Resource Center

Stories

The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast.

These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need.

Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:



Search results for "human growth hormone" ...

  • Selling the Fountain of Youth

    The book takes readers inside the modern anti-aging industry, where doctors prescribe human growth hormone (HGH), "bio-identical" estrogen and progesterone, and an infinite medicine chest of herbal supplements such as resveratrol and acai.

    Tags: anti-aging; supplements; drugs

    By Arlene Weintraub

    Basic Books (Persues Books Group)

    2010

  • Strong at Any Cost

    The investigation examines the use of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone prescribed to law enforcement officers and firefighters in New Jersey. The authors discovered how easy it was for hundreds of law enforcement officers in New Jersey to obtain the drugs and found that in most cases they were paying for the drugs under their government health plans.

    Tags: law enforcement; steroids; human growth hormone; drugs; perscription drugs

    By Amy Brittain; Mark Mueller; David Tucker

    Star-Ledger (Newark, N.J.)

    2010

  • Rx For Trouble: Inside the Steriod Sting

    "The article exposes an illegal internet/rogue-doctor/compound pharmacy/anti-aging clinic/steroid distribution network that has provided human growth hormone and steroids to dozens of major athletes in a variety of sports and has made these drugs accessible to America's youth. Sports Illustrated exposes questionable activity of an NFL doctor who subsequently is forced to resign from his job."

    Tags: steriods; drugs; athletes; human growth hormone

    By Luis Fernando Llosa; Jon Wertheim

    Sports Illustrated

    2007

  • Steroids and the NFL

    This investigation exposed steroid and human growth hormone abuse by several professional football players who received prescriptions from a doctor who was subsequently indicted for prescribing them. The NFL drug testing program failed to detect the players' steroid use. This failure exposed loopholes in the NFL's substance abuse policies.

    Tags: football; NFL; steroids; drug testing; performance enhancing drugs; human growth hormone

    By Anderson Cooper;Andy Court;Keith Sharman;Jeff Fager;Patti Hassler

    CBS News 60 Minutes II (New York, NY)

    2005

  • BALCO Steroid Conspiracy Case

    These stories from the San Francisco Chronicle, investigate two men who were suspected of supplying elite athletes with steroids that could not be detected through drug testing. These two men worked with a nutritional supplement lab and supplied steroids and human growth hormones to NFL football players, major league baseball players and Olympic athletes.

    Tags: Food and Drug Administration (FDA); steroid supplements; Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative; Victor Conte; drug use by athletes; drug testing; NFL; baseball

    By Mark Fainaru-Wada;Lance Williams;Seth Rosenfeld

    San Francisco Chronicle

    2004

  • A Wonder Drug that Carried the Seeds of Death

    A Los Angeles Times investigation of the human growth hormone reveals that some early samples of the drug were contaminated. The contaminated samples infected patients with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a "deadly human analog of 'mad cow disease.'" A small percentage of the patients who took the then-classified experimental drug in 1960s began dying the 1980s. Twenty-two Americans have died from taking the contaminated sample, however their families have not received restitution because they knowingly took an experimental drug. However, British and other European courts have ruled that this disaster could have been avoided. British medics discovered the contaminated samples in 1976, nine years before the first patients began to die in 1985.

    Tags: Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease; human growth hormone; Americans; British; Europe; disease; contaminated samples; death

    By Emily Green

    Los Angeles Times

    2000

  • Boomers Believe they've Found a Fountain of Youth in a Syringe

    USA Today reveals that Hollywood has found a new elixir of youth - HGH, which is short for Human Growth Hormone. This clear liquid when injected into the body, advocates claim, restores memory, youth and energy. HGH promises to lower blood pressure, build muscles without extra exercise, increase skin's elasticity, sharpen vision, thicken hair, and heighten sexul potency. Designer Diane Gilman, director Oliver Stone and actor Nick Nolte are some of Hollywood's HGH users.

    Tags: HGH; Vitamins; human growth hormone; actors; age; plastic surgery

    By Ann Oldernburg

    USA Today (Arlington

    2000