Ask which study supports the promised change

The main growth study was in children

A hormone is a chemical message the body makes. Growth hormone helps children grow.

Thorner’s 1996 study enrolled 110 children with a diagnosed growth hormone shortage. Its results on how fast children grew included 86 of them.

The study summary available here does not explain why the results on growth left out the other children.

Their average growth rate rose from 4.1 centimetres per year before treatment to 7.2 centimetres per year at the end of a year.

There was no comparison group, and the participants were children rather than adults seeking better energy or sleep.

Adult studies were small and short

Vittone’s 1997 study followed 11 older men for 6 weeks. Blood measurements showed more growth hormone during the night.

It found no change in weight, muscle or body fat.

More growth hormone in a blood measurement does not, by itself, show that a man feels better or is healthier.

Khorram’s 1997 study gave 19 older adults a medicine similar to sermorelin for 16 weeks. One of its building blocks had been changed.

Because of that change, the medicine tested was not sermorelin itself.

These short adult studies did not establish lasting benefits.

A sleep claim needs its own evidence

In Khorram’s 1997 study, the medicine similar to sermorelin did not improve sleep quality.

Separate studies in sleep labs gave a hormone that prompts growth hormone release into a vein.

The study summaries did not say whether the hormone was the same short version used in sermorelin or the full natural hormone.

Ask whether the study tested the same medicine you are offered and gave it the same way. A change in a blood test is not proof of better sleep or more energy.