I'm reading The Biotech Century by Jeremy Rifkin, for a class on Bioethics, and in one section it talks about the development of growth hormones in the 1980s to help the few thousand children in the United States with dwarfism. It was expected to have a very narrow market value, presumably just the children with dwarfism, but by the 1990s it was one of the top selling pharmaceutical drugs.
"Since there are so few children in the United States suffering from dwarfism, it is obvious that doctors across the country have been prescribing the hormone for normal children, who while they may be shorter than their peers, do not suffer from a growth hormone deficit. Where parents have been reluctant to ask for the hormone, the children have begun to on their own. Many young men have found the hormone helpful in building and sustaining muscle development and have been purchasing it illegally on the black market. One survey carried out in a suburb of Chicago reported that more than 5 percent of suburban tenth-grade boys were illegally taking the drug."
Damn, I really could have used some growth hormones when I was the shortest kid in school from kindergarten until 11th grade. It makes me wonder how many of the giants surrounding me in the hallways were cheating.
'fess up!
― Z S, Saturday, 20 October 2007 23:32 (eighteen years ago)
Considering I was like 5'4" or something until about my junior year of high school, I don't think I was taking anything.
― mh, Sunday, 21 October 2007 00:47 (eighteen years ago)
5'10' and no hormones that I'm aware of. There are a lol of growth hormones in milk and dairy products though. Maybe that's a factor.
― ENBB, Sunday, 21 October 2007 01:44 (eighteen years ago)
ENBB - Is that a typo or a new meme?
― Jesse, Sunday, 21 October 2007 03:57 (eighteen years ago)
I am drunk and don't get it. What else is knew?
― ENBB, Sunday, 21 October 2007 04:04 (eighteen years ago)
a lol of growth hormones
― Heave Ho, Sunday, 21 October 2007 04:06 (eighteen years ago)
"you looking at me, punk?"
http://msnbcmedia4.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060228/060228_ankiel_hmed_5p.hmedium.jpg
― gershy, Sunday, 21 October 2007 04:10 (eighteen years ago)
Honestly I wasn't being critical. I just thought it was sort of clever if you really meant to say "lol" as in something like "so much it's funny" or something.
It could be a meme after all, who knows.
Also, I am pretty sure I never was dosed as my parents were anti-doctor and I'm 5'6". Though I did grow up with oddly muscular legs and butt, so who knows.
― Jesse, Sunday, 21 October 2007 04:12 (eighteen years ago)
man this thread is really, really good. it's one of those topics where i know that just a little bump, no matter the reason, will prompt dozens of new answers because of all the possible angles
― 1992 ball boy (Karl Malone), Tuesday, 4 August 2015 20:00 (ten years ago)
took me a minute to notice it was an old thread and I posted :)
― Upright Mammal (mh), Tuesday, 4 August 2015 20:13 (ten years ago)
what I didn't say was that I WAS AWARE of such a thing and hoped for a magic drug to make me super tall and swole
never happened, although I did make it to 5'10" by my freshman year of college
― Upright Mammal (mh), Tuesday, 4 August 2015 20:14 (ten years ago)
there's a really interesting chapter in Far From the Tree about growth hormones and bone stretching treatments
― La Lechera, Tuesday, 4 August 2015 22:07 (ten years ago)
I was tall as a youngster and only about average now, didn't really grow much taller after 13
― irl lol (darraghmac), Tuesday, 4 August 2015 22:18 (ten years ago)
i am still hella short but long in spirit
― let's not get too excited w/ the ouches (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 4 August 2015 22:27 (ten years ago)
a boy i went to preschool with took HGH in hs in an unrelated event, he was recently charged with vehicular homicide :(
― La Lechera, Tuesday, 4 August 2015 22:29 (ten years ago)
Always love when this thread pops up on sna
― Songs that sound like SimCopter (sleepingbag), Tuesday, 4 August 2015 22:41 (ten years ago)