There are all sort of exercising and training programs out there. Some are for aerobic stamina and health and others are anaerobic. I know that there are some exercising programs which advertise that they can help a person gain increased height. These include yoga and pilates. Something that I saw recently made me wonder whether there might be a much better program to  give better, more drastic results that what a person could get from yoga or pilates.

It is called Plyometrics. It seems to be derived from this idea of alternating one’s muscles dramatically from contracting one’s muscles to extending as fast as possible to stimulate speed and strength in the muscles.

A look on Google reveals that there has been a few articles that have already been written about the idea

“Grow Taller By Means Of Plyometrics Training” is a short article that was the first thing that popped up but it never explains in detail on the science why plyometrics would ever lead to increased height. In general, this article was useless and not helpful at all.

Another website called HowToJumpHigher202.com does have a few articles but a click to the website lead to nothing.

Yahoo Questions – Someone states that “Plyometrics can negatively affect your height by damaging the growth plates in your long bones….Wait until you’re 18….The reason plyometrics are so effective at building explosive power is because they focus on the eccentric (lengthening) contraction of the muscles but they place a lot of strain on your joints.”

In a Eric Cressey post entitled “Plyometrics and Growth Plates” Cressey suggests that “About the only thing you’ll get from adding a lot more plyos in is an increased risk of overuse injury” He does not say that plyometrics will lead to growth plate fracture and injury specifically but does make the point that it will cause increased risk in injuries in general.

Side Note: It seems that plyometric may actually help improve one’s vertical jump height (source: Does plyometric training improve vertical jump height? A meta‐analytical review, Does Jumping Height Increase From Plyometric Training)

The idea that I originally thought where our height might be increased through this type of rapid  muscle extension-contraction alternationg does not seem to have any validity.

Plyometrics can be used to possibly strengthen the core abdominal muscles, which would mean the upper torso muscles like the deltoids and pecs would be pushed upwards, leading to less loading on the lower vertebrate but the effect the upper torso and overall height should nearly none.

When I was reading over the sections that Matheus had written for me to look over, the issue of growth plate senescence would come up over and over again.

He would mention how senescence is from two factors, oxidative stress and free radicals. Also, Matheus suggested that free radicals and homocysteine would cause oxidative stress. A quick check with google search seems to validate his point that oxidative stress is caused by homocysteine (source: Homocysteine and oxidative stress)

It made me wonder just what types of factors would cause increased senescence. Matheus actually disagrees with Tyler’s opinion that the replication possibility of the chondrocytes from the resting zone is finite, but limitless.

One point which is very interesting he made which made me rethink how the growth plate really work is when he made the point that the speed at which the physeal chondrocytes proliferation and replicate is much faster than all other types of cells in the body. This is why these types of cells, the growth plate cells are the first types of cells that really go completely extinct, because the speed or rate at which they divide and go through their life is much faster than other cells.

While I am not a real biologist, the reasoning makes some sense. The chondrocytes do seem to be proliferating, which is just mitosis, at a much faster rate than the other types of cells. If the other types of cells like neurons, adipocytes, and others were proliferating at the same speed, we as a species would have a much shorter lifespan.

I would think about my chemical engineering days and realized that one of the easiest to identify and quantify factors which would probably effect growth plate senescence, and thus adult height is temperature.

From elementary chemistry, based on the Arrhenius equation,

Arrhenius’ equation gives the dependence of the rate constant k of a chemical reaction on the absolute temperature T (in kelvin), where A is the pre-exponential factor (or simply the prefactor), Ea is theactivation energy, and R is the Universal gas constant.

k = A*exp ( -Ea / R*T )

Under the factors that influence chemical reaction…

• Temperature: Usually conducting a reaction at a higher temperature delivers more energy into the system and increases the reaction rate by causing more collisions between particles, as explained by collision theory. However, the main reason that temperature increases the rate of reaction is that more of the colliding particles will have the necessary activation energy resulting in more successful collisions (when bonds are formed between reactants). The influence of temperature is described by the Arrhenius equation. As a rule of thumb, reaction rates for many reactions double for every 10 degrees Celsius increase in temperature, though the effect of temperature may be very much larger or smaller than this.

