The Height Increase And Grow Taller Clinics Kiness, Hamsoa, And Seojung Growth Clinic In South Korea

Me: It seems that the South Koreans have had these height increasing and growth taller clinic appearing everywhere now, especially in the capital of Seoul. The competitive nature for jobs and future spouses causes many parents to put a lot of financial investment to make their kids taller. There is 3 clinics mentioned in the article, Kiness, Hamsoa, and Seojung Growth Clinic. One of the people who run the clinic says that there are now 36 clinics also opened in China in collaboration to make other people taller. It is just amazing to see what the East Asian people are willing to go through to get taller.

I am going to try to get in contact with any of the 3 clinics and see if I can strike up a partnership with them and get them to promote this website or I can promote these clinics if they can show what goes on inside their clinics and see what types of methods and techniques they are doing to increase the kids height. If they would like me to promote their clinics, I have to make sure these techniques really work and have shown through careful scrutiny and analysis that everything is safe.

The article below was found from the New York Times article HERE…

South Korea Stretches Standards for Success

Woohae Cho for The International Herald Tribune

Trainer Choi Hyong-jin helped Kang Hyon-sung, 5, and his sister, Kang Hyon-hee, 7, as they tried a special treadmill during a growth-spurring exercise at the Seojung growth clinic in Seoul.

By CHOE SANG-HUN

Published: December 22, 2009

SEOUL, South Korea — With acupuncture needles trembling from the corners of her mouth like cat’s whiskers, Moon Bo-in, 5, whined with fear. But the doctor, wearing a yellow gown patterned with cartoon characters, poked more needles into her wrists and scalp.

Kim Ok-hee and her daughter, Kang Hyon-hee, 7, at the Seojung growth clinic in Seoul.

“It’s O.K., dear,” said her mother, Seo Hye-kyong. “It will help make you pretty and tall. It will make you Cinderella.”

Swayed by the increasingly popular conviction that height is crucial to success, South Korean parents are trying all manner of remedies to increase their children’s stature, spawning hundreds of growth clinics that offer hormone shots, traditional Eastern treatments and special exercises.

“In our society, it’s all about looks,” said Ms. Seo, 35. “I’m afraid my daughter is shorter than her peers. I don’t want her to be ridiculed and lose self-confidence because of her height.”

Ms. Seo spends $770 a month on treatments for her daughter and her 4-year-old son at one such clinic, Hamsoa, which has 50 branches across the country and offers a mix of acupuncture, aromatherapy and a twice-a-day tonic that contains deer antler, ginseng and other medicinal herbs.

“Parents would rather add 10 centimeters to their children’s stature than bequeath them one billion won,” said Dr. Shin Dong-gil, a Hamsoa doctor, invoking a figure in Korean currency equal to about $850,000. “If you think of a child as a tree, what we try to do here is to provide it with the right soil, the right wind, the right sunshine to help it grow. We help kids regain their appetite, sleep well and stay fit so they can grow better.”

Koreans used to value what was perceived as a grittiness on the part of shorter people. “A smaller pepper is hotter,” according to a saying here, and one need look no further for proof than to the former South Korean strongman Park Chung-hee, or across the demilitarized zone to the North Korean ruler Kim Jong-il, who claims to be 5-foot-5 (but adds inches with elevator shoes and a bouffant hairstyle).

But smaller is no longer considered better, thanks in part to the proliferation of Western models of beauty and success. “Nowadays, children scoff if you mention Napoleon and Park Chung-hee,” said Park Ki-won, who runs the Seojung Growth Clinic. “On TV, all young pop idols are tall. Given our society’s strong tendency to fit into the group and follow the trend, being short is a problem. Short kids are ostracized.”

Concerns about the trend are growing, too, with some groups warning that growth clinics, while operating within the limits of the law, promise far more than the evidence supports.

Yoon Myoung, a top researcher at Consumers Korea, a civic group that, with the help of scientists, has been investigating the clinics, said parents should be more skeptical.

“There is no clinical proof or other evidence that these treatments really work,” Ms. Yoon said. “They use exaggerated and deceptive ads to lure parents. But Korean families often have only one child and want to do whatever they can for that child.”

Last month, the simmering discomfort over the trend exploded when a college student put it into blunt words on national television.

“Being tall means being competitive,” Lee Do-kyong, a student at Hongik University in Seoul, said on a television talk show. “I think short guys are losers.”

Bloggers vilified her, and lawmakers denounced the station, KBS-TV, for not editing her comments. Viewers filed defamation lawsuits. Ms. Lee was forced to apologize, and the Communications Standards Commission ordered the show’s producers to be reprimanded for “violating human rights” and “stoking the looks-are-everything phenomenon.”

“She simply said what everyone thinks but doesn’t dare say in public,” said Dr. Kim Yang-soo, who runs a growth clinic called Kiness. “Here, if you change your height, you can change your fate.”

At his clinic, Kim Se-hyun, a fifth grader, walked on a treadmill with her torso encased in a harness suspended from an overhead steel bar. The contraption, the clinic maintains, will stretch her spine and let her exercise with less pressure on her legs.

Nearby, sweat rolled off Lee Dong-hyun, 13, as he pedaled a recumbent bicycle while reading a comic book. Behind him, his sister, Chae-won, the shortest girl in her first-grade class, stretched to touch her toes on a blue yoga mat, squealing as an instructor pushed down against her back.

Two years ago, their mother, Yoon Ji-young, had tried giving Dong-hyun growth hormone shots, which have also increased in popularity here. But many doctors will prescribe them only for exceptionally small children with severe growth disorders. And parents have been discouraged by their high cost and fears of side effects.

Ms. Yoon said she was spending $850 a month on the shots but stopped after eight months.

Now she drives her children to Kiness three times a week. “Both my husband and I are short,” said Ms. Yoon, 31, who is about 5 feet tall. “I don’t want my children to blame us for being short when they grow up.”

Another mother at the clinic, Chang Young-hee, 54 and 4-foot-10, said her children had already experienced height discrimination. Both her daughters are college graduates and have good jobs, but when they reached marrying age, matchmakers regarded their short stature as a defect.

“It felt like a blow to the head,” Ms. Chang said. “I learned a lesson. If you fall behind in your studies, you can catch up later. But if you miss the time to grow, you miss it forever.”

Her daughters eventually married, but for the past four years, she has been taking her youngest child, Seo Dong-joon, to Kiness. The boy, now 15, knows his goal.

“If I’m tall, I’ll have an advantage selecting my future wife,” he said, holding an English vocabulary book, which he studies while exercising. “Short guys are teased at school.”

South Koreans have been growing taller anyway, thanks to changes in their diet. Over the past 30 years the average height of high school senior boys in South Korea has increased 3.5 inches, to 5-foot-8, according to government data. Senior girls grew an average of 2 inches, to 5-foot-3.

Doctors at the growth clinics say that most children simply aspire to the new average height, but with more tall teenagers, those who are not as tall seem even shorter. “The gap between tall and short has become more pronounced,” said Dr. Park of Seojung, who recently opened 36 joint-venture growth clinics in China and said the quest to become taller was regionwide.

If so, one country that has been left behind is North Korea. Food shortages there have left children stunted, according to the United Nations and private relief agencies. Dr. Park cited the case of a 16-year-old who fled North Korea last July to join his mother, who had arrived in the South three years earlier. The boy was 5 feet tall, almost four inches below the South Korean average.

“His height wasn’t unusual for the North,” Dr. Park said. “But when his mother saw him again, she cried because the boy hadn’t grown at all, and because she knew the disadvantages he’d face here.”

