I have read through a few of the forums which new members asks the older member whether they should start playing basketball because it seems like basketball players are very tall.

The reasoning they probably do is that they see the cause first which they think is playing basketball and then they believe that causes the effect, which is that the players grow taller from it. As the famous quote goes, “one should be intelligence to recognize the difference between correlation and causation”. So the questioner is making a case of causation in this case where it is really a correlation, or even the reverse correlation.

More like the case is that people are tall first and that is the cause. The effect is that people and basketball coaches approach them (and sometimes hound them like with the story of 7′ 4″ Mark Eaton) about whether they play basketball that they eventually give in to the peer pressure and join in to try out basketball. Once they realize that their height is a huge advantage in the game and they find that they are relatively athletic and can play the game, they decide to continue to play and end up in basketball. Just look at the unique case of 7′ 9″ Sun Ming Ming. Because of his amazing height, he was given a chance by the NBA at the age of 27 with no prior basketball experience to work out and try out to make it to the NBA.

There has been a few theories going around that the intense anareobic movement and jumping involved in basketball allows the pituitary gland release more growth hormone into one’s system than being only sedentary. That is absolutely true, and I would guess that if one started to play basketball at a young enough age where the growth plates have not fused, one would be say 1 inch taller than if one did not play basketball or exercise at all. So yes, in this special case of where one exercises, there will be a slight increase in the overal maximum height when one still is growing.

The other main theory that people try to use to explain the causality of basketball and growing taller is that the constantly jumping involve in basketball causes the shinbones in the lower legs to develop microfractures. The microfractures can then heal itself , making the bones harder, thicken and longer. That is a good theory too but one has to remember that any none thickening of bone done from body healing will be in the horizontal direction so the bone will get thicker, not longer. The microfractures may exist but they are not numerous enough to create the type of porosity needed to actually push the outer edges of the fractures out by the longitudal direction.

In conclusion, please understand that the factor of playing basketball, and being tall is not a causal effect. Most of the time, people playing because they are tall, not that they play basketball to become tall.

I had just posted an article telling you guys that a group of surgeons that used a revolutionary new way to graft new bone to a woman’s leg and also lenghtne her legs by injecting stem cells. Well someone from the Make Me Taller boards have gotten in contact with the the head of Beauty Plaza clinic situated in Moskow.

You can find the board discussion HERE.

From what I see on the boards and the people who have contacted the researchers at the Russian Institute, the stem cell method for limb lengthening will be available very soon. Apparently Ekaterina Kulneva (the assistant) answered for Alexander Teplyashin that the height increase method /therapy will be available by next year, 2013. Alexander teplyashin  has a patent for height increase with artificial stem cells implant already. Of course like all breakthrough new scientific developments, there has been little literature or evidence backing up their claims. The only thing one can do is either choose to volunteer themselves to be one of their first patients (or guinea pigs) and try out their treatment yourself or wait a few years to see what happens. No pricing is available at this time.

A board member stated that ” I think that this stem cells will be injected on bone and you will be able to walk during the process( mean grow)” and they claim that 2.5 cms can be gained in 1 month through this type of treatment.”

Another board member who emailed the people states that “First of all, the method is not a clinical procedure at the moment. People say it will be in a year, but in my e-mail they haven’t told anything about that. Second, they are talking about an: “bone tissue biological graft based on human stem cell’s”. This bone graft will be implied in an bone defect that will activate tissue regeneration. In preclinical results the total regeneration was 2,5cm. Total regeneration was found in three months after operation. It is expected to increase human bones with 8-10cm. The advantages of this method ( as they claim ) are short term of the gap regeneration and the lack of strict physical activity restriction during recovery period.”

this is the maill adress of Ekaterina Kulneva: scelltimes@gmail.com

and this is this is the website  www.stemcellrussia.com

This method does appear to be a truly legitimate way to increase one’s height as a complete alternative to the traditional approach of limb lenghtening through the Ilizarov method. The maximum height increase available at this time is 8 cm (3 inches). From the discussion, that means that one gets 4 cm for each limb part, femur and tibia. This however still depends a lot on the stretching ability of the muscles and skin around the bone.