If we then just imagine the process of any type of cell mitosis as a chemical reaction, then clearly the rate of chondrocyte proliferation would be increased with increased Temperature.

Let’s also remember how reaction rates are actually written and set up (source: Wikipedia article on reaction rates).

Then if we assume that the mesenchymes which differentiate into the chondrocytes in the resting zone are substrates in a chemical reaction as well as the rate limiting factor, then the most simplified way to describe the height increase growth in humans is just

r = k(T) * A^(n) where A is the only element that is the substrate and n is the number of moles in the system we are analyzing.

the r would just be the loss over time of the one reactant, so r = – dA/dt

is -dA/dt = k(T) *A

So from just a simple explanation of chemical kinetics, it is very reasonable to assume that increased Temperature can increase the rate at which the growth plates reach senescence.

Then I would evidence from an old study I found entitled “Stimulation Of Bone Growth by Short-Wave Diathermy”

I am also reminded of the evolutionary-ecological heuristic rule of thumb called Bergmann’s Rule, which state that on average, people further away from the equator, in colder climates are bigger in size than people closer to the equation. This hypothesis has been challenged a lot and some people have proved that Bergmann’s Rule is actually wrong.

However the implications and hypothesis for me is very interesting. I would actually write quite extensively about this idea in multiple posts including “Bergmann’s Rule, Application On The Human Species”

I would post even further this idea that colder temperatures would be better for increased final adult height in the post “A Study Of Temperature Variation On Sea Slugs Can Explain Why People Are Taller In Colder Environments”

Interestingly, the same studies on deep sea gigantism in shellfish or crustaceans lead to the same conclusion. The specific study was “Bergmann’s Principle and Deep-Water Gigantism in Marine Crustaceans”. From the Wikipedia article on Bergmann’s Rule…

“…In marine crustaceans, it has been proposed that an increase in size with latitude is observed because decreasing temperature results in increased cell size and increased life span, both of which lead to an increase in maximum body size (continued growth throughout life is characteristic of crustaceans).”

There was even an extension to Bergmann’s Rule called Hesse’s Rule which states…

“…species inhabiting colder climates have a larger heart in relation to body weight than closely related species inhabiting warmer climates”

This rule, which I just discovered may explain why bergmann’s rule may be valid for humans.

Larger hearts, if they are not due to a disorder or pathology, means that more nutrients can be pumped to all of the regions in a person’s body. The larger heart, means higher pumping rates of the blood to all the cells, so the cells manage to live longer.

The leap in logic then is to assume that from the extra rates of blood nutrients being pumped to the growth plate region, there would be more progenitor mesenchyme cells in the epiphysis region for eventual differentiation. We already know that some compounds like Niacin do increase the proliferation of stem cells, as long as the blood flow rate is increased,leading to blood vessel dilation, which causes niacin to increase the cells.

I had mentioned the hypothesis that the recent Chinese Olympic Swimmer Ye Shiwen’s performance can be explained by two thing, her puberty induced 4 inch growth spurt, and an above average sized heart in the post “Personal Theory: Ye Shiwen Olympic Performance Of Increased Swimming Performance Can Be Explained By A Massive Growth Spurt And A Physical Abnormality” There might even be a correlation between height and heart size. 

Growth plates can be actually modulated and controlled by two factors which is related to temperature, which are heart size and rate at which the chondrocyte proliferate.

The two things that happen to a person’s body when that person is born in a colder environment are…

1. Their heart becomes bigger from prenatal growing process in the mother’s womb.
2. The rate at which the resting zone mesenchyme are depleted/differentiated into chondrocytes into the proliferation zone is slowed down.

 

While we have all been thinking about mechanical ways on how to possibly pull bones apart to lengthen them, I came to realize that there may be a simpler way to lengthen bones, using certain basic physics principles that we have not thought about.

What I am going to propose is that maybe it is possible to use magnetic fields to create forces which can cause the bone sections to pull apart from each other.

