tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2893512317902577458.post8547232642535338353..comments2024-01-06T02:22:33.000-05:00Comments on Camden Depot: Why do baseball players use hGH: Part II, The ScienceJon Shepherdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03521809778977098687noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2893512317902577458.post-11023987312371197342013-01-29T18:56:51.412-05:002013-01-29T18:56:51.412-05:00nganIn review 2 it states"They also note that...nganIn review 2 it states"They also note that it should be recognized that the treatment regimes used in these study most likely do not reflect real world usage and that adds uncertainty." Are ballplayers "going for it" and using massive doses? Has any player spoken to this? Thoughtful and informative essay. Thank you.OTHOSOShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02540756094408765860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2893512317902577458.post-44434645032611780162012-08-21T08:08:20.141-04:002012-08-21T08:08:20.141-04:00Thanks for the detailed thought. I very much appr...Thanks for the detailed thought. I very much appreciate the discussion.<br /><br />My understanding of hGH is that although it is used to increase healing rates in the elderly that the healed tissue is not as strong as tissue that is healed under normal circumstances. This is fine for the elderly who need to quickly reform tissue to be able to avoid infection and return to some level of ability to ensure mobility. An athlete though would not benefit from this kind of quick healing because of the strain he would place on his tissues.<br /><br />I think sometimes there is confusion about strength meaning strength meaning strength or healing meaning healing meaning healing. The truth under many circumstances is that what works in one situation may actually give poor results in another. One plus is that if a player is incredibly invested in hGH working in an emotional sense, then he will likely have lower cortisol levels which may improve tissue growth.<br /><br />I think there are a lot of questions to explore. If I was an athlete looking for an edge though...this would not be a direction I would look. There is just scant evidence that hGH may work for athletes. It just does not seem very useful at all.Jon Shepherdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03521809778977098687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2893512317902577458.post-74155465510294543182012-08-21T02:46:46.081-04:002012-08-21T02:46:46.081-04:00While I certainly agree that we should let facts a...While I certainly agree that we should let facts and scientific evidence drive our beliefs about the relationship between performance enhancing drugs (in this case HGH) and performance, I really don't think there's any good scientific evidence available that speaks to baseball performance and HGH. I think the cited studies show that HGH does not improve raw strength, endurance, and possibly not even speed (depending on how you interpret Ho's operationalization of sprint capacity), but I am not comfortable interpreting these findings to make conclusions about baseball performance, an analytically different concept. I think the media narrative about PEDs has fixated on strength while overlooking other POSSIBLE benefits of PEDs such as HGH. The fixation on strength is understandable given the nation's fascination with the McGwire and Sosa home run race in the late 90s. But I suspect players are not taking HGH for the sole purpose of bulking up in order to allow them to hit 50 home runs or hit 99 mph on the radar gun. For example, Andy Pettitte claims he took HGH to heal from an elbow injury faster rather than bulking up so he could improve his fastball (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3156305). And I think here lies the real "performance" benefit of HGH rather than focusing on raw strength and endurance. I suspect players take HGH due to the belief that it helps stays them recover from minor injuries faster and keeps in shape better. While this initially may not seems like "performance" enhancing benefit, I think that view seriously underestimates the performance value of keeping your body in shape to handle the grind of a 162 game season. It stands to reason that minor injuries which aren't enough to land the player on the DL (or media stories) could affect performance negatively. Being able to manage and conquer this problem is a significant advantage if you believe in the assumption that a healthier player would play better than a player suffering from various minor ailments. Pettitte is not the only player that I've heard tout the recovery properties of HGH. I believe Jason Grimsley used HGH to recover from TJ surgery in almost record speed. Thus HGH could be in a PED not in the sense that it improves your baseball skills (e.g., hitting for more power or dialing up your fastball), but rather it enhances the player's performance by allowing them to capitalize on their bodies fully. Now I should point that is no scientific evidence actually showing (or disproving) this. And for this reason, I believe the direction of public discourse should move from whether using HGH is cheating to scientifically investigating whether HGH has useful healing properties in regards to injuries (not just endurance issue as tested by the cited studies) and, more importantly, figuring a way to regulate HGH in a SAFE manner so it could be incorporated into the game. Thus HGH should be seen as a performance enhancer in way that getting lasik surgery is a performance enhancer. Anyways, that's my two cents. Thanks for the reviewing the scientific literature on HGH. Your hard work is appreciated as always. stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12808900090584995792noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2893512317902577458.post-22281050926054415332012-08-21T02:46:25.082-04:002012-08-21T02:46:25.082-04:00While I certainly agree that we should let facts a...While I certainly agree that we should let facts and scientific evidence drive our beliefs about the relationship between performance enhancing drugs (in this case HGH) and performance, I really don't think there's any good scientific evidence available that speaks to baseball performance and HGH. I think the cited studies show that HGH does not improve raw strength, endurance, and possibly not even speed (depending on how you interpret Ho's operationalization of sprint capacity), but I am not comfortable interpreting these findings to make conclusions about baseball performance, an analytically different concept. I think the media narrative about PEDs has fixated on strength while overlooking other POSSIBLE benefits of PEDs such as HGH. The fixation on strength is understandable given the nation's fascination with the McGwire and Sosa home run race in the late 90s. But I suspect players are not taking HGH for the sole purpose of bulking up in order to allow them to hit 50 home runs or hit 99 mph on the radar gun. For example, Andy Pettitte claims he took HGH to heal from an elbow injury faster rather than bulking up so he could improve his fastball (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3156305). And I think here lies the real "performance" benefit of HGH rather than focusing on raw strength and endurance. I suspect players take HGH due to the belief that it helps stays them recover from minor injuries faster and keeps in shape better. While this initially may not seems like "performance" enhancing benefit, I think that view seriously underestimates the performance value of keeping your body in shape to handle the grind of a 162 game season. It stands to reason that minor injuries which aren't enough to land the player on the DL (or media stories) could affect performance negatively. Being able to manage and conquer this problem is a significant advantage if you believe in the assumption that a healthier player would play better than a player suffering from various minor ailments. Pettitte is not the only player that I've heard tout the recovery properties of HGH. I believe Jason Grimsley used HGH to recover from TJ surgery in almost record speed. Thus HGH could be in a PED not in the sense that it improves your baseball skills (e.g., hitting for more power or dialing up your fastball), but rather it enhances the player's performance by allowing them to capitalize on their bodies fully. Now I should point that is no scientific evidence actually showing (or disproving) this. And for this reason, I believe the direction of public discourse should move from whether using HGH is cheating to scientifically investigating whether HGH has useful healing properties in regards to injuries (not just endurance issue as tested by the cited studies) and, more importantly, figuring a way to regulate HGH in a SAFE manner so it could be incorporated into the game. Thus HGH should be seen as a performance enhancer in way that getting lasik surgery is a performance enhancer. Anyways, that's my two cents. Thanks for the reviewing the scientific literature on HGH. Your hard work is appreciated as always. stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12808900090584995792noreply@blogger.com