“My dream is to open growth clinics in North Korea,” Dr. Park said, “so that, once we unify, children from both sides will be able to stand shoulder to shoulder, not with one side a head taller than the other.”

Characterization of the Distinct Orthotopic Bone-Forming Activity of 14 BMPs

Me: Here is my interpretation on this really important article. If you want to get bones and cartilage to grow fast, use either a BMP2 & BMP6 mixture or a BMP2 & BMP9 mixture. The BMP6 and BMP9 has shown to have the most bone formation ability while the BMP2 is needed for the BMP6 to work. Plus, it seems that only the BMP2 or BMP7 has the ability to generate chondrocytes, which the BMP6 and the BMP9 seem to lack. The key seems to be to use a combination BMP formula if we ever plan to do growth factor injections with a compound mixture.

Gene Therapy (2004) 11, 1312–1320. doi:10.1038/sj.gt.3302298; Published online 22 July 2004, (source HERE)

Characterization of the distinct orthotopic bone-forming activity of 14 BMPs using recombinant adenovirus-mediated gene delivery

Q Kang^1,2,5, M H Sun^1,5, H Cheng^1,5, Y Peng^1,3, A G Montag^1,4, A T Deyrup^1,4,6, W Jiang¹, H H Luu¹, J Luo¹, J P Szatkowski¹, P Vanichakarn¹, J Y Park¹, Y Li¹, R C Haydon¹ and T-C He^1,3

¹Molecular Oncology Laboratory, Department of Surgery, The University of Chicago Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA
²The Children’s Hospital of Chongqing University of Medical Sciences, Chongqing, China
³Committee on Genetics, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
⁴Department of Pathology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

Correspondence: Dr T-C He, Molecular Oncology Laboratory, Department of Surgery, The University of Chicago Medical Center, 5841 South Maryland Avenue, MC3079, Chicago, IL 60637, USA

⁵QK, MHS, and HC Contributed equally to this work

⁶Current address: Department of Pathology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.

Received 18 August 2003; Accepted 7 February 2004; Published online 22 July 2004.

Abstract

Efficacious bone regeneration could revolutionize the clinical management of bone and musculoskeletal disorders. Although several bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) (mostly BMP-2 and BMP-7) have been shown to induce bone formation, it is unclear whether the currently used BMPs represent the most osteogenic ones. Until recently, comprehensive analysis of osteogenic activity of all BMPs has been hampered by the fact that recombinant proteins are either not biologically active or not available for all BMPs. In this study, we used recombinant adenoviruses expressing the 14 types of BMPs (AdBMPs), and demonstrated that, in addition to currently used BMP-2 and BMP-7, BMP-6 and BMP-9 effectively induced orthotopic ossification when either AdBMP-transduced osteoblast progenitors or the viral vectors were injected into the quadriceps of athymic mice. Radiographic and histological evaluation demonstrated that BMP-6 and BMP-9 induced the most robust and mature ossification at multiple time points. BMP-3, a negative regulator of bone formation, was shown to effectively inhibit orthotopic ossification induced by BMP-2, BMP-6, and BMP-7. However, BMP-3 exerted no inhibitory effect on BMP-9-induced bone formation, suggesting that BMP-9 may transduce osteogenic signaling differently. Our findings suggest that BMP-6 and BMP-9 may represent more effective osteogenic factors for bone regeneration.

Bone regeneration is critical to the effective management of many bone and musculoskeletal disorders, such as fracture healing, spinal fusion, and osteoporosis, which are responsible for a large portion of healthcare expenditure in the developed countries—approximately $14 billion is spent annually on treating osteoporotic fractures in the US alone.¹ Bone is a highly mineralized tissue and is one of the few organs that retains the potential for regeneration in adult life. Bone also undergoes continuous remodeling throughout life.^2, 3 Three major types of cells are present in bone tissues: bone-forming osteoblasts, bone-resorbing osteoclasts, and chondrocytes. Osteoblasts are derived from the mesenchymal stem cells, which also serve as precursor cells for myocytes, adipocytes, and chondrocytes. It has been known for almost half a century that demineralized bone can induce de novo bone formation.⁴ The molecular identity of the bone-forming factors in demineralized bone was subsequently revealed to be bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs).⁵ BMPs belong to the TGF beta superfamily, and play an important role in embryonic development and bone formation.^6, 7 At least 15 types of BMPs have been identified in humans. BMP signal transduction begins via interaction with the heterodimeric complex of two transmembrane serine/threonine kinase receptors, BMPR type I and BMPR type II.^8, 9 The activated receptor kinases phosphorylate the transcription factors Smads 1, 5, and/or 8. The phosphorylated Smads then form a heterodimeric complex with Smad 4 in the nucleus and activate the expression of target genes in concert with other coactivators.^10, 11, 12

Although the molecular mechanisms underlying osteoblast differentiation remain to be defined, BMPs play an important role in regulating osteoblast differentiation and subsequent bone formation. Traditionally, various bone grafts have been used to promote osteogenesis in bone and musculoskeletal disorders. The identification of BMPs has generated great interest due to their potential use in bone regeneration.³ Several recombinant forms of BMPs, mostly rhBMP-2 and rhBMP-7 (a.k.a., OP-1), have been shown to induce bone formation in vivo, ^{13,14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24} and both rhBMP-2 and rhBMP-7 have been tested in clinical trials.^25, 26, 27 In addition to the direct application of recombinant BMP proteins, numerous reports have confirmed the ability of adenoviral or retroviral vector-mediated gene transfer of several BMPs to induce bone formation in animal models.^{18, 20, 21, 23, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37,38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44}

Although a plethora of studies have demonstrated the ability of several BMPs, mostly BMP-2 and BMP-7, to promote osteogenesis, it is unclear whether or not BMPs other than those currently being tested in clinical trials are more potent stimulators of new bone formation. Thus, it is important to conduct a comprehensive comparative analysis of the in vivo osteogenic activity of all BMPs. This line of investigation has been hampered by the fact that recombinant proteins are either not biologically active or not available for all BMPs. We have recently constructed a panel of recombinant adenoviral vectors that express the 14 types of human BMPs (BMP-2–BMP-15).⁴⁵ Recombinant adenoviral vectors are ideal for this line of investigation for following reasons.^{46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51} First, adenoviral vectors can transduce osteoblast progenitor cells with high efficiency. Second, the biologically active BMPs are continuously produced inside mammalian cells. Third, BMP-mediated bone osteoblast differentiation does not require long-term expression. Fourth, adenoviral vectors can be used in both in vitro and in vivo studies. In this study, we sought to carry out a comprehensive analysis of the distinct in vivo bone-forming activity of the 14 types of human BMPs. Using an orthotopic ossification animal model, we demonstrate that BMP-2, BMP-6, and BMP-9 (BMP-7 to a lesser extent) are the most potent osteoinductive BMPs. Our findings strongly suggest that, in addition to BMP-2 and BMP-7 that are currently used in clinical trails, BMP-6 and BMP-9 could represent equally, if not more effective osteogenic factors for bone regeneration in a clinical setting.