I am reminded of the idea of applying a capacitative electrical field through two metal electrodes attached to lateral sides of the growth plate region in teens and children with open growth plates to accelerate longitudinal growth. It was proposed by Dr. Carl Brighton in the landmark patent and study below…

• Method for non-invasive electrical stimulation of epiphyseal plate growth
• In vivo growth plate stimulation in various capacitively coupled electrical fields.
• In vitro epiphyseal-plate growth in various constant electrical fields

Other studies were written by researchers who were doing very similar research

• Up-regulation of Chondrocyte Matrix Genes and Products by Electric Fields
• Response of cultured bone cells to a capacitively coupled electric field: Inhibition of cAMP response to parathyroid hormone

I still need to refer to the paper “Electrical Stimulation in Tissue Regeneration” to fully understand just how human tissue and cells would react from applied electrical signals.

The point is to show that beyond using a contant capacitive electric field to stimulate growth plates to increase the growth process faster, it might be possible to use the other half of the Electromagnetic Field & Waves phenomena for height increase purposes.

If we remember from elementary school science, there is the North and South Poles of any magnet and they attract each other. If we had two North or two South Poles, they would repel each other.

I am proposing that it might be possible to create two poles that are the same on opposite sides and induce them to pull away from each other and having the metallic rods or rings held to the human bone.

With a AC electrical signal, we can induce a magnetic field that increases in strength and then decreases like a intermittent way to push at the bones.

Let’s look over some introductory university level electromagnetic theory. There is no mathematics, just some conceptual electromagnetic reasoning.

First, I have clipped the chart for the Differential and Integral form of Maxwell’s Equations from the Wikipedia article on Maxwell’s Equations

Side Note: If any person can manage to prove the existence of magnetic monopoles, they would validate many of the ideas of string theory and definitely receive a Nobel Prize in Physics for this achievement. I have taken an advanced level undergraduate electrodynamics course using the standard Introduction to Electrodynamics, 3rd Ed. by Griffiths so I should still remember a little bit of the course still.

In general, when one sees the symbol for an integral, where it is a double integral, triple integral, closed path integral, line integral, surface integral, the basic idea is that you are to sum everything that is specified together. The term integration basically means to add all of the possible alternative ways together.

This is my personal level of conceptual understanding of the 4 main laws.

Guass’s Law – When you add together all of the Electrical Fields, E over a closed surface, you would get a charge density divided by a universal constant. For practical purposes just forget the constant and realize that the whole point is to calculate a quantity of charge and Electrical Field in a 3-D space.

Guass’s Law of Magnetism – The Integral form suggest that if you add together all of the Magnetic Field, B in a closed surface, the net result is 0. The reason that the net magnetic field is 0 is because of that fact that magnetic fields are derived from a dipole system. Everything that has a origin will also end up back in the same origin at the end of the path.

Closed Surface – The concept of a closed surface is important. The idea is to create an imaginary boundary condition, like a infinitely thin spherical shell which will encapsulate the system one would try to calculate the net charge is in the region that is defined by the boundary conditions.

Faraday’s Law Of Induction – This is the first of the two other laws of the four which is slightly more complicated so I wanted to break the conceptual understanding down into looking at both the Integral Form and  the Differential Form

• Integral Form – When you add together all of the Electrical Fields, E in a closed path, using a line integration you would find it equal to the change in time of the sum of the Magnetic Fields, B added together in a specific surface that is also going in the opposite direction
• Differential Form – We can create an electrical field by changing the magnetic field

Ampere’s Circuital Law w/ Maxwell’s Correction

• Integral Form – The combined total of all the Magnetic Field in a closed path loop is equal to the change in the combined Electrical Field added with a hidden electric field over a surface, both multipled by a certain special constant which is over a given specific surface
• Differential Form – An Electric Field and a change in Electric Field will both lead to the creation of a magnetic field

Implications For Height Increase Applications

If we look at the last two equations of Maxwell’s E&M , and remember back to the way that induced magnetic fields from electrical work and which direction they go in, it seems reasonable to think that we can induce a magnetic force that would push two electrical hard wires farther apart from each other. If the wires are also somehow held in place against bone tissue, then they can theoretically over time using magnetic force pull bone tissue apart.

Let’s look back at how the common electric motor works, even those that one finds in plastic toy cars.

