# Growth Hormone

Category: Hormones

Also known as: GH, somatotropin, IGF-1

Growth hormone (GH) is a pituitary stress hormone whose chronic elevation Ray Peat treated as a primary driver of degenerative aging and metabolic disease. Peat argued that GH is not simply a beneficial anabolic agent but a stress-responsive hormone that rises during…

10 passages · 2 authors · 2013–2025 · Most-cited: [Ray Peat](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/voices/ray-peat/index.md)

Canonical page: https://bioenergeticoracle.com/concepts/growth-hormone

## Synthesis

**Growth hormone (GH)** is a pituitary stress hormone whose chronic elevation Ray Peat treated as a primary driver of *degenerative aging* and metabolic disease. [Source 1, 5] Peat argued that GH is not simply a beneficial anabolic agent but a **stress-responsive hormone** that rises during hypoglycemia, heat, and shock, sometimes to levels ten or twenty times normal. [Source 2] He identified it as the closest known substance to W.D. Denckla's hypothetical "death hormone," noting that animals genetically lacking GH or surgically deprived of pituitary function live roughly twice as long as normal controls, provided they receive thyroid support. [Source 4, 5, 9]

The hormone's core pathological mechanism, in Peat's view, is its **diabetogenic action**—mobilizing *free fatty acids* from storage in a manner similar to adrenalin. [Source 2, 6] This flood of lipids, particularly unsaturated fats, blocks the oxidation of glucose and creates a generalized **antithyroid effect** that suppresses respiratory metabolism. [Source 1, 3] Peat emphasized that GH consistently increases the proportion of unsaturated fatty acids in the blood, which promotes oxidative damage and interferes with cellular energy production. [Source 1, 6] This shift toward fatty acid oxidation underlies GH's well-established ability to antagonize insulin and progressively worsen insulin resistance with age. [Source 2]

Peat documented that GH's degenerative influence extends directly to tissue structure, particularly through **vascular leakiness** and kidney pathology. [Source 3] He noted that GH, working as a system with estrogen and nitric oxide, increases the permeability of blood vessels, causing leakage of albumin into the urine and thickening of the capillary basement membrane—hallmarks of diabetic kidney disease. [Source 3] The hormone also causes overt edema by disrupting water and mineral regulation, a function Peat traced back to its ancient evolutionary role in osmoregulation in fish. [Source 1, 3] He cited evidence that GH blocks gonadotropin-stimulated progesterone production, further compromising the protective hormones that maintain vascular integrity and oppose estrogen. [Source 1]

In clinical contexts, Peat warned that exogenous GH administration mimics the accelerated degeneration seen in acromegaly, where patients suffer from extremely high rates of **atherosclerosis** and kidney failure. [Source 4, 6] He directly advised that lowering GH is one of the great advantages of dietary carbohydrate, since sugar and starch suppress the hypoglycemia-driven GH surge. [Source 9] Georgi Dinkov has reinforced this position, characterizing GH as part of an ancient stress cascade alongside serotonin and prolactin that should not be upregulated, and noting that a single glucagon stimulation test is insufficient to diagnose deficiency given how sensitively GH responds to sleep deprivation and fasting state. [Source 8, 10] Peat did acknowledge that vitamin D sufficiency around 50 ng/ml can alleviate a genuine GH deficiency, but the overarching framework treats chronic GH elevation as a *pro-aging, pro-diabetic* force best kept low through stable blood sugar and thyroid-supported metabolism. [Source 7, 9]

## People also ask

### How does growth hormone promote insulin resistance?

Peat argued that GH mobilizes free fatty acids, especially unsaturated fats, which block glucose oxidation and create an antithyroid effect, progressively antagonizing insulin and worsening insulin resistance with age.

### Why did Peat consider sugar protective against GH damage?

Peat advised that dietary carbohydrate suppresses the hypoglycemia-driven surge of GH, making stable blood sugar a key strategy for keeping this pro-aging hormone low.

### What kidney damage does GH cause according to Peat?

Peat described GH increasing vascular leakiness, causing albumin to spill into urine and thickening capillary basement membranes, which are hallmarks of diabetic kidney disease.

## Related concepts

- [Atherosclerosis](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/atherosclerosis/index.md)
- [Autophagy](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/autophagy/index.md)
- [Cholesterol](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/cholesterol/index.md)
- [Cholesterol (HDL, LDL)](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/cholesterol-hdl-ldl/index.md)
- [Coconut oil](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/coconut-oil/index.md)
- [DHT (Dihydrotestosterone)](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/dht-dihydrotestosterone/index.md)

## Cited passages

Passage numbers match the `[Source N]` markers in the synthesis above.