In the spirit of the last few articles that shows the latest in science and technology of what studies are being done to research for ways to regrow bones and cartilage, I wanted to bring up 4 articles which I found which talks about the topic. I will be doing a quick outline on each of the articles. Most of the outline will jus tbe me cutting and pasting what I feel are the most important points of the article

Article 1: Bone Grown From Human Embryonic Stem Cells – ScienceDaily (May 14, 2012)

Article 2: Bone Repair Using Patient’s Stem Cells Comes Closer – ScienceDaily (May 28, 2008)

Article 3: Pioneering Induction of Bone Formation Using Embryonic Stem Cells – ScienceDaily (May 17, 2008)

Article 4: Scientists Closer to Making Implantable Bone Material – ScienceDaily (July 29, 2009)

Article 1: Bone Grown From Human Embryonic Stem Cells

A post-doc named Darja Marolt wrote a paper talking about a study she did at Columbia University under which showed  that human embryonic stem cells can be used to grow bone tissue grafts for use in research and potential therapeutic application. It is the first example of using bone cell progenitors derived from human embryonic stem cells to grow compact bone tissue in quantities large enough to repair centimeter-sized defects. The implanted bone tissue supported blood vessel ingrowth, and continued development of normal bone structure, without demonstrating any incidence of tumor growth when the technique was tested on lab rodents. Dr. Marolt’s work is a significant step forward in using pluripotent stem cells to repair and replace bone tissue in patients.

Dr. Marolt has continued to build upon this research as an Investigator in the NYSCF Laboratory, developing bone grafts from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. iPS cells are similar to embryonic stem cells in that they can also give rise to nearly any type of cell in the body, but iPS cells are produced from adult cells and as such are individualized to each patient. By using iPS cells rather than embryonic stem cells to engineer tissue, Dr. Marolt hopes to develop personalized bone grafts that will avoid immune rejection and other implant complications.

Article 2: Bone Repair Using Patient’s Stem Cells Comes Closer

The research was carried out at the Tissue Regeneration Department of the University of Twente’s Institute for Biomechanical Technology (BMTI). Enzyme induces adult stem cells to grow bone. In animals, ‘adult’ mesenchymal stem cells have already been used successfully to grow fresh bone. Until now it has been difficult to induce adult human stem cells to produce bone. If the enzyme PKA is previously activated in the stem cells in the lab, following implantation this results in substantial bone formation. It produces a dramatic improvement in ‘in vivo’ bone growth. The cells can be observed maturing into bone cells already in the lab. This opens up new ways of repairing bone tissue using cell material from the patient.

The enzyme protein kinase A (PKA) is responsible for many processes in a cell. The messenger ‘cyclic AMP’ activates PKA: adding it to the stem cells ensures that they stimulate one another, the researchers think. Not only does cyclic AMP promote maturation into bone cells; the cells themselves also secrete various substances that stimulate bone growth. This may explain why mesenchymal stem cells treated with cyclic AMP form significantly more bone than those without the stimulus.

The advantage of administering a bone-growth-stimulating substance in advance is that it can be removed just before implantation. Experiments to date have mainly used high concentrations of a bone-growth-stimulating hormone, e.g. incorporated in the carrier on which the cells are ‘sown’. In the new approach not only are the hormone concentrations lower, they also more closely resemble the cocktail of hormones normally involved in bone growth.

Article 3: Pioneering Induction of Bone Formation Using Embryonic Stem Cells

There is a new breakthrough in stem cells research from successfully creating bone tissue “in vivo”, using embryonic stem cells. The scientists at University of Twente imitated bone formation in embryos and children, which uses cartilage as a template. This new approach appears to be a promising way of repairing bone defects.

