Australia's "The Age" obsessed with HGH ?

Three stories in the last month :

"Ageing men seek 'youth' fix."

MIDDLE-AGED men are increasingly injecting human growth hormones to fight off old age, spending up to $15,000 a year.

Black market sales are also booming with Australian Customs reporting a four-fold increase in seizures of the prohibited import in the last year.

Pharmaceutical companies refuse to disclose sales figures, but a senior industry source says HGH use has soared in the past two years.

"Grow old gracefully"

As seductive as Dr Levin's chemical approach to anti-ageing seems, it is not without serious risk.

'I FEEL great, I feel like I'm 50 — and I'm going to be 80 in two years," declared Dr John Levin in The Sunday Age last week. Levin attributes his good health to 15 years of injecting human growth hormone (HGH) into his stomach. He goes regularly to the gym, eats well, lives well and feels great. Who wouldn't want to be just like him?

"Medicine's 'grey' area needs proper investigation"

The unregulated use of human growth hormone is a disaster in the making.

AS AUSTRALIA's population grows inexorably older, issues surrounding ageing move to the centre of social and political debate. Cultural sneers epitomised by the "hope I die before I get old" mentality will be countered by efforts to protect the health and wealth of older Australians.