How HGH can decrease insulin sensitivity

Here’s the breakdown of how HGH can cause insulin resistance:

🔬 Normal HGH Action

HGH’s main role is to support growth, repair, and energy mobilization. To do that, it:

Stimulates lipolysis (breakdown of fat into free fatty acids, FFAs)

Promotes gluconeogenesis (liver making glucose)Reduces glucose uptake in some tissues (muscle, fat)

This shifts the body into a state where fat is used for energy and glucose is preserved for the brain.
 

How That Leads to Insulin Resistance

↑ Free fatty acids in blood
 

HGH drives fat breakdown → FFAs rise.High FFAs interfere with insulin signaling in muscle and liver.Result: tissues become less sensitive to insulin → insulin resistance.
 ↓ Glucose uptake in muscle & fat
HGH directly reduces GLUT-4 translocation (the transporter that insulin normally activates to pull glucose into cells).This means muscles don’t take up glucose as efficiently.
 ↑ Hepatic glucose output
HGH stimulates gluconeogenesis in the liver.Even if insulin is present, the liver keeps pushing glucose into the bloodstream.
 Chronic adaptation
If HGH is used consistently at high doses, the pancreas compensates by releasing more insulin.Over time, this can blunt insulin sensitivity and may push some users toward prediabetes or diabetes.

🚺 Practical Implications

Low/moderate HGH doses (like medically prescribed for deficiency) usually cause only mild, reversible insulin resistance.

Bodybuilding/anti-aging doses (higher, prolonged use) increase the risk of significant insulin resistance.This is why some athletes combine HGH + insulin — to counteract HGH-induced resistance and shuttle nutrients into muscle — but that introduces its own serious dangers.
 

So in short: HGH raises FFAs, reduces glucose uptake, and increases liver glucose output → all of which oppose insulin’s job.