Results

Distinct ability to induce an osteogenic marker, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), by 14 BMPs in the osteoblast progenitor C2C12 cells in vitro

In order to comprehensively analyze the distinct osteogenic activity of BMPs, we have recently constructed a panel of recombinant adenoviral vectors that express the 14 types of human BMPs, designated as AdBMPs.⁴⁵ As shown in Figure 1a, the level of transgene expression of the AdBMPs were in general comparable (ie, <2-fold difference among different BMPs), as demonstrated by RT-PCR analysis. These PCR products should be specifically derived from the adenoviral vector-mediated expression (rather than from the endogenous genes), as the 3′-end primer was derived from the SV40 poly-A cassette. Using these adenoviral vectors, we have recently demonstrated that BMPs displayed a distinct ability to induce osteoblast differentiation of mesenchymal progenitor cells in vitro.⁴⁵ In this study, we sought to determine the relative in vivo osteogenic activity of the 14 types of BMPs. We first tested the ability of individual AdBMPs to induce the earlier osteogenic marker alkaline phosphatase in the C2C12 line, which is myoblastic and can be trans-differentiated into osteoblast progenitors upon BMP stimulation. As shown in Figure 1b, ALP activity was remarkably induced by five of the 14 BMPs at four days after AdBMP infections. Among the five osteogenic BMPs, BMP-2, BMP-6, and BMP-9 induced the ALP activity to a much greater extent (approx. 169-, 215-, and 273-fold over the GFP control, respectively), while BMP-4 and BMP-7 increased ALP activity by 44- and 73-fold, respectively. These findings are consistent with our previous studies.⁴⁵ It should be pointed out that several BMPs (eg, BMP-10, and BMP-13) also induced a 2–3-fold increase of ALP activity over the basal level under the same assay conditions.

Induction of alkaline phosphatase activity by the 14 types of human BMPs in C2C12 cells. (a) Relative level of AdBMP-mediated transgene expression. C2C12 cells were infected with AdBMPs or AdGFP for 40 h. Total RNA was isolated and converted into cDNA products by reverse transcription, which were used for RT-PCR reactions using BMP-specific primers (5′-end) and a 3′-end primer derived from SV40 polyA. Resultant products ranged from 500 to 600 bps (indicated by arrows). ‘+’, PCR products from +RT reactions of the original cDNA synthesis; ‘-‘, PCR products from -RT reactions of the original cDNA synthesis; ‘M’, 1-Kb Plus ladder from Invitrogen; ‘G’, AdGFP; ‘2–15’, AdBMP-2 to AdBMP-15. (b) Subconfluent C2C12 cells were infected with AdBMPs and the control AdGFP. At 4 days after infection, cells were lysed for colorimetric assays of alkaline phosphatase activity using p-nitrophenyl phosphate as a substrate. Representative results from at least three independent experiments are shown. See Materials and methods for details.

Orthotopic bone formation effectively induced by several but not all BMPs in athymic mice

We next sought to test the in vivo osteogenic effect of the 14 BMPs. In order to effectively assess the osteogenic ability of the BMPs, we used an orthotopic ossification animal model, in which C2C12 cells were first transduced with AdBMPs and subsequently implanted into the quadriceps muscles of athymic nude mice by intramuscular injection. Orthotopic ossification was assessed by X-ray radiography and histological evaluation at 3 and 5 weeks after injections. As illustrated in Figure 2, ossification was readily detected on X-ray radiographies from the animals injected with AdBMP-2, 6, 7, and 9-transduced C2C12 cells at 3 weeks (Figure 2a) and 5 weeks (Figure 2b). For BMP-6 and BMP-9, histologic examination at both time points (Figure 3a and b) revealed robust and highly mineralized woven bone with scattered osteoblast-rimming and occasional osteoclasts. Osteoid was also present. In addition, BMP-6 showed bone marrow elements with a range of hematopoietic cells. At the 3-week time point, BMP-2 was characterized by well-calcified foci without bone formation; however, at the 5-week time point, these foci had developed into mature bone. BMP-7, on the other hand, was shown to induce much weaker ossification. Interestingly, we failed to detect any signs of ossification in the animals injected with AdBMP-4-transduced C2C12 cells, which is surprising because we have demonstrated that BMP-4 is capable of inducing ALP activity in vitro (Figure 1b).⁴⁵ These results were reproducible in two additional rounds of animal studies using different batches of AdBMP-4 preparations, which were consistently shown to induce ALP activity in C2C12 cells in vitro (data not shown). Further, our RT-PCR analysis demonstrated that the expression level of BMP-4 was comparable with that of other BMPs, especially BMP-2, BMP-6, and BMP-9 under the same assay condition (Figure 1a). Currently, we are still searching for any satisfactory explanations for this discrepancy between BMP-4’s in vitro versus in vivo osteogenic activity. Nevertheless, all of the above findings were reproducible in three batches of independent experiments. The remaining samples had no evidence of ossification at 5 weeks. The injection site in these sections demonstrated exuberant granulation tissue and reparative changes.

Histology of BMP-induced bone formation

We next examined the histology of the recovered injection sites. Overall, the histology correlated well with the findings from X-ray radiography. At the 3-week time point, BMP-2, BMP-6, BMP-7, and BMP-9 demonstrated varying degrees of ossification. BMP-2 and BMP-7 were the least developed with small foci of woven bone (Figure 3a). Both BMP-6 and BMP-9, however, had multiple foci of immature woven trabecular bone. In addition, BMP-9 demonstrated focal cartilaginous differentiation. The bone in BMP-6 and BMP-9-treated animals formed a shell-like rim around a proliferating mass of spindle-shaped C2C12 cells. The 5-week samples demonstrated increased maturation with more mature osteoid matrix and trabecular bone-like structures with accentuation of the shell-like rim, especially in BMP-6 and BMP-9-treated animals. There was less extensive ossification in the BMP-2 sections. Bone marrow elements were present in the BMP-6 sections and chondrocytes and cartilaginous matrix were increased in the BMP-9 sections (Figure 3b). Interestingly, the injected C2C12 cells formed a desmoid-like cell mass in nonosteogenic BMP injections and the GFP control. Even in the animals injected with BMP-2, BMP-6, BMP-7, and BMP-9-transduced C2C12 cells, such cell mass was still visible, and multiple ossification centers were observed at the periphery of the cell mass. BMP-2-, BMP-6-, BMP-7-, and BMP-9-induced osteogenesis was further confirmed by Masson’s Trichrome staining (Figure 3c).

Antagonistic effect of BMP-3 on BMP-induced bone formation

We sought to investigate how the osteogenic BMPs were affected by BMP-3, a known negative regulator of bone formation, as BMP-3 knockout animals exhibited an increase in bone density.⁵² When C2C12 cells transduced by AdBMP-3 and one of the four osteogenic AdBMPs were coinjected intramuscularly for 3 weeks, BMP-2 and BMP-6-induced ossification was completely blocked by BMP-3, and most of the BMP-7-induced ossification was inhibited by BMP-3 (Figure 4a). However, BMP-3 coinjection did not exert any effect on BMP-9-induced calcification (Figure 4a), strongly suggesting that BMP-9 may exert its osteogenic activity via a distinct signaling mechanism. Similar results were obtained for the 5-week groups (data not shown). The histological findings were consistent with those from X-ray radiographic results (Figure 4b). The three samples without ossification demonstrated C2C12 cell proliferation with entrapped skeletal muscle while the BMP-3+BMP-9 sections had multiple foci of woven trabecular bone similar to BMP-9 injection alone.

BMP-3-mediated inhibition of bone formation induced by BMP-2, BMP-6, and BMP-7, but not by BMP-9. (a) Osteogenic AdBMPs (ie, BMP-2, -6, -7, and -9)-transduced C2C12 cells were either injected alone (top row) or coinjected with AdBMP-3 (bottom row) into the right quadriceps of athymic mice. Animals were killed at 3 weeks and subjected to X-ray radiography. Ossification sites were indicated by arrows. Each experimental group contained four mice, and representative radiographies from three batches of experiments are shown. (b) Histological evaluation of the BMP-3 coinjection sites. B, osteoid matrix; C, injected C2C12 cells; and M, muscle cells. Magnification, $times$ 150.

