Does the use of growth hormone in children have side effects

How to catch up with the height of a short child is the trouble of many parents, most children's growth and development process is actually normal, is not the need for medical intervention, through improved nutrition, exercise, sleep and other height management methods, so that the child to play out the maximum growth potential, is able to achieve the ideal adult height. However, for children with pathological causes of short stature, only after standardized diagnosis and treatment by professional specialists, in strict accordance with the indications, and after clarifying the cause of the disease, can we help them solve the problem. For example, growth hormone deficiency, Turner syndrome and other diseases, at present, mainly through the growth hormone treatment to help children achieve ideal height.

Growth hormone plays an important role in regulating the growth and development of children and adolescents, so what is this hormone? At present, the drugs used in the clinic are mostly recombinant human growth hormone, what kind of effect does injecting this kind of drug have on the child's body? Will it cause cancer? What kind of side effects ...... this is almost every first contact with the growth hormone parents most concerned about the problem.

Today, the chief physician of the endocrine department of the Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Dr. Pan Hui, was asked to give a talk about growth hormone.

This hormone is not the other hormone, can not be confused with Zhang Guan Li Di

Hearing the "hormone", many people will immediately think of the body fat, osteoporosis, liver and kidney toxicity, a series of side effects, in their view, "growth hormone is a hormone, the child can not be used! In their opinion, "growth hormone is hormone, children can not use". In fact, there are many kinds of hormones, usually people's concept of "hormone" generally refers to glucocorticoids or sex hormones.

Growth hormone is a peptide hormone secreted by the human pituitary gland, and one of its main functions is to stimulate the liver and other organs to produce insulin-like growth factors, which act on the chondrocytes in the epiphyseal plate to directly stimulate the growth of bones. Recombinant human growth hormone drugs synthesized using genetic engineering technology, and the body's own secretion of growth hormone chemical structure, physiology, pharmacological effects are basically the same, so the use of children will not be like glucocorticoids will not lead to rapid obesity or serious osteoporosis, and at present there is no evidence to support that will accelerate the age of the bone growth and promote epiphyseal closure.

Side effects = harmful? Don't misunderstand and exaggerate

The so-called side effects in people's mouths are just adverse drug reactions, adverse drug reactions are in the case of normal dosage of drugs, due to the quality of the drugs or improper use of medication caused by harmful reactions, such as drug side effects, toxicity, allergic reactions, as well as carcinogenicity and teratogenicity of the role of some of these adverse reactions in the quality of the drugs or medication improperly will be Some of these adverse reactions occur only when the quality of the drug is questionable or when the drug is used improperly, while others can occur when the quality of the drug passes the test and when the drug is used in the clinic under normal usage and dosage

According to the statistics, the clinical application of growth hormone for more than 30 years has been very safe in its overall use, and the occasional clinical side effects are mainly headache, blood glucose abnormality, hypothyroidism, and joint edema and pain, which are mostly alleviated by themselves in the short term or after the discontinuance of the drug. The accumulated data suggests that these side effects will not cause lifelong harm to children. In addition, clinical research data derived from domestic and international sources show that recombinant human growth hormone drug therapy does not increase the risk of new malignant tumors in patients without tumors, and there is no data to show that it can lead to diabetes and infertility and so on.

Long-term injections produce dependence? Don't jump to arbitrary conclusions

General clinicians recommend the use of growth hormone for short-statured children, often due to their own inability to secrete growth hormone or insufficient secretion, some children with precocious puberty need to use growth hormone combination therapy. The medication needs to go through a professional doctor for a detailed examination of the child, a clear diagnosis, in accordance with the strict indications for standardized treatment, will be exogenously given to supplement the growth hormone, the dosage is also through the doctor's strict control, long-term follow-up, to monitor the growth situation and safety, the growth of the child is not overnight, need to adhere to a one, two years or even more time. Once the drug is discontinued, the body's growth hormone level in 3-6 months will return to the state before the drug, compared to the treatment period, the growth rate of the short-term decline, parents will inevitably produce a child stopping the drug does not grow the illusion.

Insulin and growth hormone are protein hormones secreted by the human body, and the need for long-term medication is due to the need for disease treatment rather than drug dependence, not because growth hormone requires a longer period of time, but simply think that it will produce drug dependence, which is not scientifically based. If a child's growth rate slows down in the short term after growth hormone is discontinued, it is only because it follows its own original secretion state and requires continued medication to help it reach a satisfactory height. In addition, some children achieve catch-up growth after stopping the drug, after puberty, because of its own growth hormone is not a lack of, there will be relatively satisfactory growth rate, this situation needs to be different from person to person, can not be generalized.

Judging the condition should have a reasonable medical basis, the same, the doctor to the child medication also need to go through a rigorous and comprehensive clinical medical examination and follow-up, combined with the diagnosis in order to determine a comprehensive treatment program, so treat a drug to rational, dialectical view, can not be overly worried about the side effects of the use of growth hormone medicines to produce suspicion, and even resolutely resisted, refused to treat, and so on. Professor Pan Hui once again reminded: the use of growth hormone, must be under the guidance of a professional doctor, strictly according to the indications for standardized treatment, the child's growth and development of the time period is only a few years, once you miss the best time for treatment, it is difficult to change.