BiggerStronger said:
I haven't seen any research directly linking endogenous supplies of IGF-I to causing cancer. Although there may be one in the future I don't plan to keep my IGF-I levels elevated for a long period of time. (just 4 weeks)
J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1996 Aug;81(8):2968-75.
At 3 weeks, the treatment group combination recombinant human GH (rhGH; Nutropin; 0.34 mg, sc, twice daily) and rhIGF-I (5.0 mg, sc, twice daily) had a significantly larger weight increase (P = 0.0003), but this difference was not observed at any later time point.
PMID: 8768860 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
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Exerc Sport Sci Rev. 1994;22:285-312. Related Articles, Links
Growth hormone effects on metabolism, body composition, muscle mass, and strength.
Yarasheski KE.
Metabolism Division, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri.
It is clear that the anthropometric ramifications, especially with respect to muscle mass, of the metabolic actions of GH and IGF-I treatment in intact and GH-deficient adults require further study.
At present, it appears that daily GH or IGF-I treatment modestly increases nitrogen retention in most normal adults, probably by separate but permissive mechanisms, but only for a short period of time (approximately 1 month).
Though some researchers seem to miss this point(since in this first study they said igf/gh weren't effective for muscle wasting - 12 weeks of continual usage using rhIGF instead of Long r3 IGF), after 3-4 weeks igf seems to be pretty ineffective.
As far as igf and its relationship with cancer, I think so far it has only been shown to speed up your current cancer cell activity, not cause normal cells to turn cancerous so I'm not worried about it. When using these drugs we should all understand that there are health risks and I love this board because the side effects of drugs are discussed just as often as the benefits around here.