LOS ANGELES — Anyone seeking the fountain of youth should think twice before turning to growth hormone, a fast-growing trend in anti-aging fringe medicine. If conclusions from an obscure population living in Ecuador prove true, less growth hormone — not more — may prevent cancer and diabetes in old age.
The discovery, published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine, backs up earlier research showing that yeast, flies and rodents live longer — in some species, as much as 10 times longer — when they grow slowly.
“There are a lot of people giving human growth hormone to fight aging,” said Dr. Nir Barzilai, a researcher at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, who was not involved in the research. “The question is, will you live longer and healthier? I think these studies suggest, maybe not.”
The discovery hinged on a group of extended relatives living in the Andes in Ecuador, many of whom share a genetic mutation that shuts off receptors to human growth hormone. The hormone helps regulate metabolism throughout the body as well as the way that cells change as they age.
The mutation, called E180, is one of several that cause Laron Syndrome, a disorder that stunts growth after birth by about 50 percent.