Bone formation induced by direct intramuscular injection of AdBMPs

Recent studies suggest that skeletal muscles may harbor pluripotent mesenchymal stem cells, including osteoblast progenitors.^34, 44, 53 We next tested the osteoinductive activity of the 14 BMPs via direct intramuscular injection of AdBMPs. At the 3 and 5-week time points, we did not observe apparent ossification on X-ray radiography (data not shown). However, when the 5-week injection sites were examined histologically, various degrees of cartilaginous and/or osteoid matrix formation were observed in BMP-2, BMP-6, BMP-7, and BMP-9-injected animals (Figure 5). Samples derived from BMP-2 and, to a lesser extent, BMP-7 injection sites contained more cartilage-like chondrocyte-containing structure, while osteoid matrix and mature lamellar bone were present with evidence of bone marrow colonization and remodeling in BMP-6 and BMP-9-injected animals. Unlike in the experiments with C2C12 injections, direct intramuscular injections with AdBMPs (ie, the above-mentioned four osteogenic BMPs) induced more diffuse ossification. This may also explain why the calcification (ie, by BMP-9) was not readily detected by X-ray radiography. These findings also suggest that orthotopic osteogenesis induced by direct intramuscular injection with osteogenic AdBMPs may be less efficient than that induced by introduction of AdBMP-transduced osteoblast progenitor cells, implying that osteoblast progenitor cell-based gene therapy may be a more efficacious approach to bone regeneration, although it is possible that the reduced bone formation was resulted from the potentially less-efficient gene transfer associated with direct intramuscular injections than that with AdBMP-transduced C2C12 cells.

Discussion

Orthotopic bone formation induced by direct intramuscular injection of AdBMPs. Approximately 10⁹ PFU of AdBMPs or AdGFP were directly injected into the quadriceps of athymic mice. Animals were killed at 5 weeks after injection and subjected to X-ray radiography (not shown). Each experimental group had four mice. Representative results from two independent experiments are shown. BMP-6-treated sample was decalcified. B, osteoid matrix; BM, bone marrow cells; Ch, chondrocytes; and M, muscle cells. Magnification, $times$ 200.

Successful bone regeneration mediated by biofactors could revolutionize the clinical management of musculoskeletal disorders, including fracture healing and spinal fusion.⁵⁴ Several biological factors, such as TGF beta , BMP, FGF, PDGF, IGF, and LMP-1, have been investigated for their potential use in bone regeneration and skeletal repair.^{55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69} BMPs have been shown to be the most promising, and clinical trials with recombinant BMP-2 and -7 are ongoing.^{54, 70, 71, 72, 73} These BMPs have shown varying degrees of success in the clinical setting and further study on their mechanisms of action and optimal formulations is required to optimize effectiveness of this strategy for promoting osteogenesis.

To the best of our knowledge, this reported study represents the first of its kind to evaluate the in vivo osteogenic activity of BMPs in a comprehensive fashion. The observation that BMP-2 exhibited osteogenic activity in our study is consistent with early data from human clinical trials.^25, 27 While BMP-7 exhibited apparent osteogenic activity, its ability to induce ossification was significantly less robust than that of BMP-2, BMP-6, and BMP-9. These findings mirror the moderate success of the rhBMP-7 (ie, OP-1) in a recent clinical trial.²⁶

It is intriguing, however, that BMP-6 and BMP-9 emerged as the most potent inducers of orthotopic ossification in vivo. Although considerable genetic and developmental studies have been conducted to elucidate the biological functions of BMP-6, its osteogenic activity has not been investigated to any significant degree in animal studies or clinical trials. BMP-6-deficient mice are largely unremarkable, with the exception of a defect in the sternum.⁷⁴ Its expression during embryogenesis is closely coupled with BMP-2, and the lack of noticeable defects in BMP-6-deficient mice may be due to functional compensation by BMP-2.⁷⁴ Nevertheless, our findings corroborate well with a recent study in which BMP-6 was shown to induce the most rapid tissue calcification when compared with BMP-2 or BMP-4 in an athymic nude rat model,⁷⁵ although for reasons to be determined AdBMP-4 reproducibly failed to induce orthotopic bone formation in this study.

BMP-9 is one of the least studied members of the BMP family. Originally identified from fetal mouse liver cDNA libraries, BMP-9 (a.k.a., GDF-2) is highly expressed in the developing mouse liver, and recombinant human BMP-9 (rhBMP-9) stimulates hepatocyte proliferation.⁷⁶ BMP-9 has also been shown to be a potent synergistic factor for hematopoietic progenitor cell generation and colony formation,⁷⁷ and may also play a role in the induction and maintenance of the neuronal cholinergic phenotype in the central nervous system.⁷⁸ In addition, it has recently been shown that BMP-9 exhibits an apparent osteoinductive effect in rat models.^21, 23, 79 However, the mechanisms underlying BMP-9-mediated osteogenic signaling remain to be defined. It is a very intriguing finding that BMP-9-mediated bone formation was not inhibited by BMP-3 in our studies. This result strongly suggests that BMP-9 may transduce a distinct osteogenic signaling pathway that is significantly different from that of BMP-2, BMP-6, and BMP-7. Through an expression profiling analysis, we have recently identified a group of downstream targets that may play an important role in the osteogenic BMP signaling pathway mediated by BMP-2, BMP-6, and BMP-9.⁸⁰ Interestingly, while BMP-2, BMP-6, and BMP-9 induced a very similar overall gene expression pattern, the clustering analysis revealed that BMP-2 and BMP-9 exhibited a more similarly related expression pattern.⁸⁰

In conclusion,

we have demonstrated the relative osteogenic ability of 14 BMPs and identified BMP-6 and BMP-9 (in addition to the currently used BMP-2 and BMP-7) as the most potent BMPs to induce orthotopic bone formation in vivo. Our results also suggest that the stem/progenitor cell-based ex vivo gene therapy may represent a more effective approach to bone regeneration. Future studies will focus on elucidating the major signaling differences among BMPs so that maximal synergy in bone formation can be achieved by combining BMPs that act through overlapping or converging signaling pathways. This line of investigation would help to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying bone formation and lead to the development of more efficacious approaches towards bone regeneration.

Recombinant adenoviral vectors expressing BMPs

The cDNA clones for human BMP-2, -3 (a.k.a., osteogenin), -4, -5, -6, -8 (a.k.a., OP-2), -9 (a.k.a., GDF-2), -10, -12 (a.k.a., GDF-7 or CDMP-3), and -13 (a.k.a., GDF6 or CDMP2) were kindly provided by the Genetics Institute (Cambridge, MA, USA). The coding sequences for BMP-7 (a.k.a., OP-1), -11 (a.k.a., GDF-11), -14 (a.k.a., GDF-5 or CDMP-1), and -15 (a.k.a., GDF-9) were PCR amplified from a human osteosarcoma cDNA library. The coding regions of the above BMPs were subcloned into pAdTrack-CMV, resulting in pAdTrack-BMPs; recombinant adenoviruses expressing BMPs (ie, AdBMPs) were subsequently generated as previously described. Continue reading →

Increase Height Through Surgical Method By Cartilage Harvesting And Chondrocyte Implantation With Growth Factor Injections

So this is my first attempt at developing a real surgical strategy and process to use all of the knowledge i have learned up to this point to increase height.