### Source 1 — Growth hormone: Hormone of Stress, Aging, and Death?

Ray Peat · Article · 2013 · https://raypeat.com/articles/articles/growth-hormone.shtml

> Denckla's and Everitt's experiments can be interpreted much more clearly now that GH's essential contribution to kidney degeneration is known. Growth Hormone may not be precisely the Death Hormone that Denckla was looking for, but it is very close to it. Anti-thyroid effects have been seen, and possibly even anti-growth effects during gestation, and in kidney disease. In newborns, high GH is associated with smaller size and slower growth; in one study, this was associated with rapid breathing, presumably hyperventilation which is associated with stress. The shift to the diabetes-like fatty acid oxidation would be expected to inhibit respiration, and the chronic elevation of serum free fatty acids will have a generalized antithyroid effect. Under the influence of GH, the proportion of unsaturated fatty acids is increased, as occurs under the influence of estrogen.
>
> Growth hormone blocks gonadotropin-stimulated progesterone production, and this could also affect thyroid and respiratory metabolism.
>
> The increase of GH during sleep might seem to be utterly incompatible with the idea that it is a stress hormone, but in fact the other stress hormones, adrenalin, cortisol, and prolactin also tend to increase during night-time sleep. Thyroid function and progesterone function decrease at night. As I have argued previously darkness is one of our major stressors. Considering GH's tendency to cause edema, tissue swelling, it could play a role in the nocturnal increase of the viscosity of blood, as the volume of blood is decreased by the leakage of fluid into the tissues. Another process with potentially deadly results that increase with aging and stress, is the passage of bacteria from the intestine into the blood stream; this process is increased under the influence of GH.
>
> Acute, short term studies definitely show growth hormone to be a stress hormone with some destabilizing effects. Over a lifetime, it is possible that such things as chronically increased levels of unsaturated fatty acids in the blood, and increased leakiness of the blood vessels, could cumulatively produce the effects that Denckla ascribed to the Death Hormone.
>
> [references]

### Source 2 — Growth hormone: Hormone of Stress, Aging, and Death?

Ray Peat · Article · 2013 · https://raypeat.com/articles/articles/growth-hormone.shtml

> For example, its acidic amino acids may be methylated, and its lysine groups may combine with sugars or carbon dioxide. The history of the protein in the body determines its exact structure, and therefore its biological effects.
>
> Male animals secrete GH in pulses, but females secrete it more steadily. This pattern of secretion "masculinizes" or "feminizes" the liver (and other organs), determining the pattern of enzyme activity. It would be possible (though very difficult) to arrange a system for delivering doses in a pulsed, intermittent manner. In cows, this apparently isn't necessary, since the purpose of the growth hormone is presumably to "feminize" the milk-producing system. But the normal pattern of secretion is much more complex than simply being "pulsed" or "continuous," since it, like prolactin secretion, is responsive to changes in thyroid, estrogen, diet, stress, and many other factors.
>
> For example, hormones in this family are, as far back in evolution as they have been studied, involved in the regulation of water and minerals. It is well established that increased water (hypotonicity) stimulates prolactin, and increased sodium inhibits its secretion. Growth hormone is also closely involved with the regulation of water and salts.
>
> One of the best known metabolic effects of GH is that, like adrenalin, it mobilizes fatty acids from storage. GH is known to antagonize insulin, and one of the ways it does this is simply by the ability of increased free fatty acids to block the oxidation of glucose. At puberty, the increased GH creates a mild degree of diabetes-like insulin resistance, which tends to increase progressively with age.
>
> In his book, *Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers*, Sapolsky acknowledges some situations in which GH is increased by stress in humans, but I think he misses the real ways in which it operates in stress. One of the interesting features of cortisol, which Sapolsky showed killed brain cells by making them unable to use glucose efficiently, is that it makes cells take up unsaturated fatty acids more easily, interfering with their energy production.

### Source 3 — Growth hormone: Hormone of Stress, Aging, and Death?

Ray Peat · Article · 2013 · https://raypeat.com/articles/articles/growth-hormone.shtml

