Monthly Archives: September 2023

Paper states that yes stretching may be a way to grow taller

For 6 years old, who have more deformable bones. However, it is possible that strengthening the stimulus could make it worker for older and even skeletally mature individuals. If stretching works via articular cartilage endochondral ossification.

Exercise combined with lysine-inositol vitamin B12 promotes height growth in children with idiopathic short stature

Short stature is short stature of an unknown cause(not familial or genetic or unknown genetic origin). One of these causes could be inadequate nutrition including B12 deficiency. So using idiopathic short stature individuals is not ideal. The ideal test subjects would be normal stature individuals. Then ideally you’d try to find a way to reproduce the results in skeletally mature individuals by strengthening the stimulus.

“Researchers observed that many patients with ISS whose genetic target height is around the 50th percentile have no symptoms, and their bone age was only slightly lower than the age in the auxiliary examination. For these children, regular exercise of moderate intensity was employed. Stretching exercise, combined with oral lysine-inositol vitamin B12 (VB12), can effectively promote height growth. Based on
this, we systematically observed the clinical efficacy of regular stretch exercise of moderate-intensity combined with lysine and VB12 oral liquid in the intervention of ISS.”<-One possibility to make this paper work on the skeletally mature is to increase the intensity of the stretching exercise. It is possible that the exercise may work by increasing nutrient uptake in the growth plate in which case it won’t work in the skeletally mature.

“A total of 60 children with ISS who met the inclusion criteria and were treated at the traditional Chinese medicine dwarfism clinic of the Henan Children’s Hospital from June 2018 to July 2020 were selected.”

“The observation group consisted of 23 males and 7 females, aged 4.33–8.33 years. The control group consisted of 22 males and 8 females, aged 4.00–7.92 years.”

“(1) age < 3 years, or age > 10 years (male) or age > 8 years (female); (2) not meeting the ISS diagnostic criteria; (3) height growth rate ≥ 5 cm per year; (4) family history of hereditary diseases or underlying diseases of the heart, liver, kidney, etc.; (5) mental or emotional disorders or history of malnutrition.”<-it’s good that they removed malnutrition but that does not rule out vitamin deficiencies.

“The control group was given oral lysine-inositol VB12 oral solution (10 mL bid). Meanwhile, the observation group was given oral lysine-inositol VB12 oral solution (10 mL bid) and exercised according to the “ISS exercise guidance sheet”, which was developed in terms of exercise items, exercise intensity, exercise time, exercise days per week and so on. The children were instructed to perform aerobic exercises, such as brisk walking, running, jumping rope, etc., followed by stretching activities.”<-so really no unusual exercise activities

“The exercise could be broken down into two or three sessions per day to prevent children from
being overworked. Both groups were undergoing treatment for 12 months.”

“after 6 and 12 months of treatment, GV, serum GHRH, GH, IGF-1, and IGFBP-3 levels in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group whereas its HtSDS[Height Standard Deviation Score] was significantly lower than that in the control group{there was less height variance in the exercised group}. The difference between the two groups was statistically significant); after 12 months of treatment, Height in the observation group was significantly higher than that in the control group, and the difference between the two groups was statistically significant“

“The micronutrient Zn has been reported to promote growth rate in children with dwarfism.”

“Lysine VB12 is a complex of lysine, inositol, and VB12 that can be used to treat lysine deficiency symptoms, such as lack of appetite and poor growth. Lysine is an essential amino acid for all proteins in the human body and is a precursor substance for peptide hormones and coenzymes. In addition to maintaining metabolic balance in the body, lysine is an essential substance for children’s growth and development, since it can improve immune function, promote intellectual and physical development, improve nutritional status, and increase appetite”

So height is greater in the exercised group but so is starting height which is not ideal but still this is promising but this really needs follow up studies.

So Growth Velocity increased with days per week exercise which is greater but it decreased with the mins/days and 30 mins is not very many minutes. Maybe splitting up the exercise among more sessions would help. And growth velocity decreased with minutes per day despite positive growth stimulus hormones like GH and IGF-1 increasing. This makes it more likely that the benefit is mechanical which means there is a chance for modifying the stimulus to work on adults. Interestingly growth hormone and IGF-1 decreased with more days of exercise per week.

