What was the connection between HGH and “Mad Cow” disease?
HGH injections were first used to treat children with HGH deficiency that caused stunted growth in 1958. However, the only source for the HGH for these injections at that time was the brains of cadavers. Morbid as it sounds, thousands of dead people’s brains were used to extract HGH to inject into children in the period 1958-1980. Whilst it did help children grow the HGH supply had become contaminated with the virus that causes Creutzfeldt-Jakob or “Mad Cow” disease. As the evidence mounted that the HGH injections were responsible for children developing mad cow disease the FDA immediately put an end to growth hormone injections. However, when scientists were able to create synthetic growth hormone in the lab – recombinant HGH – they were able to remove the risk of mad cow disease and so the FDA once again approved HGH injections. As long as you take recombinant HGH, you are not at any risk whatsoever for “Mad Cow” disease.
