In 2007, actor Sylvester Stallone was caught by Australian custom agents with 48 vials of Jintropin, a human growth hormone (HGH). The drug is best known for being used by professional athletes, mainly baseball players, who need help recovering from injury or building muscle. HGH has been banned by Major League Baseball since 2005.
However, in the March issue of Vanity Fair, writer Ned Zeman says the problem extends way past the baseball diamond and into the high-end establishment of the Hollywood film industry. As one talent manager told him, "any actor over 50 you're still seeing with a ripped stomach and veins in his forearms is probably taking H.G.H."
So, how much of an effect does human growth hormone have on the body? One man, Dr. Uzzi Reiss admits that he's "been taking H.G.H. for many years. I have the energy and vibrancy of a man half my age ... I don't get sick, don't get jet-lagged. I can't see why anybody would inject H.G.H. if it doesn't have any benefits."
An unnamed filmmaker tells Zeman "l'll tell you why I took H.G.H. in the first place. I love fucking ... And when I hit my 50s, although I was still very sexually active, I was less so than when I was in my 20s. And like other pathetically insecure Hollywoodites, I had an internal panic that led me to curiously explore what options were available in the world."
Although no A-listers appear to be named in the article (the full version of which you can read when Vanity Fair hits stands on Thursday), Zeman did speak to some off the record, who, according to the press release, "view H.G.H., which can cost as much as $10,000 per year, as a fountain of youth in a syringe."
The only worry, as one H.G.H.-using actor puts it, "starring in movies [and using the drug] is great until you get man tits." Noted.
[via Vanity Fair]