Ever sit down to complete an important work task, only to find yourself struggling to focus? Human growth hormone replacement therapy may help with that.
This powerful hormone that plays an integral to helping children and adolescents grow is also important well into adulthood. Human growth hormone helps keep our muscles and bones strong. It also plays an important role in helping regulate mood and cognitive functioning.
Read on to learn more about how human growth hormone plays a role in mental focus, memory, and other cognitive functions.
What Is Human Growth Hormone?
Human growth hormone (HGH) is a vital hormone produced by the pituitary — a small, bean-shaped gland located at the base of your brain. The pituitary produces and releases HGH — also called growth hormone, or somatotropin —into the bloodstream.
This powerful hormone helps children and adolescents grow, but it also plays a major role in an adult’s body, including helping regulate mood, brain function, and focus.
As we age, our levels of human growth hormone naturally decline. Memory loss, loss of muscle mass, and sleep troubles/needing less sleep are all considered to be normal parts of aging. These experiences may in part be related to the decline in HGH levels in older adults.
As you get older, you may experience a number of physical and mental health symptoms related to lower HGH levels. Fortunately, hormone replacement therapy can help reduce these symptoms and help you keep your mental faculties intact as you get older.
How Does Human Growth Hormone Work in the Brain?
Human growth hormone is important to your brain health, helping regulate mood, memory, sleep, and focus.
Researchers have found human growth hormone receptors in various parts of the brain, including:
- Hypothalamus
- Septum
- Thalamus
- Amygdala
- Hippocampus
- Brainstem
Because HGH plays such an important role in brain function and health, low HGH is associated with a number of cognitive symptoms and mood problems — individuals with HGH deficiency often experience mood swings, depression, anxiety,s sleep troubles, and trouble focusing.
Fortunately, hormone replacement therapy can boost your HGH levels, helping improve your mood, improve your focus and concentration, and keep your brain functioning at optimal levels.
What Are the Mental Health Symptoms of Human Growth Hormone Deficiency?
Low levels of human growth hormone can cause a number of physical and mental health symptoms.
If you’re deficient in human growth hormone, you may experience the following symptoms related to mood and brain function:
- Anxiety
- Brain fog
- Depression
- Difficulty falling asleep
- Impaired mental processing
- Inability to focus
- Irritability and/or restlessness
- Memory lapses
- Mood swings
- Social isolation
- Waking up feeling fatigued
- Trouble concentrating
- Waking up feeling fatigued
Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be this way.
Hormone replacement therapy is a therapeutic intervention available to adults who have been diagnosed with growth hormone deficiency. If you suspect you are low in HGH, talk to your doctor. Your doctor will discuss your symptoms with you, give a physical examination, and may order lab work (e.g., blood tests) to determine if you have a growth hormone deficiency.
Our skilled staff and specialists here at Elite HRT are here to help. Contact us today for a consult to learn if hormone replacement therapy is right for you.
Does HGH Regulate and Improve Mood?
Your mood and emotional well-being can be affected by many factors — daily life events, what you eat, how much and how well you sleep, and hormones. Human growth hormone particularly plays a role in mood regulation. Specifically, HGH helps regulate your dopamine and endorphin levels.
Dopamine is a “feel good” chemical/neurotransmitter that interacts with the pleasure and rewards part of the brain. It plays an important role in how you feel. It also has an effect on your memory and focus. Endorphins are a neurotransmitter that helps regulate feelings of happiness, pleasure, and pain relief.
As you can see, HGH does more than just keep your bones and muscles strong. It plays a central role in regulating your mood. When you’re low in HGH, the HGH receptors in your brain do not get the ‘signal’ they expect, and you may experience cognitive impairment and mood imbalances.
HGH also plays a role in helping you get good quality sleep. When your HGH levels are low, your body increases the amount of cortisol (stress hormone) produced. Cortisol keeps your body on “high alert,” and you may lay awake all night with racing thoughts, anxiety, causing you to struggle to fall asleep and stay asleep.
Research shows that human growth hormone replacement therapy can have a tremendous impact on a person’s health. One study found that this therapy improves mood and cognition in adults with HGH deficiency. After a period of 6 months of weekly HGH injections, participants reported significant improvements in their mood and cognitive functioning (e.g., memory, focus).
How Does HGH Play a Role in Mental Focus?
Struggling to focus? This may be related to low human growth hormone levels. Most of us accept that memory loss and other cognitive functioning that wanes, as we age, is just a normal part of aging. However, lack of focus and concentration is not always “just” caused by getting older. In some cases, it may be related to lower levels of HGH. Studies have shown that HGH benefits not only mood but also cognitive function in older adults.
This is due in part because HGH helps the brain produce new synapses to help you process and store information. HGH therapy may help you improve your memory and recall times — no more searching for a word just on the tip of your tongue.
One study found that individuals who received HGH injections showed significant improvements in executive functioning, particularly in the areas of focus, planning, and selective attention. These individuals also saw improvements in their verbal memory, though HGH did not seem to have an effect on visual memory in this particular study.
HGH is also helpful in protecting the brain against beta-amyloid plaque, which is found in the brains of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease. HGH also helps prevent apoptosis (death) of brain cells that is common in aging. HGH has been found to be neuroprotective, which means it benefits brain health and keeps brain cells healthy.
HGH interacts with the brain by:
- Promoting neurogenesis — the growth of new brain cells
- Renews dendrite connections — these are vital for neuron communication in the brain
- Protects against free radicals that cause cellular death
What Are the Mental Health Benefits of Human Growth Hormone Replacement Therapy?
When you have low human growth hormone levels, you may be going through your days feeling fatigued, moody, and anxious with a low mood. While the occasional bad day is okay, living like this in your day-to-day can have a big impact on your overall health and well-being.
Hormone replacement therapy may offer many mental health benefits, including:
- Better focus
- Better sleep
- Faster information processing
- Improved concentration
- Improved cognitive functioning
- Increased sense of well-being
- Less anxiety and depression
- Memory improvements
- More energy
HGH therapy can help make significant improvements in your mental health and well-being. This therapy may help improve your focus and concentration so you can engage in conversations and work efficiently. It may also help improve your memory and ability to recall what you’ve learned.
Conclusion
HGH injections are an optional therapy for individuals with human growth hormone deficiency. This therapy should only be used in individuals who have been diagnosed with HGH deficiency, and never used by individuals for fitness purposes or to help study for a test, for example. You MUST have a diagnosis of low HGH in order to receive the therapy safely and for it to be effective.
If you’re experiencing low mood, trouble focusing, insomnia, and anxiety, HGH therapy may be a viable option for you to improve your brain function and mood.
If you suspect your mental focus and mood are suffering as a result of low HGH, talk with your doctor. Or, call us at Elite HRT. We are here to help you learn more about what’s causing your symptoms, and can help you learn more about if HGH treatments are right for you.
Sources:
Can a Growth Hormone-Stimulating Drug Improve Cognitive Function? | Neurology Today