WELLNESS STARTS WITH AWARENESS - CD8 T cells - The Body

entirely due to swelling of hands and feet, joint pain, carpal tunnel
syndrome, glucose problems, and diabetes.
Steve, on the other hand, hasn’t had any problems with
Serostim for more than seven years. However, he injects only 6.0
mg twice a week. For Steve, a one-month supply lasts four months.
One 12-week supply lasts a year. His energy level has been normal,
and he enjoys the side eff ects, which he said are “looking great, having
better skin, better hair, less fat, and more muscle.”
“Looking great” is not something the FDA considers when
reviewing the evidence of a drug’s safety and eff ectiveness. In 2007,
Serono asked the FDA to approve Serostim to treat excess vat. Th e
FDA denied Serono’s request, saying there wasn’t enough safety and
effi cacy data to give the green light for vat. Also, the FDA expressed
concerns that, once Serostim is stopped, vat comes back. To keep
vat levels low, long-term therapy would be needed. And Serono
hasn’t studied the drug long-term.
With this, the FDA handed Serono a
pharmaceutical smack-down, according
to HIV treatment advocate Tim Horn who
attended an FDA community meeting on
Serostim. “In a very matter-of-fact tone,”
said Horn, “the FDA made it clear that, ‘by
the time Serono has completed a follow-up
study to support a [vat] approval, another
drug will have been approved by the agency
for this indication.’ Obviously the FDA was
talking about tesamorelin.”
Twelve months of tesamorelin
For most of my life, I refused to give in to the idea of exercise.
It seemed reserved for vain people. But aft er turning 40, smoking
cigarettes for years, battling back pain and obesity, I began to see
exercise not as a tool for vanity, but rather as a means to stay healthy
over the long run.
Last year, I made a promise to myself: I will go to the gym at
least three times a week, for at least one hour. Come hell or high
water. It wasn’t easy sticking to this routine over time, but I did.
About two months aft er I started this workout schedule is when I
also joined the clinical trial for tesamorelin.
Tesamorelin (pronounced tessa-more-ellen) is an experimental
pharmaceutical drug that increases levels of growth hormone.
Technically, it’s a “releasing factor” or a “proxy” to human growth
hormone, which means it stimulates the body’s pituitary gland to
produce its own growth hormone. When the body makes its own
growth hormone, it’s called “endogenous.” On the other hand,
somatropin is artifi cially produced and then injected into the body,
which is called “exogenous.”
Beware of dietary supplements that claim to be a “growth hormone
releasing factor.” Dietary supplements are not regulated by
the FDA. As such, makers of these supplements tend to steal catch
phrases from legitimate pharmaceutical research and then integrate
the language into misleading advertising for their products.
Both tesamorelin and somatropin must be injected by needle,
which can be annoying. Th ey also must be refrigerated, so I kept
PA • September / October 2008 • tpan.com • positivelyaware.com
Positively Aware
the tesamorelin box hidden in the crisper drawer. First thing every
morning, I injected the drug into my abdomen. Th e fi rst jab is the
most diffi cult. Like my workouts, the injection routine also got
easier with time.
Since I was getting to the gym regularly and on growth hormone,
I fi gured it was the best time to hire a personal trainer.
Th rough my gym, I connected with a trainer named Brian. We got
along famously. His attitude about fi tness was relentlessly optimistic,
which off set my cynical beliefs about fi tness. Th ree days a week,
he coached me through core-strength and traditional weight training.
I handled cardio on my own.
In the fi rst three months of my tesamorelin/exercise regimen,
I felt a dramatic relief of pressure from my stomach. I hadn’t realized
how bloated my stomach had become until it began to shrink.
However, I oft en felt muscle pain, which started in the evenings and
In terms of safety,
somatropin falls short when
compared to tesamorelin.
continued while I tried to sleep. Sometimes I woke up with cramps
in my calves, thighs, and butt. I found stretching, massage, ibuprofen,
and L-glutamine supplements helped alleviate this particular
kind of muscle pain.
By month six, my belly got fl atter and my muscles got bigger.
My belly-to-butt ratio improved. Good and bad cholesterol
improved, but my high blood pressure didn’t budge. Before the
study, I felt like I was carrying a 20-pound turkey inside my belly.
Aft er six months on the study, the turkey was gone. I went from a
waist size of 36 to a waist size of 34.
My mid-section shrank and my legs and arms gained muscle.
I looked more proportional and felt more normal. Also, the quality
of my skin improved. When I saw my boss in person aft er six
months, she stopped into my offi ce, stared at me for minute, and
then said, “You look 10 years younger.”
By month nine, the weight loss slowed but the muscle growth
continued. On a roll, I decided to quit smoking with a new anti-nicotine
drug called Chantix. It makes you a little crazy and depressed,
but kills the urge to smoke. Once I stopped the Chantix, I found
myself binging on high-carb, high-fat foods. Luckily, my regular
workouts helped off set those extra calories.
By month 12 of tesamorelin/exercise, my weight was back to
baseline. However, I felt completely diff erent: leaner in the belly
and much bigger in the legs, arms, and butt. My absolute weight
seemed less important to me because I felt good about how I looked
in general. I felt normal.
Still, the last few months on tesamorelin, I experienced some
uncomfortable side eff ects. I felt numbness and tingling in my arms,
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