A medicine called tesamorelin tricks the brain into making more of its own growth hormone, instead of giving the hormone directly.
Scientific Claim
Tesamorelin, a growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) analog, stimulates endogenous growth hormone secretion from the pituitary gland in a pulsatile, physiologically regulated manner.
Original Statement
“tesamorelin is a growth hormone releasing hormone analog. So, what that means is it tells your pituitary gland to produce more of your own growth hormone. Okay? So, in a physiological pattern that makes sense, the way your body should release it, not like exogenous growth hormone where you're just blasting yourself with a bunch of it.”
Context Details
Domain
pharmacology
Population
human
Subject
Tesamorelin
Action
stimulates endogenous growth hormone secretion
Target
pituitary gland
Intervention Details
Evidence from Studies
Supporting (4)
Unknown Title
Tesamorelin made the body produce more of its own growth hormone, which helped reduce belly fat — and when they stopped the drug, the fat came back, just like how natural hormones work.
The effects of tesamorelin on phosphocreatine recovery in obese subjects with reduced GH.
Tesamorelin helped the body make more of its own growth hormone, which then led to higher levels of a related protein (IGF-I), showing it worked the way the body naturally does.
The Growth Hormone Releasing Hormone Analogue, Tesamorelin, Decreases Muscle Fat and Increases Muscle Area in Adults with HIV
Tesamorelin is a drug that tricks the brain into releasing growth hormone naturally, and this study shows it works in people with HIV — meaning it makes the body produce growth hormone in a normal, pulsing way, not just by forcing it out.
When the body doesn’t release growth hormone properly, giving it GHRH (the natural signal) makes it start releasing growth hormone in normal bursts again — and tesamorelin works just like this natural signal.
Technical explanation
This paper demonstrates that repetitive GHRH administration (priming) restores pulsatile GH secretion in a clinical population with impaired GH release. Although it uses native GHRH rather than tesamorelin, it provides direct evidence that GHRH analogs like tesamorelin would act similarly — by restoring physiologically regulated, pulsatile GH secretion from the pituitary.