The power source is a battery, which is DC electrical source. The electrons inside the copper wires go down the wires which is connected to the battery which is how current is created. The electrons that create current will create charges, which results in a electrical field. From Faraday’s Law of Induction, the wire does form a closed path since the wire is connected in a way for a closed circuit to the battery. This causes both a magnetic force and a change in magnetic force. Since there is already magnetics put in the system, when there is a magnetic field, S or N, the force between the created magnetic force which is changing and the magnetics already in place will cause the magnetics to either attract or repel each other.

To create the alternation that is needed to change, what are known as brushes to close and open the wires forming either closed or open paths are needed in the system.

The point is that it is reasonable to create a two non-magnetic metal ring system which will have electrical current run through them, which will induce the metal into a magnet, and they will develop the repulsive force and pull themselves away from each other.

At this point, the theory makes sense but I am not sure how to design the actual device. It is totally possible that this proposed idea is not viable since people may reject the idea of having metal rings embedded deep onto the surface of the bones.

Just refer to the picture on the right for reference. Of course it would be difficult to embed the metal in the first place into the bone if they are already magnets. The other problem is that the magnetic force of the small magnet to the right are too weak so that is why we need to have ferromagnetic metals which when they have a current passed through them, they turn magnetic. Not only that, the more current that can be passed through, the stronger the magnetic field can become and the harder the metals will try to pull apart from each other, thus distracting the bones that they are embedded or attached to.

There is also a second part. It is critical if we think that an induce magnetic field from a battery current would even work.

It is to make the area of bone that we are trying to distract weaker. Like I said multiple times before, the bones are just too hard and strong and brittle to pull apart using normal devices. I calculated in the post “The Values For The Magnitudes For The Forces And Loads Needed To Increase Epiphyseal Cartilages Thickness And Human Femur Bone Without Fracture (Important)” that it would require about 25,000 – 30,000 lb of tensile loading force to pull the adult human femur apart elongating it, if not outright snapping it in half the moment the critical threshold, which is known as the Ultimate Yielding Strength is reached. Certain studies like “DIFFERENCES IN THE TENSILE STRENGTH OF BONE OF DIFFERENT HISTOLOGICAL TYPES“ agree that the calculated value is about right.

This means that the bones need to get weaker, at least in terms of getting the calcium hydroapatites removed, which has alway been the primary element that gives bones their hard, brittle nature. In a recent post I discovered that one can actually turn bone tissue into rubber using vinegar which is just ascetic acid.

So there is two parts to a device, one where two rings are embedded on the bones of the individual which can’t be moved and an induced current will cause the magnets to start to push themselves away.

In the middle, between the two rings, a solution of ascetic acid or vinegar is injected using small plastic needle syringes into the cortical bone layer to start to remove the calcium crystals.

The bones in just one band or layer grow weaker as the collagen is left and the bone is distracted.

Something I had mentioned before in the post “Increase Height And Grow Taller By Stretching” was that there was probably only 4 main exercises which are stretches that can help one potentially increase their height, at least temporarily.

One of them was the forward stretch, the second was the Cobra Position in basic Hatha Yoga, the third was where one was sitting in with the legs wrapped in the lotus position with the arms being brought above the head to the other side stretching vertically one’s lats and side stomach muscles. The last was the idea of twisting the torso from side to side.

I wondered whether the last method might be more effective than the other types of stretching since it is only type of stretching that can lossen the vertebrate and disks between the bones slightly more than the others. It is also an uncommon position for the body to be in.

I would guess that since this type of stretch is not a natural type of movement that the human body was ever needed to be in, it would be more likely to result in a disruption in the way that the human body would normally deform. This means that maybe the way that the bones are held up would change slightly, pulling at the ligaments and cartilage that hold the individual bones together to become more elastic and looser for a greater range of movement and mobility.

Like I showed in the recent post on the analysis of Ehlers Danlos Syndrome “A Study On The Possibility That Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Might Lead To Adult Height Growth“, it is possible that increased joint mobility may result in a slight increase in height since the bones don’t have to be in their fixed locations all the time. When a person is using their muscles to stretch out their entire body body by extending their arms and shoulders as high as possible, maybe the upper torso can be pushed up just slightly.

The other 3 types of stretching that I referred to in the stretching post, humans have had to do for a long time.

The forward stretch has been done by most people who were standing up and needed to pick up something on the ground without bending their knees. Even little kids in elementary school would have done this exercise.

