Hormone May Boost Aging, Failing Brains Latest Senior Health
News MONDAY, Aug. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Treatment with growth
hormone-releasing hormone improves memory and focus in healthy
adults and in those who already show some signs of mental
decline, new research finds. "Growth hormone-releasing hormone
doesn't target one specific area in the body and brain," said
study lead author Laura Baker, an associate professor of
psychiatry and behavioral science at the University of
Washington School of Medicine, in Seattle. "It stimulates a
whole cascade of hormones in the body and brain; it stimulates
normal function of a system that was working at a younger age so
that cells can do what they were programmed to do at birth."
Results of the study are published in the Aug. 6 issue of the
Archives of Neurology. As levels of growth hormone-releasing
hormone (GHRH) decrease with age, so too do other hormones
stimulated by GHRH, such as growth hormone and insulin-like
growth factor 1. All of these hormones are believed