Previous attempts to create bone using embryonic stem cells were unsuccessful. In the lab, there was clear evidence that these stem cells were differentiating into the bone lineage “in vitro”, however this process stalled after implantation and no bone tissue was formed. Yet, this approach did lead to bone formation when cultured adult stem cells from bone marrow were used. A ceramic material that is often used as bone void filler was selected to use for cartilage tissue engineering with mouse embryonic stem cells by accident. In the lab, mouse embryonic stem cells were seeded onto this ceramic material and induced into the developmental pathway leading to cartilage formation. Following implantation under the skin of a mouse, however, the cartilage tissue developed further, and was replaced by bone.

Bone formation via cartilage as a template proved to be an efficient, if unexpected, approach. Furthermore, this is the way in which most of the bones in the embryo are formed. Bone growth in children also occurs via this process, known as endochondral ossification. The researchers show that bone tissue is also formed in a bone defect. To demonstrate this, a scaffold with cells that had already formed cartilage, was implanted into a rat with a defect in its skull. Besides under the skin, bone was also formed in this bone defect. Therefore, this approach seems to be a promising new technique for repairing damaged bone.

Article 4: Scientists Closer to Making Implantable Bone Material

Scientists have found they can grow small ‘nodules’ of what appeared to be bone-like material in the laboratory from different types of bone cells and stem cells. The idea is that, ultimately, these bone-like materials could be inserted into cavities so that real bone could meld with it and repair the bone. scientists from Imperial College London have compared the ‘bone-like’ material grown from three different commonly used clinically relevant cell types and have discovered significant differences between the quality of bone-like material that these can form.

They have discovered that the ‘bone-like’ materials that were grown from bone cells from mouse skull and mouse bone marrow stem cells successfully mimicked many of the hallmarks of real bone, which include stiffness but was also much less stiff and less complex in its mineral composition when compared to the other materials. The study provides an important insight into how different cell sources can really influence the quality of bone that we can produce. It brings us one step closer to developing materials that will have the highest chance of success when implanted into patients.”

These days I write so many articles that it is hard even for me to keep up with the articles that I write but I had found an article on the boards that showed that one of the techniques and methods I had mentioned maybe yesterday has actually been implemented in surgery to heal and regrow a patient’s leg bone.

The Post where I had originally talked about this particular method and new technique named appropriately “An Alternative To Limb Lengthening Surgery” is located HERE. The article on the actual technique implementation can be found from Sky News so click HERE .

I think this is an appropriate question to ask my regular readers. I know who you are out there. There really is only 3 of you, maybe 4 but I still wanted to ask and get some feedback from you guys. Some of you come and check this site like 10 times a day, which is cool by me. Any traffic and eyeballs who are interested in what I have to say and write is nice. If this turns into an obsession of yours, it might a good idea to take a break from this site. I do try to write 3-4 blog posts a day, sometimes even up to 7 articles, but sometimes I don’t have enough energy or motivation to do much.

 – What is your reason to seek height increase?  –

Do you feel that you are not as good as other people who might be taller than you? Or is your own self image of yourself keeping you from having the type of romantic success or attracting the romantic prospects that you desire? Maybe you think your lack of height is keeping you from getting a promotion or raise. Do people joke or tease you about your height?

As for myself, I had written about my story in a previous post which you can find HERE. I have had a history of insecurity over my self image, whether it was from my intelligence or my height. It is really frustrating when I have a cousin who has both a Ph. D and a M. D from Stanford and Harvard. He may be slightly shorter than me but his number of academic achievements really do intimidate me who only has an undergraduate degree from a relatively unknown state school. How am I supposed to compare myself to that kind of person? Anyway, my story is long and complex. I am a rather screwed up person.

From the boards, I found another article that showed that the medical technology is definitely coming along where one day we will have the power to regrow our cartilage and bones, and maybe even our joints. While this might not be able to help us reinitiate natural body growth by opening up the growth plates back from the technology, we can definitely use this technology in collaboration with the limb lenghtening surgery to make the bone increasing go faster and heal quicker.

For other uses, the stem cells can be eventually ejected into our cavities where our old joints were and regrow completely new ones. Definitely the stuff of science fiction right now, and maybe in 20 years, the stuff of just science.

The full article was found from HERE.

Patients ‘could grow new joints’

Thursday, 29 July 2010