The cobra position is probably the other position that has the most effectiveness in increasing body flexibility and realigning the spinal curvature. Most kids would also do a lot of this when they are playing to push themselves off of the ground.

The laste position where the arms are being extended over their head to the other side is something that primitive ancestors probably did to try to reach for fruits in tall trees. I doubt that this stretching would be the best type of stretching to increase height, but it might help a little.

I am not sure if this idea is even valid due to the curvature of each individual person head relative to the vertebrate. However maybe the easiest way to increase one’s height is to develop a more confident, upwards posture.

The three parts towards displaying confidence through body language in males is to…

1. Breath in the stomach
2. Pushing upwards the chest
3. Lifting the Shoulders

It is basically the idea that having one’s chest pushed outwards means that the vertebrate will be more likely to be straighter.

What I am describing is what most people do when they are getting their height measured, which is to try to maximize the height measured.

Most people who stand have some curvature in all of the sections of the vertebrate, from the cervical to the thoracic to the lumbar area.

In general there is little that simple posture and stretching can change the lumber are of the back. Only rolfing or a chiropractor can have a chance of causing the vertebrate to be aligned striaghter.

The thoracic section is usually curved and that is also not easy to straighten out. The cervical region is the area which is the most flexible.

The human body is designed so that most people can only bend in the forward direction. Contortionist are the exception. What we want to focus on is to decrease the natural curvature of the vertebrate to something that is straighter. If the series of vertebrate bones are kept taut and aligned properly, there will be less height lost from curvature.

So there is basically one concept in this idea on possibly increasing ones height. It is to use the muscles in the torso to expand out to pull the upper body area up against the gravity, thus resulting in a slightly increased measured height. However I have wondered whether lifting the shoulders up, breathing in the stomach, and pushing out the chest would mean that the overall torso would move upwards or it just seems that way.

Something else to note

Most people are actually really bad at estimating height, except for people who are 2 inches taller or shorter than them. (Whatever most men may think of themselves at being better than average height guessers, most are very wrong)

What most people do to compare their height with someone else is to look to where where they eye level is compared to the other person. For most people, as long as the eye level height of themselves is higher than the other person, they automatically assume that they are taller. What is not known to most people is that the distance from the middle of their eye level to the top tip of their head is around 4-5 inches long.

This might explain why more dominant , alpha males always tilt their head up and look straight forward instead of  lowering their head and look down on the ground.

The main point is that maybe from good strong, dominant body language where the shoulder, stomach, and chest are held in position that makes one look more dominant, it would appear to other people that one is taller.

If it actually works in using the body’s core abdominal muscles to temporarily hold up the upper torso higher to elevate one’s height is not known.

When the site first began I did a somewhat detailed and extensive post entitled “Grow Taller By Feet And Heel Implantations, Macrolane And Bio-Alcamid” on the ideas of implanting some type of foreign collagenous, elastic material into the heel to make a person taller.

Recently someone emailed me to take a closer look at the science and I felt that it was appropriate now to look back at this idea in a more scientific and analytical manner than when the site was only 1 month old when I much less information and knowledge on how growth in the human body works.

This idea on implanting a type of silicone into feet to gain upwards of only 1 inch was also mentioned in a thread entitled “Silicone implants in feets (LL 2-4cm)” on the Make Me Taller Forum

Analysis #1:

The actual article that is referenced in the thread is entitled “The latest in cosmetic surgery is hyaluronic acid“. The section that is taken and put on the Make Me Taller forum is actually sort of revealing. There is two options, go with the Microlane one or the Bio-Alcamid one. The Bio-Alcamid one is supposed to be permanent. The maximum height achievable with oen surgery is supposed to be 2 cms. For getting the temporary type of injection using the Microlane, one would pay around $1500 while the Bio-Alcamid would coast slightly more. If one wanted to increase their height more than 2 cms, they need to come back for subsequent surgeries.