So interesting stuff here but we need more studies to see how it could play out. What would be interesting is spreading out the exercise more throughout the day to see if that reduce the negative correlation between minutes per day and growth velocity. Watching follow up studies will be helpful. Also we want to really optimize the optimal exercises. And find a way for any of the exercises to potentially work on adults.

HEre’s the exrcise chart. Lots of different exercises. Would be hard to know which are most beneficial as the movements are so diverse.

Breakthrough: study finds electric field can enhance jaw growth, can this be translated to height affecting bones?

There have been studies that have shown that it is possible to induce longitudinal bone growth in the jaw even potentially past skeletal maturity. Either the cells of the cartilage of the jaw are different than the cells of other joints(they could express different genes), in which case things that affect the jaw may not affect other joints, or it is not the cells themselves but rather the mechanical environment of the jaw. The jaw undergoes much more dynamic loading than other joints because the jaw is more moveable and the lateral pterygoid muscle is almost directly attached to the cartilage of the jaw providing it with a unique stimulation. Even if the cells of the jaw are different than the cells of other cartilaginous regions it is possible that these cells are different because of the unique mechanical loading that the jaw undergoes. The unique loading that the jaw cartilage undergoes maybe what alters the genetic expression that the cells of the jaw have. It is possible that if we load the joint cartilage of other cartilaginous regions in a similar way we may be able to induce growth longitudinally similar to what occurs in the jaw.

Osteogenesis Modulation: Induction of Mandibular Bone Growth in Adults by Electrical Field for Aesthetic Purposes

<-already the title is exciting

“A new technique in plastic surgery termed Osteogenesis Modulation is described. This technique uses a surgically implanted, battery-operated medical device to deliver customized electrical pulses to produce mandibular bone growth{trying to surgical implant the device to other joints may be challenging as it could potentially affect movement, we would want a way to implement the electric pulses to other joints in a way that does not require surgery}. This device was designed to be a temporary, nonpermanent implant. The purpose of this study was to review both the safety and efficacy of Osteogenesis Modulation.

This study comprises two phases. Phase I involved experimental technology development and animal experiments. Phase II included technology development for clinical use and a clinical trial. In Phase II, four patients with a diagnosis of mandibular hypoplasia and microgenia underwent surgical implantation of the novel medical device over the chin bone. Once a satisfactory change of contour of mandibular bone was achieved, the devices were removed. In all patients, the devices were left in place for 12 months, then surgically removed under local anesthesia. Preoperative and long-term postoperative cephalometric controls were done.

In all patients, symmetrical mandibular bone growth was observed with good-to-excellent aesthetic results. The overall follow-up period was 39 months. Cephalometric controls taken 3 to 6 months after the device removal showed an average increase in mandible length of 5.26mm (range, 2.83–7.60mm){this increase is not not exciting but it could improved upon}.

Preliminary clinical results suggest that Osteogenesis Modulation is a safe, minimally invasive, and effective alternative treatment for the correction of mandibular hypoplasia in selected cases.”

“he mandible thickness when low-intensity, moderate-intensity, or high-intensity negative pulses were applied was 2.70mm, 3.43mm, and 3.58mm, respectively. The thickness of the mandible on high-intensity positive pulses was 2.15mm.”<-it is very exciting that there was no decrease in results with more stimulus as it means that the stimulation may not be biphasic and it could be possible to increase the results with stronger stimulus.

Here is a before and after xray:

Before and after pic:

There are several before and after pics and x-rays in the study.

The next steps would be to try to apply this to other joints. I would try the hand and toe joints next because they are more movable compared to say the knee and ankle. Even though the stimulus to the jaw is electrical it is still possible that the enhanced jaw movement enhanced the results. Ideally we’d want only the electrical stimulation to produce the results that would make it easier to translate to other joints. That was the problem with possibly trying to mimic the bite jumping appliance on other joints. The jaw just undergoes so much more dynamic loading.

This is a very exciting study and here’s hoping it can translate to cheaper possibly greater height growth than limb lengthening surgery.