile molecule easily destroyed by our digestive system, starting quickly with sylvia, finished off with stomach acid. It's size, too, prevents trans-dermal absorption. Even as an injection it quickly metabolizes, having a very short half-life, I think quickly leading to the longer lived IGF-1.

I wonder if taking IGF-1 has similar effects as hGH? And could it be taken orally, like DHEA?

There are some IGF sublingual products on market (sold as supplements) but most doubt their efficiency.

#9 spacetime

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Posted 08 November 2006 - 08:15 PM

GH and IGF are too large to pass through skin or even subglingually. They are also very fragile peptides that can degrade in heat and light. Injection is really the only viable method for delivery. But as stated they are so fragile that even when injected they get broken down very quickly. With orally bioavailability there's a number of things to consider. First the product has to survive the gut and hte harsh ph acidic environemnt. Then it needs to be absorbed and whereby it enters the bloodstream via liver. But the liver can also deactiate or degrade it via metabolism.

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