> In old age, cartilaginous structures such as the bones and ears keep enlarging. The fact that simply diluting the culture medium is sufficient to stimulate the growth of cartilage suggests that the growth hormone might be acting by its effects on water metabolism. In fish which enter fresh water from the ocean, pituitary hormones of this family help them to balance salts in this new environment, but in the process, they develop osteoporosis and skeletal deformity, of the sort that occur more gradually in other animals with aging.
>
> Growth hormone clearly causes edema, and this is probably involved in the pathological processes that it can produce. The expansion of extracellular water has been reported, but others have concluded that the increased weight of muscles following GH treatment must be the result of "growth," "because microscopic examination didn't show edema." Statements of that sort give incompetence a bad name, because any student of biology or biochemistry has to know, before he does almost any experiment, that the way to determine the water content of a tissue is to compare the wet weight to the weight after thorough drying. Looking for water under a microscope is the sort of thing they do at drug companies to pretend that they have done something.
>
> Estrogen, growth hormone, and nitric oxide, which tend to work as a system, along with free fatty acids, all increase the permeability of blood vessels. The leaking of albumin into the urine, which is characteristic of diabetes, is promoted by GH. In diabetes and GH treatment, the basement membrane, the jelly-like material that forms a foundation for capillary cells, is thickened. The reason for this isn't known, but it could be a compensatory "anti-leak" response tending to reduce the leakage of proteins and fats.
>
> Besides being involved in kidney degeneration, vascular leakiness contributes to brain edema, and probably contributes to the "autoimmune" diseases.
>
> Whatever the exact mechanism may be, it is clearly established that GH contributes to kidney degeneration, and the lack of GH, even the removal of the pituitary, is protective against kidney degeneration.
>
> Denckla's and Everitt's experiments can be interpreted much more clearly now that GH's essential contribution to kidney degeneration is known. Growth Hormone may not be precisely the Death Hormone that Denckla was looking for, but it is very close to it.

### Source 4 — Ray Peat Full Interview: Cholesterol, PUFA, Coconut Oil, Thyroid, and the Metabolic Truth

Ray Peat · Interview · Jul 12, 2025 · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQB95tLW7eE

> **Josh Rubin:** Right, right. Makes sense. Now, I'm just going to email from a listener just to rewind it a little bit. He wants to know if you could elaborate a little bit on why growth hormone, when you're talking about it being inflammatory, why is it inflammatory? Is it just in itself inflammatory? Is it the excess of it actually being inflammatory to the system?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Well, Most of the research is designed to praise its beneficial effects, but there are some very basic observations that people who have been chronically deficient in it have a remarkable absence of atherosclerosis. The mice that genetically are deficient in the pituitary hormones have no growth hormone. They aren't very big, but they live two or three times as long as normal mice. And one researcher removed the pituitaries from several species of animals and found that they lived much, much longer than animals with their pituitaries if they were given basically a thyroid supplement to keep their metabolism going. So when you have hypoglycemia, you increase your growth hormone, and it tends to come with the other pituitary stress-responsive hormones. all of these tend to have their side effects. So they're all beneficial in the right amount at the right time, but they're all harmful when they go on too long or too high a level. People with the giantism acromegaly from, for example, a tumor or overactivity of the pituitary gland, they have an extremely high incidence of atherosclerosis.

### Source 5 — Ask the Herb Doctor: Longevity and Nootropics

Ray Peat · Interview · Aug 21, 2015

> ## The Pituitary and the "Death Hormone"
>
> **Andrew Murray:** The intestines being clean prevents the accumulation of inflammatory degradative processes and contributes to a longer lifespan. How about the manipulation of hormones? W.D. Denckla did an experiment removing the pituitary gland, which was shown decisively to increase life and reduce the rate of aging. The hormones borne by the pituitary—like LH, FSH, TSH, and oxytocin—are responsible for a lot of inflammatory processes.
>
> **Ray Peat:** He found that, in general, the pituitary extract, if you injected it into an animal, slowed the ability to oxidize glucose. So he called the death hormone the "oxygen blocking hormone." He tried to extract a specific protein; it was closely related to prolactin or growth hormone, but he never did identify a single protein, probably because several pituitary hormones do have some oxygen-blocking function. Growth hormone is really an adequate model of what Denckla was looking for. It is now widely recognized that the more growth hormone you have, the shorter your life expectancy.
>
> **Sarah Murray:** And doctors give patients growth hormone.

### Source 6 — Herb Doctors: Current Trends On Nitric Oxide

Ray Peat · Interview · Oct 16, 2015 · http://l-i-g-h-t.com/files/herb-doctors-current-trends-on-nitric-oxide.mp4

> **Ray Peat:** Yea, I think that structure is what’s happening...
>
> **Andrew Murray:** We have another caller on the air. So let's take this next caller. Hi, what's your question?
>
> **Caller:** I was wondering if you guys could talk about the human growth hormone at all.
>
> **Andrew Murray:** OK, in relation to anything particular or...?
>
> **Caller:** Well, some of my friends were talking about it [in relation] to weightlifting. They were talking about it like it's a good thing to build your muscles.
>
> **Andrew Murray:** Same problems as with nitric oxide, I think. Dr. Peat, what do you have to say to somebody who’s using growth hormone?
>
> **Ray Peat:** You have the same problems that you get from nitric oxide or estrogen. Women, surprisingly, chronically during their reproductive years have high growth hormone chronically. And the growth hormone causes a breakdown of fat in the free fatty acids. So women under the influence of estrogen typically have a chronic exposure to free fatty acids. Which is, if they are unsaturated, increases oxidative damage. And that's just a standard function of growth hormone: it’s to raise your free fatty acids. And that's probably why they see an increased thickness in the wall of blood vessels in the kidneys causing a progressive loss of kidney function from overexposure, or chronic high exposure, to growth hormone. And suspicion that it increases the risk of diabetes, which free fatty acids are known to cause.