The actual surgery seems to be extremely simple. There is the anesthetic injection in the beginning. Then the prosthesis is injected into the feet heel.  The prosthesis is not actually a physical device, but a polymer. The polymer seems to be a rubber like liquid form, which is injected into a needle into the heel of the foot. It takes only 30 minutes

As for the actual article reference , the stuff on hyaluronic acid, the idea is reasonable but would not work. Hyaluronic acid is one of the major components of the proteoglycans and glycoaminoglycans in the cartilage matrix and act as the lubricant in joint cavities. Along with aggrecan, hyaluronic acid is the most common element in synovial joints like the knee.

Hyaluronic Acid does have some good application in medicine and cosmetics (source). It has been used to remove wrinkles temporarily, decrease neck lines, make face look fuller, improve acnes scars.

The compound is very safe and is organic, and is made by the human body. It is shown to also stimulate collagen production a little. I even wrote a few posts about the possibility of using hyaluronic acid to gain a little bit of height in the posts…

1.  “Increase Height And Grow Taller Using Hyaluronic Acid” 
2.  “New Proposed Method To Increase Height And Grow Taller Using TGF-Beta1, Hyaluronic Acid, And Autologous Synovial Fluid” 

I would even list Hyaluronic Acid as one of the only compounds, besides Glucosamine Sulfate which has a chance to help adult humans increase their height, if just a little in the Supplements Guide section. The way that hyaluronic acid lubricates joints means that there is a chance that joint cavities will expand slightly from increased Hyaluronan consumption.

Interpretation

I would guess that most people who wish to gain some extra height would wish it to be permanent, not temporary. If the surgery was to just make a person 2 cms taller temporarily, it might just be smarter if the person wore lifts and elevator shoes, or get those height increasing socks with the thick insoles in them. The cost is around $1500 for the MicroLane is not permanent but lasts just 12-18 months. It is composed of hyaluronic acid which is hardened to be more polymer-like.

I would rather do more research on the permanent option, which seems to only cost a little more ($300). Let’s see what the Bio-Alcamid can do.

Analysis #2

From an article on website called DailyXtra.com entitled “The Bio-Alcamid Disaster” it is revealed that this compound was manufactured by a company based in Italy but it resulted in some severe facial deformities as side effects and complications.

Bio-Alcamid seems to have been used in the past in helping improve the facial appearance of people who had HIV and suffered through lipoatrophy, which is when the collagen and fat in the face becomes removed due to the antiretroviral drug cocktail solution taken to treat HIV (developed in the 90s)

Apparently the Bio-Alcamid was supposed to be designed with some type of protective layering around itself but there was none. From one source, it states about the protective layer…

“Once implanted, Bio-Alcamid, unlike many other injectable fillers, becomes covered by a very thin collagen capsule (0.02 mm) which completely surrounds the gel, isolating it from the host tissues and making it a real endogenous prosthesis…”

The primary active ingredient is called polyalkylimide which is a type of polymer. From the study “Cheek augmentation with Bio-Alcamid in facial lipoatrophy in HIV seropositive patients.”…

“Bio-Alcamid, which is an injectable, biocompatible, nontoxic, nonallergenic soft tissue filler designed to correct tissue deficits of various volume by intratissue administration…”

The composition of the BIo-Alcamid are “… a gel polymer comprising exclusively of networks of alkyl-imide groups (approximately 4%) and nonpyrogenic water (approximately 96%). Alkyl-imide belongs to the family of acryl-derivatives and its polymeric structure does not contain free monomers.”

Interpretation

The idea of injecting polymers into heels to gain around 1-2 extra inches is not reasonable. The people who tried the Bio-Alcamid polymer on their face was trying to make themselves better looking after loosing so much collagen and fat. The Bio-Alcamid would over time settle in a way that distorted the face to look ugly. If the same Bio-Alcamid was injected into the feet, over time the polymer would start to loss it’s strength and start to distribute on the heel in uneven ways, making the heel also deformed. If the face which has no loading applied to it causes the Bio-Alcamid to start having problems, there is no way that Bio-Alcamid would ever be able to keep its structure and integrity (in a strength of materials sense) permanently. It would break down eventually, go into the body stream, and converted in the same way that adipose tissue and collagen are in the body.

So the idea of injecting any type of polymer as heel implants won’t work. The implant at the bottom of the bottom would get so much loading from the daily wear and tear of walking that it would eventually break apart, turning it into a jelly-like substance that gets absorbed into the body.