Some things to note:

It turns out from rabbit studies that removal of the proliferative and hypertrophic layer in a growth plate but leaving the rest zone still there causes the proliferative and hypertrophic layer to regrow back. If you remove the rest zone layer however, you can’t regrow that back. This suggests that as long as you can create a rest zone type of chondrogenic structure, you can essentially regrow a growth plate over again.

It seems that the original growth plates were formed from the collapse and pressing together of the primary ossification center of the diaphysis and the secondary ossification center of the epiphysis. This give me (and maybe others ) the idea that to recreate a real growth plate over, you need to have two sets of growth occurring at the some time, close enough to press the two perichondrium layers (of the two growing ossification centers) together. It could be that the key to creating synthetic growth plate formation as close to the original thing is to

From Wikipedia on the perichondrium…

The perichondrium is a layer of dense irregular connective tissue which surrounds the cartilage of developing bone. It consists of two separate layers: an outer fibrous layer and inner chondrogenic layer. The fibrous layer contains fibroblasts, which produce collagenous fibers. The chondrogenic layer remains undifferentiated and can form chondroblasts or chondrocytes. Perichondrium can be found around the perimeter of elastic cartilage and hyaline cartilage. Fibrocartilage and articular cartilage both lack perichondrium. Perichondrium is a type of Irregular Collagenous Ordinary Connective Tissue, and also functions in the growth and repair of cartilage. Once vascularized, the perichondrium becomes the periosteum.

The key maybe is to press two layers of perichondrium together while still keeping the amount of pressure needed to be exerted by the sub-perichondrium bone growth in the radial direction boy the osteoblast’s activity.

Note: I am extremely unsure at this point about the difference between Type I collagen and Type II collagen and which goes where in the life cycle of the chondrocyte and the hyaline cartilage because I seem to be getting contradictory information from different sources.

So the real strategy.

This is derived from studying the procedure of how the surgical process of Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation and Autologous Matrix-Induced Chondrogenesis

1. You first collect cartilage samples from an area of the body that has hyaline cartilage, but of the same type as the articular cartilage at the end of long bones The best places I can think of is the nose, ears, other areas like the intercondylar notch or the superior ridge of the medial or lateral femoral condyle of the patient.

2. You remove the matrix of the cartilage using enzymes and then isolate the chondrocytes.

3. Grow the chondrocytes in vitro in a specialized lab. This will take 4-6 weeks. Create enough chondrocytes to do a re-implant.

4. Create an initial distraction in the bone. This will be similar to the hammer and chisel tool and application used on the ilizarov method. Only the cortical layer is fractured, by about 1-2 millimeters in thickness.

4.5 Drill holes into the cortical bone so that the mesenchymal and progenitor cells can reach the chondrocyte implant.

These 4 elements are needed to create cartilage (from my studies).

progenitor cells
mesenchymal stem cells
cytokines
growth factors

Let’s assume that the top 5 growth factors we need at BMP2, BMP7, some FGF (not sure which type), IHH, and IGF-1. Can we make a mixture or stable compound well enough to inject into the implant later?

The waste or excretion of chondrocytes are two compounds, type II collagen and proteoglycan. Hyaline cartilage matrix is mostly made up of type II collagen and Chondroitin sulfate, both of which are also found in elastic cartilage.

5. You also add a bilayer collagen as a sort of scaffold or structure for the cartilage to growth along and form into. This will be a Collagen Type I and Collagen Type II layer. one over the other. One of the layers will be hard and dense, while the other is less hard.

6. Inject the growth factors.

7. Put a brace over the fracture to hold it in place. Similar to the ilizarove method. Wait until the bones fuse with the newly grown cartilage.

8. Once they are fused, you have to do physical therapy to make sure that the newly formed cartilage layer can deal with the weight loading when the entire human weight is applied to it. Over time the growth factors are continuously added to the cartilage region.

This is going to another one of those posts that I realize I am going to continuously edit upon to revise and make better. I really do believe that we already have the technology to increase height using a faster, less invasive, and better way to increase height through non-limb lengthening methods.

Update 1: We should also add the use of LIPUS into the method. Also, it is found that BMP6 and BMP9 may be slightly better than BMP2 and BMP7 on certain parts.

Natural Height Growth September 2012 – Monthly Website Traffic Data Report

Note: To see the report for last month, go to “Natural Height Growth August 2012 – Monthly Website Traffic Data Report“.

So these are the numbers for this monthly’s traffic data. I have noticed that the average number of daily visitors have increased from 100/day to 200/day, which is a nice 100% increased in traffic.

Clicky does not actually show values for each month but only 28 days so what you are seeing is values for the last 28 days, not the 30 days in this past month of September. The numbers would than be slightly higher.

These are the numbers I got for today, and there is still around 3 more hours left. THe traffic is definitely picking up again, which is nice.

Your Growth Plate X-Rays Don’t Tell The Entire Story, Why Your Doctor Can Be Wrong And You Might Still Be Growing :)

This post is a repost of a very important point. I have stated this point before in a very old post which I can’t find right now but the point is that the actual maximum age for height increase the natural way is actually around 20 years old for men, and 18 years old for females, plus or minus 1 year.

Here is the facts which most doctors don’t tell you. It could be they don’t consider it, or they forgot in their own medical training. Doctors are known to make mistakes, and get things wrong.

When you are concerned about your height and growth rate, you might decide to go to your family doctor, the one you have been going to since you were a toddler, to ask for that X-ray. Now, if I remember correctly the cost for an X-ray is not that expensive, maybe $100-200 to get the pics developed. Then you wait and the doctor takes a look at your X-Rays and sometimes says that your growth plates are closed. You have stopped growing. You feel a little bit of disappointment that you are going to stay “short” for the rest of your life.

Well, they can be wrong, because the X-Rays some doctors decide to take is only for 1 or 2 specific areas. For most doctors they ask for an X-ray of the wrists and maybe the knee area. They are checking your limbs to look for the growth plates. However, I would guess most ordinary family doctors who specialized in internal medicine or pediatrics will not be as thorough as say an endocrinologist or orthopedic specialist. They forget that in terms of the human growth process, the vertebrate in the torso actually don’t stop growing for an additional 2 years. So after the growth plates in your limbs like arms and legs are done, there is still hope in the vertebrate bones.

This is a HUGE problem with kids who suffer from scoliosis since it has been shown in many cases that almost all the growth in torso height comes from the increase in size of the vertebrate bone, not the intervertebral disks. This means that if you put a kid in one of those braces, which causes them to be held in one place, any growth will only bend the kids back more and this creates an even worse spinal deformity.

This subject was brought up in this paper written in 1992, found HERE, entitled “Growth beyond skeletal maturity.” The abstract is below.

Serial measurements of standing and sitting height of children show that growth continues beyond the age of skeletal maturity when judged by the fusion of the epiphyses of the hand and wrist. Most of this increase occurs in the sitting height, largely reflecting spinal growth, and may account for the known progression potential of idiopathic scoliosis beyond the attainment of skeletal maturity.

here is another article that states the same thing, that you don’t stop growing until your vertebrate has stopped growing, which the Risser Method can not detect, entitled “The pathogenesis of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, A systematic review of the literature”.

“Contrary to the findings of Risser and Ferguson, complete ossification of the iliac apophysis did not always correlate with the cessation of vertebral growth. Several authors reported progression of scoliotic curves after skeletal maturity, diagnosed by Risser’s method.”

and also on this website for scoliosis HERE by a very angry and concerned parent. He/She says…

“”My daughter’s orthopedic surgeon stated that it had been proven that kids whose curves progressed after reaching skeletal maturity were not done with their growth.

