Primitivism within Conservatism (HGH and Kids)

What is medicine?

Yesterday I posted a banal observation about HGH and child height. I noted that my children’s height and airways were on the radar, and that one child might need HGH down the road. Nothing controversial, this isn’t novel information. (See, “Growth hormone significantly increases the adult height of children with idiopathic short stature: comparison of subgroups and benefit.”) Or so I thought.

The extreme rage reminded me that many “conservatives” practice a primitive form of Gaianism.

Notice that no one said it wasn’t Christian for me to discuss HGH. That would have been absurd on its face. My haters are practicing a form of paganism, whether they are educated enough to understand it or not.

Gaia worship is the belief that nature is perfect, and we shouldn’t use medical advancements to alter the human condition. I’ve always found this a silly worldview. I respect nature and am a conservationist. And also one bad slip could lead to a concussion or broken bone. Not to mention ticks, viruses, and bacteria. Anesthesia is a modern innovation. Maybe they should “just trust nature” before their next surgery.

This exchange is representative of thousands of replies. Which can be summed up as, if you’re politically conservative (I am right wing, which is an ideology that looks towards the future), you can’t take medicine. They also lie by claiming HGH is only for “vanity.” You also must answer questions from goobers who spend all of their free time watching sports on TV.

I’m not bothered. People being mad at something they hallucinated is, as Scott Adams said, another day at the office for us.

What does concern me is the ignorance on display.

HGH and Children’s Height.

Child height and bone mass are issues of serious concern. 97% of your child’s bone mass is laid down by the time they finish puberty.

Bone health in adolescence

Adolescence is a fundamental period for the formation of the skeleton, because is the stage in which bones grow more in both size and strength, laying a solid foundation for the future health of the skeleton. Any condition interfering with optimal peak bone mass accrual can increase fracture risk later in life. Up to 80% of peak bone mass is genetically determined while the remaining 20% is modulated by environmental factors that, if deleterious, may result in low bone mineral density (BMD) and an increased risk of fracture.

I have my children do hops, squats, calisthenics, and lift weights for lifelong health. They drink high protein A2 milk (Pioneer Pastures, sponsored), Siggi’s (not sponsored, I wish), eat Nulla Gourmet protein bars (sponsored), and we have them eat chicken and other chewy foods for palate strength.

Some children do not grow, despite hitting their macros and taking Vitamin D. This is not new, and you can spend hours on PubMed reading the literature.

Growth hormone therapy in children and adolescents: pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic considerations and emerging indications

Human growth hormone (hGH) has been used for GH deficiency (GHD) for more than 40 years. The availability of hGH produced using recombinant DNA technology beginning in 1985 both eliminated the infectious risk of pituitary-derived hGH and provided a greatly increased supply, allowing for an expanded range of indications. Approved pediatric indications include GHD, idiopathic short stature, children who were small for gestational age with short stature, Turner syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome, short stature homeobox-containing gene deficiency, Noonan syndrome and chronic renal insufficiency

For Health or Vanity?

There’s an ethical debate to have over medically supervised HGH in children. If a child is 1st percentile on the growth chart vs. 75th percentile. People can debate the pros and cons all day. I personally wouldn’t give a 5’9” boy HGH to take him into 6’1”. If a child was going to be 4’10”, that’s a different discussion. (Unless you worship Gaia.)

• You can see the discussion of rich people giving their children HGH to make them taller, when not medically necessary, here.

The scientific ignorance (and blind rage) on display by “conservatives” is why people didn’t take them seriously during Covid. Most conservatives opposed long-term lockdowns and were skeptical of the vaccine. History has proven them (and us) correct. There was no reason for children to take the Covid-19 vaccine. It was poisonous when given to children. Non-obese adults under 50 also should not have taken the vaccine.

When people display ignorance on a topic like HGH, how can they be expected to sway hearts and minds when experimental gene therapies are being discussed? If you look stupid on basic, well-established matters, you can’t cry when you’re ignored on more complicated ones.

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