CBS Evening News

SHOW: CBS Evening News (6:30 PM ET) - CBS

December 11, 2003 Thursday

TYPE: Analysis

LENGTH: 488 words

HEADLINE: Whether human growth hormone is a fountain of youth for older Americans

ANCHORS: DAN RATHER

REPORTERS: Dr. MALLIKA MARSHALL

BODY:
DAN RATHER, anchor:

We end tonight with news of the never-ending search for a fountain of youth. Some older people now think they have found it in an expensive hormone that's mostly meant to help children grow. CBS News contributing correspondent Dr. Mallika Marshall has the story in tonight's Eye on America.

Dr. MALLIKA MARSHALL reporting:

At the age of 65, Gene Avrett took up tennis.

You're 70 years old now.

Mr. GENE AVRETT (Growth Hormone Patient): Yes.

MARSHALL: How do you feel?

Mr. AVRETT: Well, I'm functioning at the level that I was in my 50s.

MARSHALL: Avrett, an astrophysicist at Harvard, believes his newfound energy comes from this bottle of synthetically created human growth hormone.

Do you think that this could possibly be the fountain of youth?

Mr. AVRETT: I think there's a definite health benefit. I'm stronger and run around the tennis court faster.

MARSHALL: Avrett's doctor, Ronald Livesey, started prescribing growth hormone after trying it himself eight years ago.

Dr. RONALD LIVESEY (Anti-Aging Specialist): I've noticed many changes. My lean body mass has been restored, my waist has gone from a 39-inch waist now down to 32.

MARSHALL: His patients pay as much as $1,000 a month for so-called anti-aging treatments.

So why hasn't the medical community at large embraced this as a--as a routine treatment?

Dr. LIVESEY: Everyone has a natural skepticism to this, and I think that's primarily because everything before this was done by snake-oil salesmen and charlatans.

MARSHALL: Human growth hormone is approved for use in patients whose pituitary glands don't make enough of it, including children who are destined to grow up to be extremely short. But what's being marketed is a theory, not proven by any scientific studies, that using growth hormone can undo the ravages of aging.

Professor JAY OLSHANSKY (University of Illinois): And physicians, clinicians and anti-aging clinics who are administering growth hormone to their patients before the clinical trials are in, in my opinion, are acting irresponsibly.

MARSHALL: Professor Jay Olshansky studies aging, and he knows the power of growth hormone firsthand.

Prof. OLSHANSKY: My son started using growth hormone when he was eight years old.

MARSHALL: Olshansky's son Ricky suffered from growth hormone deficiency and wasn't expected to grow taller than 5'. But now, at 16, he's 5'7".

Prof. OLSHANSKY: I would say growth hormone is one of those products that is dangerous not because it doesn't do anything but because it does something.

MARSHALL: There is preliminary evidence that adults taking growth hormone may be at higher risk for diabetes and even cancer. But Avrett says it's a chance worth taking if it means he can stay one step ahead of the hands of time. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, I'm Dr. Mallika Marshall for Eye on America.

RATHER: And that's part of our world.

LOAD-DATE: December 12, 2003