16
July
2018
|
07:00 AM
America/New_York

Recovery

ESPN+ featured HSS associate scientist Christopher Mendias, PhD, ATC, in the sixth episode 'Recovery' of their six-episode docuseries on the latest research on treating professional athletes after an injury for a safe and quick recovery.

Dr. Mendias spoke about his current research on human growth hormones (HGH) and how it could improve tissue healing in athletes.

"It's just the name - human growth hormone. It sounds like that's going to make you bigger and stronger, and it's true when you're a kid. As an adult, the data doesn't support that the growth hormone doesn't actually make you that much stronger," said Dr. Mendias.

According to the segment, Dr. Mendias and his team are investigating if HGH injections could help ACL surgery patients have a speedy recovery.

"We're trying to use human growth hormone to see if we can actually protect against muscle atrophy after an ACL tear. The primary goal is to help prevent years of osteoarthritis. Because patients lose a lot of muscle strength during that period right after surgery. If we could protect against some of the loss, then as patients go through rehabilitation then they'll be able to regain their strength back to what it was before they had the injury," Dr. Mendias explained.

Watch the full segment at espn.com [subscription required]. This episode was released on ESPN+ on July 16, 2018.