Human growth hormone is a prohibited substance according to World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) guidelines. More recently baseball stars Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte were accused of using the growth hormone to improve their athletic performance.

Growth hormone or HGH is released by the pituitary gland in the brain and as the name suggests is linked to all growth in the human body. However this hormone decreases in levels as a person ages. Athletes use growth hormone and its supplements to build muscle and improve their showing in sports.

The current study however finds that while body mass is definitely increased by the growth hormone, it plays little or no role in improving a sportsperson's athletic abilities.

Lead researcher Dr. Hau Liu and colleagues examined 27 studies involving 303 people to analyze the effects of growth hormone on athletic abilities. All participants were aged 13 to 45 years. The researchers reported in the latest issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine that lean body mass did increase in people who used growth hormone. There was an average increase of 2 kilograms in body mass.

However the hormone neither increased strength nor exercise capacity of the individuals concerned. "There was a change in body composition, we didn't find evidence that growth hormone improves athletic performance," Dr Liu confirmed.

Furthermore people who took growth hormone had more fatigue and tissue swelling probably due to the release of lactate, a byproduct of the hormone that is linked to pain and muscle burnout.

Current WDA guidelines say that athletes cannot use human growth hormone. "Unless the Athlete can demonstrate that the concentration was due to a physiological or pathological condition, a Sample will be deemed to contain a Prohibited Substance where the concentration of the Prohibited Substance or its metabolites and/or relevant ratios or markers in the Athlete’s Sample so exceeds the range of values normally found in humans that it is unlikely to be consistent with normal endogenous production," the agency said.

However most experts agree that human growth hormone is generally undetectable and can only be found if the athlete in question takes large amounts. If the above review is vindicated by more research, it appears that human growth hormone is not worth the trouble anyway.

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