Here are a couple of research items showing that growth can continue beyond skeletal maturity when judged by both Risser and by fusion of the epiphyses of the hand and wrist.

These are both based on older observations, so I wonder why many orthopedic surgeons don’t take this into account when determining the time to stop bracing? Is this just relying on odds, and it’s just unfortunate for those kids who don’t follow the average growth patterns? Shouldn’t they be relying on cessation of vertical growth also?

Spinekids has numerous kids this has happened to. Perhaps the doctors could show their patients sideshift exercises during weaning of the brace to help minimize any further progression if they feel the kid can’t take bracing any more.””

Again, men will not stop growing because of their vertebrate growth plates until they are usually around 20, give or take a couple of years. For girls, that age range is around 18, plus and minus a couple of years. I know I didn’t stop increasing in height until I was around 20 or 21. So, maybe this is some good news for you kids out there who are still in their late teens and early 20s. You still got a chance so live a healthier lifestyle and get some exercise.

{Tyler-I just discovered the paper. The paper is not as ground breaking as alluded to by it’s title but merely suggests that growth in the spine occurs 2 years after growth of the limbs ceases}

Another Height Increase Qigong Technique That Works, Maybe

Me: I was going through the Giant Scientific Boards yesterday and I stumbled upon another method that seems to be based on the idea of using Qigong. Now, if you are a regular reader you would remember that I talked quite extensively about the possibility of using Qigong to increase height and grow taller mainly because there was this Chinese female named Zixia or Nicole who claimed that she was able to grow 4 inches from 5 feet to 5 feet 4 inches by doing Qigong for 2 years, getting the first 3 inches in extra height the first year of practicing her qigong routine. Now, this type of claim and idea is something that is very alien to me since I never could even guess it was even possibility. If you want to find the old posts that talks about her ideas, you can either look through my complete posts lists or go to her blog website HERE which can be found in the resource section.

As for this new recent development, the technique is similar to Zixia’s stuff and mentions her blog as a form of influence. There is not doubt that there have been many people who have found her old blog posts. Some of her posts have almost 100 comments so a lot of people have read about her story and her ideas. There have even been a few people who have been so inspired by her story to start blogs of their own to try to document their own journey in trying to increase their height. As for the discussion and qigong method describe below, it was obtained from the Giant Scientific boards HERE. Maybe you can get more out of it than me right now. Right now I am just trying to focus my energy in reading and researching the science part. I don’t have time at this point to do a really deep in depth analysis on the technique.

fivemore
Rookie Height SeekerJoined: 24 Jul 2008
Posts: 32

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 1:59 pm Post subject: Mind over matter

Hey all,I used to go by the name of “urban_model” but for some reason couldn’t log-on so I created a new account. Anyhow, I’ve studied meditation and Qigong and decided that’s the route I’m going. I believe I can grow as many inches as I want with Qigong and for those interested, I want to point out a few things that will help you overcome blockages:1. The human attention span for adults is only 7 seconds and even less in most, in order to take advantage of qigong benefits you have to improve your concentration/attention span. You can do so with Qigong. But fullfilling this first step is important, if not you will have a difficult time.2. There is a left and right side of brain. Left is logic, right is creativity. Some people use more of one side than the other. It is natural to keep a balance of the two to use the two daily. I.e, if you’re in a classroom that requires you to use logic/left brain, you’ll normally drift away in wonderland (mind-wandering) with the use of right brain imagining all sorts of things. If you’re required to concentrate on something such as hypnosis, qigong, or anything that asks of you to imagine, you’ll drift away into the left brain (logic brain), and think about real life events such as hanging out at the bar with friends the other night. It’s rare that when asked to imagine one thing such as a purple dog, to mind wander and think about a blue cow. The two sides are always intertwined. The key here is to only tap into the right brain (creativity side) when performing Qigong, and leave the left/logic side alone. Because logic does not always mean it’s true. Remember, not too long ago we thought the earth was flat.

3. Removing doubts: Believe it or not, whether you say you fully believe in Qigong and its powers, at the beginning, there is always some slight doubt. Anyone who says they have always truly believed in something 100% are fooling themselves. It is natural to doubt everything and question things before you can truly put your faith into something. This can of course be removed but first you must tune into yourself. This comes with practice.

4. You have to be in the right mood and right state of mind for this. I recommend that you practice Qigong (or meditation if that works better) 30 min in the morning, and 30 min at night. Make sure you don’t go to bed late and tired for practice because it will have a negative impact on how well you will concentrate and chances are you might doze off.

5. Listen to some meditation music while doing this. It helps with imagination and visualization 100% more than it would if you were to lay in bed silently and it helps you tap into your right side of the brain more. Youtube “meditation.

6. This part is important. You MUST study Qigong OR meditation as much as possible on your own spare time. Read about it, study it, get familiar. Don’t just read someone elses success story and duplicate their routine. It won’t always work since everyone is different. And find a way that makes your mind connect with your body. Just like the lady from easyheight.com mentioned, do whatever becomes believable to you. If Qigong doesn’t work for you because the whole “energy light ball” is too overwhelming, then try meditation and regular visualization of your body being taller. But don’t give up, and don’t stick to something that you don’t feel is working.

To add some science to this to make some understand the make up of everything in the universe (short explanation). Everything is made out of atoms. The smallest unit that makes up the entire universe is called an atom. Atoms create molecules, and molecules create elements, everything that you can see, touch an feel today. But the atom in itself is 99% empty space, which means everything that you can see, touch, and feel today is 99% nothing (or energy as some call it but you can’t measure it), the only reason why things can take such shape (all that you can see now) is because the electrons that circle around the nucleon create a electronic barrier that, when touched with other things it creates resistance. In other words, you’ve never really touched anything. It is hard to explain without visual examples. For example, the reason why you can touch things and not just “touch through” them since it’s mostly 99% nothing is because when two forms such as a hand and a ball touching, the atom electrons shield prevent your hand from emerging with the ball. Whenever you touch something, there’s actually a bit of gap between your hand and that item, the electrons prevent you from ever fully 100% get close to another item. So if this 99% of everything is empty and only 1% is something, that tells you a lot. Hypnosis is real, and qigong is real in a sense that you can use your mind to manipulate anything and everything. They have a great show on national geographic called “known universe”, that discusses this in great detail, it’s really worth a watch!

The chinese must have known about this long before scientists ever knew, because with almost every practice they have, involves the flow of energy, in which the whole world is made out of, everything is in fact energy.

I am going to leave this forum for a while to fulfill my goals and am going to give this 2 years to try. The first 6 months will be dedicated to practicing Qigong and to study it, the next 6 months will be to condition my mind and body through daily practice and the last year will be to grow 4 inches. I’m pretty sure it can be done much sooner, and possibly take longer. I only give it 2 years to make sure I won’t give up before then. But there have been reports of people growing this much within a year and less. Then when I’ve achieved my goal I will try to come back and report. I know it will be long from now but, I’ve noticed the more time I spend on the forums the less I actually do anything about my height.

Meditation and Qigong is real, it just takes time, patient, and effort and it is certainly not an overnight thing. I’ve practiced about 3 times now, and it is not easy but each time gets easier. What I noticed today (which inspired me to write this post) was the sensations I felt in my legs. My feet had needles (you know when you sit on your leg for too long) and my legs would have very tingly sensations that would last for 1 second at a time. They are not very comfortable. It feels like your muscles are being tickled from the inside. Then when I got up to measure myself knowing that I hadn’t grown but just for fun, I noticed that I was half a centimeter taller. This new height is taller than my morning height and I’ve never had this height throughout my whole life. The gains were not permanent as I did not focus on lengthening my bones/legs but rather the joints in my spine (an experiment I did with the guys youtube video which I’m about to show you).

