Growth Hormone-Insulin-Like Growth Factor Axis, Thyroid Axis, Prolactin, and Exercise

This chapter addresses what is known about the endocrine system components growth hormone (GH)-insulin-like growth factor (IGF) axis, thyroid axis, and prolactin relative to exercise and exercise training. Each one of these hormone axes contributes to the maintenance of homeostasis in the body through impact on a multitude of physiological systems. The homeostatic disruption of exercise causes differing responses in each hormone axis. GH levels increase with sufficient stimulation, and IGFs are released in response to GH from the anterior pituitary providing multiple roles including anabolic properties. Changes in the thyroid hormones T3 and T4 vary greatly with exercise, from increases/decreases to no change in levels across different exercise types, intensities and durations. These ambiguous findings could be due to numerous confounding factors (e.g. nutrition status) within the research. Prolactin increases proportionally to the intensity of the exercise. The magnitude may be augmented with extended durations; conflicting findings have been reported with resistance training. While the responses to exercise vary, it appears there may be overall adaptive and regenerative impacts on the body into recovery by these hormones through immune and tissue inflammatory responses/mediations. Nonetheless, well-designed exercise research studies are still needed on each of these hormones, especially thyroid hormones and prolactin.