Understanding Growth Hormone Characteristics

Human growth hormone (GH) is a non-glycosylated polypeptide consisting of 191 amino acids secreted by the growth hormone cells (eosinophils) of the pituitary gland, and is the most abundant hormone in the pituitary gland. The daily secretion of human growth hormone is about 16-20ug/kg/d in childhood, and surges to 20-3816-20ug/kg/d in puberty. The secretion of growth hormone is characterized by the following features: 1. Pulsatile secretion The secretion of GH is in the form of pulses, which fluctuates greatly during the day and night, and the secretion frequency is generally higher at night than during the day, and is higher in pubertal adolescents than in adults. The pulsatile secretion of GH is unaffected by stress factors such as feeding, blood glucose, and steroid hormones, etc. When GH secretion is at its low peak, it is difficult to measure in the blood, and the daytime blood concentration is often below 5ug/L. Therefore, some pediatricians give GH to children separately. Therefore, it is meaningless for some pediatricians to draw blood to check the growth hormone level of a child once alone. Growth hormone is secreted more at night than during the day. In normal people, 45-90 minutes after falling asleep, plasma growth hormone levels increase significantly, up to 50-60ug/L, such as changes in sleep time, the peak of GH will also change accordingly.GH usually peaks once in 3-4 hours, such as waking up and then sleep, GH peaks can still occur within 2 hours. Therefore, to ensure sufficient growth hormone in the body, we must ensure adequate sleep. 3, the impact of exercise normal people in the basic metabolic state, serum GH often can not be measured, get up after a slight activity that can be seen after the GH level, after strenuous exercise can be caused by a significant increase in GH. 50-70% of the normal children in the exercise, the plasma GH level can be reached more than 7ug/L. Therefore, appropriate exercise, especially the growth hormone peak in 2 hours, if you wake up and then go to sleep, still can appear. Therefore, appropriate sports, especially swimming, jumping rope and other linear sports, can help the growth of height. 4, the influence of emotion Emotional fluctuations can affect GH secretion, nervous tension and anxiety can stimulate GH secretion, and children in a psychologically inappropriate environment can be reversible GH secretion inhibition. Prolonged emotional depression and excessive psychological stress can affect children’s height growth. 5, the influence of food Acute hypoglycemia is a strong factor to stimulate GH secretion, on the contrary, high blood sugar can inhibit GH secretion, high protein diet can stimulate GH secretion, and obese children with elevated levels of free fatty acids can inhibit GH secretion. Therefore, it is recommended that children eat less sweet drinks, fried food, but more milk, eggs, animal meat and other high-protein foods.