Here’s the link to the video of the guy showing how Qigong can work for height increase: Note that a lot of the user comments on this youtube video are also true testimonials from people who grew using his technique, but again, i recommend that you follow Zixia’s method as she focuses on bones.

Meditationyoga:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lo3JHWkZuE

and here’s zixia’s link:
http://zixialinmm.blogspot.com/

fivemore
Rookie Height SeekerJoined: 24 Jul 2008
Posts: 32

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 3:17 pm Post subject:

Here is some good meditation music for those who have trouble finding them on youtube, the ones on top are the ones I listen to the most, but they are all very relaxing.If you’re interested in downloading youtube songs go to this link: 1. http://www.videocodezone.com/youtubevideo1.php 2. Click on “video download”, the tab on top 3. Paste the youtube link 4. Choose audio format and downloadZen garden: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR3dM-GlZK8 Heart or Reiki: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWvS9llbSJ0 Embrace the moment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEwFwfWFnEAhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Hp1SpEKv3c&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEulyxBCA6c&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQkcVcKJ7Es&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmczPdqSz0M&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnREtYxCY-I&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSFKGAQpmi8&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqzDyxVb0yc&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJCwOoCOCVY&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gpjJUbPfzY&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1UEXBXNyyQ&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeYTBvanFmE&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycLpVwGlN00&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbNDmKFzzG8&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFaxMdNfILE&feature=related – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIgVi4Kbh1k&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmA-dWdaI5k&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMxKffswZ1Q&feature=related – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjo7-w7kDnI&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJqhh5t-1gM&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgG4vDfcJek&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMDVvcMaRE0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRryHfBgoKE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ28Ic9rOXE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFr48tLthUo&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHi1Y4qsor0&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94HYEe1bOFU&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzMGzBKRttU&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1zFf4RYbZQ&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYs5zyM9zk8 havasupai – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SljA0xZAYD0 igor krutoi – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJDvrQkSUfI&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-4J5j74VPw&feature=related

airozhal
Rookie Height SeekerJoined: 07 Dec 2008
Posts: 24
Location: United States

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 8:09 pm Post subject:

awesome… i was trying to find good meditiation stuff. Good luck with your gains!

akuma69
Sophomore Height SeekerJoined: 30 Jul 2008
Posts: 82

Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 11:31 pm Post subject:

thanks for the info mate.fivemore, I would like your opinion on something. Can I listen to trance type songs to achieve the same results?I remember i was doing hypnosis for height few weeks back (stopped now because something came up) for about 3 days. And on my 3rd day I had a very weird experience.I was listening to techno/trance music with headphones while laying in bed at night with eyes closed. These type…..

they not exactly the relaxing type music. And while i was listening to it, i kept telling myself ” tallerrr tallerrr…la la la…talleerrrr. i am talleerrrrrr” like going with the music and saying “taller” with the beat. I was enjoying it. I just went with the flow and let go. This was at 12 am. And after a while i felt like i went into ” auto pilot”. I lost track of time. Suddenly I felt myself wake up (but eyes still closed, i think its called regaining consiousness). I realised I felt awake in my HEAD only (music was still playing). it felt like my body was asleep. I couldn’t really “feel” my body was there at all. I didn’t know what the time was or how long I was in auto pilot for. And then straight away I started saying ” i AM 5 foot 10 now!” and full started to imagine myself at THAT height. Imagined myself eye to eye with my 5 foot 10 friend etc. And I was believing it. After 10 or so minutes of this. I opened my eyes and my body awoke. I then looked at the time and it was 3:30 am. i only did the last part of imagining myself at 5 foot 10 for around 10 mins, so that means the rest of the hours was on AUTOPILOT!!!! 3 HOURS!!! and i thought i only went autopilot for 20 mins.

Could you give me your input in what happened here fivemore?

Cheers

fivemore
Rookie Height SeekerJoined: 24 Jul 2008
Posts: 32

Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 10:08 am Post subject:

akuma,I don’t recommend listening to anything that’s upbeat like trance, hip hop or rock. There shouldn’t be any lyrics either. The only words you should listen to are grow taller suggestions whether it’s spoken in your head, out loud, or through a tape. Meditation music is not necessary if you prefer silence but meditation music will help.Meditation is such an individual thing, sure, maybe there is some meditation master out there who can have loud rock and trance music at the same time playing in the back ground and two people fighting in the same room she’s in with a tornado threatening to tear down her house and she’s still able to meditate and enter her subconsciousness but this is very hard to do and it takes a lot of practice and sacrifice.So since you’re new to this and you will be new for years to come, I do not recommend it. I can’t tell you what happened in your experience when you ‘blacked out’ while listening to trance and self hypnotizing, all I can do is guess that you managed to take yourself far away from your current state but I doubt you would grow tall that way.

I dont like the term hypnosis and find meditation to be more accurate, and you do have to be aware of your surroundings and let your subconscious mind and body connect and reach a higher state. Imagining that everything around you, including your body is just energy and that you can with the power of your mind change the shape and size of your body.

With meditation you need to be calm, focused, aware of your surroundings, and concentrated, so I don’t suggest you listening to upbeat music while you meditate.

Also.. if you want to know for sure whether you’re doing it right or not., you should feel your body, or in my case, legs, tingle and stretch without any physical effort. It’s as is there are tingly sensations on your legs like they are stretching.

I’ve only had about 6 sessions that last for 30 min each so far so that’s about 6 days of practice but I haven’t done this everyday, it’s been scattered throughout a 2 week period. However, my concentration and focus is much better than before and I’m able to visualize without mind wandering, and the sensations in my legs come faster and stay longer than before. This is good news lol.

I only came back to the forum to look for a link that someone posted recently so I not be checking the forum often, if anyone has any questions PM me but I can’t guarantee when I’ll be checking the messages.

Also, do not measure yourself everyday, or every week. Looking in the mirror to check your height counts too as well as when you walk outside and compare yourself to others. You have to maintain a positive attitude and keep your focus, do not lose your grip .

The hardest part about meditation is patience and effort.

Good luck

akuma69
Sophomore Height SeekerJoined: 30 Jul 2008
Posts: 82

Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 9:12 pm Post subject:

hmm how do you prevent yourself from falling asleep?

fivemore
Rookie Height SeekerJoined: 24 Jul 2008
Posts: 32

Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 2:20 am Post subject:

Hi Akuma, it’s hard sometimes not to fall asleep. So all you have to do is try not to fall asleep, it’s will power that’s required.I have grown 0.5 cm permanently, my night height and morning height is both 0.5cm taller than before. I still have growing pains and will continue meditating.I grew 0,5 months ago when I only meditated for 2-3 weeks and stopped since, due to laziness.. I plan on growing 4 more inches until I’m 5’8 and hopefully that’ll be done by the end of this year.When you grow you will experience pain in your joints: Knees, ankles, wrists, elbows, shoulders and sometimes lower back. Sometimes these pains are there without you growing and sometimes you grow a little more. So pain does not always mean gain. But most likely there won’t be no gain without pain. So Try to keep up the meditation everyday so you will grow evenly and get it over with, rather than doing what I did, meditating for 2 weeks and growing and have a persistent pain that slowly wore off without me continuing growth (Becuse i stopped meditating).

