Exercise as a Screening Test for Growth Hormone Release

Serial exercise experiments on the same male subject and subsequent standard exercise studies on 8 men showed that it was possible to predict the timing of the output of growth hormone (GH) which resulted from exercise of sufficient severity in these normal subjects. On the basis of these observations single blood samples taken 25–30 minutes after the start of a short period of moderately severe exercise were found to contain elevated levels of GH in 89% of normal male and female subjects tested. It is suggested that this could serve as a method of screening for ability to release GH which would avoid the necessity for the usual more complex procedures.