### Source 7 — Ray Peat Email Advice Depository — Post 937

Ray Peat · Email · Dec 17, 2022

> ## Thread 2
>
> **Question:** [Adult growth hormone deficiency / How to temporarily lower IGF-1]
>
> **Ray Peat:** Has your vitamin D been tested? It can alleviate a GH deficiency. It should be around 50 ng/ml, or 125 nmol/l. [references]

### Source 8 — #100: Autophagy | mRNA in Food? | Bank Collapse | Elon Musk | Obesity Epidemic with Georgi Dinkov

Georgi Dinkov (with Georgi Dinkov) · Interview · May 15, 2023 · https://open.spotify.com/episode/1PoHaJpfNhJYWNn3o7qNuI

> **Georgi Dinkov:** Right. I mean, I would worry in the sense of like, I don't want to promote it, right? It's a process that's there. It's very ancient evolutionary. And I'm always wary of these ancient things because we came from like basically the slime, the shapeless slime that used mostly glycolysis. So anytime you activate an ancient mechanism like parathyroid hormone, serotonin, prolactin, these are not good things to upregulate. And autophagy seems to be one of the earliest processes that we evolved with.
>
> **Danny Roddy:** There was a certain doctor, I won't name names, but I remember maybe like five years ago. He was like, he posted an article, maybe I've mentioned this, I often repeat myself on here, but he posted a study on lower blood sugar increasing growth hormone on Twitter. And he was like, this is what those Ray, like P-tards will never understand that lower blood sugar equals higher growth hormone. Which promotes cancer, by the way.
>
> **Georgi Dinkov:** Yeah, it's like,
>
> **Danny Roddy:** yeah, the Ray people tend to think that growth hormone is bad stuff because everything that comes from the pituitary in excess is bad stuff, basically.

### Source 9 — One Radio Network: Top Contrarian on Health

Ray Peat · Interview · Dec 17, 2019

> ## Sugar, Insulin, and HGH
>
> **Patrick Timpone:** I have an email arguing that sugar lowers Human Growth Hormone (HGH), and since HGH is good, sugar ages the body. They also argue insulin causes aging.
>
> **Ray Peat:** Lowering HGH is one of the great advantages of carbohydrate, sugar, or starch. Growth hormone is a stress-related hormone. It rises when blood sugar is low and liberates free fatty acids, tending towards diabetes. If you give an excess of growth hormone, it imitates most of the degenerative features of diabetes. Animals that spontaneously lack growth hormone live about twice as long as ones with normal growth hormone.
>
> **Patrick Timpone:** So high HGH levels are pro-aging?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Pro-aging and pro-diabetes. Experimenters removed animals' pituitary glands and replaced cortisol and thyroid, but not growth hormone. The animals lived twice as long.
>
> **Patrick Timpone:** What about metabolic syndrome, where carbs raise insulin and cause inflammation?
>
> **Ray Peat:** That is basically caused by eating too much fat, not enough carbohydrate. You can create it very quickly with polyunsaturated fat (PUFA).

### Source 10 — #06: Glutathione, Consciousness, Electronic Universe, and Statins with Georgi Dinkov

Georgi Dinkov · Interview · Jul 12, 2019 · https://open.spotify.com/episode/6Wo4K7UD9mpMzEcyu88MEc

> **Georgi Dinkov:** They're one and the same.
>
> **Danny Roddy:** I really feel like a person gives themselves away when they say something like that because I'm really suspect of their general understanding of what he's saying. Again, we could probably have an entire three-hour podcast on this, but... Okay, this one, somebody sent me this via email. Recently, I did an insulin tolerance test with my endocrinologist. I was given a large dose of glucagon, and then my blood was drawn at certain intervals. My level of human growth hormone barely rose above baseline in two hours after taking glucagon. My endocrinologist diagnosed this as a pituitary issue and recommended exogenous growth hormone as a solution. Do you agree with this conclusion? Is there a better way to restore pituitary function?

_Generated 2026-07-20 from the Bioenergetic Oracle corpus._