akuma69
Sophomore Height SeekerJoined: 30 Jul 2008
Posts: 82

Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 8:09 pm Post subject:

i do get knee pain sometimes. And sometimes sudden shin pains. All this started when i started meditation. When actual growth happens, is the pain intense and consistent throughout the day everyday? or just random sudden pains?do you have msn? it would be great to have a discussion about qiqong with you.Cheers

Andy Nguyen
Rookie Height SeekerJoined: 11 Mar 2009
Posts: 26

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 10:38 am Post subject:

Hey guys,I have practicing self-hyponsis daily since 2 months ago. I have been experiencing the same symptoms you guys have, namely pain around the joints (but not the joints themselves) particularly around the two ends of tibia. When I go to sleep, I will feel some burning pain around my calves and upper arms (similar to the “pain” when working out). At the beginning these pains woke me up at night, but now it seems to have reduced or I got adapted to it. I also notice my body temperature elevates a lot when I try to sleep and you can literally feel your heart beating harder and your blood pushing against your extremities. Even during the day, I will occasionally feel a twitch of pain at random location along my tibia. I think I am growing about 0.7 cm / month (I check monthly) but I haven’t rule out measurment error. Do you guys have any suggestions on making this technique more effective so I don’t have to worry about it being just an error? Thanks and good luck guys!

WireySpindell
Height Seeker PhDJoined: 11 Mar 2006
Posts: 1363

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 1:34 pm Post subject:

0.7 cm in 2 mo = over half an inch, dos it not? Thats a pretty fast pace. _________________ Cheers,

Author

Message

Andy Nguyen
Rookie Height SeekerJoined: 11 Mar 2009
Posts: 26

Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 10:37 am Post subject:

Hey Wirey,Half an inch is still well within measurement error, or I just happen to have my spine more stretched out for whatever reason, or possibly both together. It is still not a good indicator of actual growth. Even if it really is actual growth, I still hope I can make the method more efficient so I can achieve my goal of 6 ft at graduation (about 1 year from now). Best time for growth is actually this summer because I am expecting my 4th year to be really stressful, so don’t think I will grow as fast (if at all) during school. I know I might be asking too much, but it will give me great confidence in this method if I get a good increase (above 1 cm) by the end of this month. That’s why I want to know if I can improve this method, so I won’t have doubt in this anymore.

One curious note is I weighted about 150 lbs 3 months ago and now I weighted about 168 lbs, even though my diet has not changed. Visually I don’t look much different, just a bit more “chubby” I guess. I got my blood test done and the report will be ready this coming Monday. Hope I don’t have any weird endocrine disorder or something. I will keep you guys updated on this one.

Andy Nguyen
Rookie Height SeekerJoined: 11 Mar 2009
Posts: 26

Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 2:35 pm Post subject:

I got my blood and urine test report today, and the doctor said I am normal and very healthy. I asked him about the physiological changes that I experienced during the last 3 months, but he just told me to ignore and not worry about them. In other words, the doctor didn’t tell me anything useful.I did notice some parameters of interest however, particularly in regards to the hematology section. I notice the hemoglobin, hematrocrit, RBC and its indices either approach or exceed the upper limit. I did some research on my own and found the hormones responsible for this are the anabolic steroids. Here is what I found from wiki:

Quote:

Anabolic steroids, or anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS), are a class of steroid hormones related to the hormone testosterone. They increase protein synthesis within cells, which results in the buildup of cellular tissue (anabolism), especially in muscles.Anabolic steroids were first isolated, identified and synthesized in the 1930s, and are now used therapeutically in medicine to stimulate bone growth and appetite, induce male puberty, and treat chronic wasting conditions, such as cancer and AIDS.

Some examples of the anabolic effects of these hormones are increased protein synthesis from amino acids, increased appetite, increased bone remodeling and growth, and stimulation of bone marrow, which increases the production of red blood cells. Through a number of mechanisms anabolic steroids stimulate the formation of muscles cells and hence cause an increase in the size of skeletal muscles leading to increased strength.

The androgenic effects of AAS are numerous. Processes affected include pubertal growth, sebaceous gland oil production, and sexuality (especially in fetal development).

A review spanning more than three decades of experimental studies in men found that body weight may increase by 2–5 kg as a result of short term (<10 weeks) AAS use, which may be attributed mainly to an increase of lean mass.

The parts in bold is what I have experienced in significance so far. I have not ruled out muscle mass increase, but that’s very hard to tell since I am muscular to begin with. From what I gather above, it seems hypnosis can actually induce puberty and thus eventually growth. Did anyone have a blood test done during their hynosis routine so they can confirm what I have observed?

bruiseviolet
Sophomore Height SeekerJoined: 28 Apr 2009
Posts: 68

Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 6:39 pm Post subject:

^^that is very interesting. Did you take anabolic steroids or did the hypnosis increase them naturally? _________________ Age: 28, female Starting: 5’4.25″ Goal: 5’7.5″

Andy Nguyen
Rookie Height SeekerJoined: 11 Mar 2009
Posts: 26

Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 8:24 pm Post subject:

Nope, my diet is normal and the only supplements I took are Calcium, Magnesium, Vit D, Omega 3 and Glucosamine Sulfate. None of these are precursors to the hormones so I strongly suggest the hormones are the result of hypnosis.I also do NOT recommend anyone to try and take steroids externally, as the problems with them are obvious. Only trust what your body produces and regulates, I will say.

WireySpindell
Height Seeker PhDJoined: 11 Mar 2006
Posts: 1363

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2009 11:04 pm Post subject:

Yeah Andy, is true that .5″ is within error margin, but at lthe same time is the most you could reasonably expect in a two month time frame, roughly. The turth is you can’t really be certain of growth until a solid 3-4 months in of consistent growth. Keep it up, see where you are at 2 months from now.
_________________
Cheers,WireySpindell

Starting Height: 5’8″ (March, 2005)
Current Height: 5’10”
Goal: 5’11”, and then 6’0″ …
Parents Height: 4’11”, 5’9 1/2″
Age: 25

Andy Nguyen
Rookie Height SeekerJoined: 11 Mar 2009
Posts: 26

Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 2:38 pm Post subject:

WireySpindell wrote:

Wirey, you are absolutely correct. But the sad thing is these two months are really my best time for growth, since I really have nothing better to do anyway (relative to after September).

I heard my parents said that whenever I got a fever as a kid I grew the fastest, to the point of measurable difference after I recover from the fever. I remember 3 days after I started hynosis I got this massive fever for a day, and my appetite went sky high as well. Sadly, I didn’t measure right after the fever so I don’t know if it is the same thing. I have not get another fever ever since that time. I kind of wanted to induce that growth fever through hypnosis on purpose, and see how effective that is. Do any hypnosis experts here know how I can achieve that? Thanks a lot!

TrueHeightSeeker
Veteran Height SeekerJoined: 13 Sep 2008
Posts: 114

Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 3:22 pm Post subject:

I bought thishttp://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=110396809037

Has it Worked so far ? I don’t know Had it for a month
_________________
age : 23

bruiseviolet
Sophomore Height SeekerJoined: 28 Apr 2009
Posts: 68

Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 5:29 pm Post subject:

^^Let us know if it works. I want to try hypnosis but I think I need something like that to guide me cuz I’m not sure where to start or if I’m doing it right. _________________ Age: 28, female Starting: 5’4.25″ Goal: 5’7.5″

Sixunder
Veteran Height SeekerJoined: 14 Jul 2007
Posts: 184

Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 9:47 pm Post subject:

Looks interesting..and relaxing as well. Does anyone else hear little creaks in their spine/neck area when doing deep breathing exercises or laying down and breathing? Ive been noticing that for some time and it goes the same with when I practice this for a bit.