Tag Archives: closed growth plates

This Researcher Succeeded In 3D-Printing Spinal Discs Allowing Adults With Closed Growth Plates To Grow Taller If They Desired – Big Breakthrough

This Researcher Succeeded In 3D-Printing Spinal Discs Allowing Adults With Closed Growth Plates To Grow Taller If They Desired – Big Breakthrough

3D Printing Spinal DiscsMy claims and estimates that the technology to find an alternative to limb lengthening surgery would take at least 2 decades, if not 4 decades, may have to be drastically reduced. In my recent post about the nature of how Kurzweil’s Law of Accelerating Return shows an acceleration of technological breakthroughs, it may be that we have already reached the inflection point and things are already accelerating much faster than even I would have anticipated.

The old idea that so many people have suggested of increasing the torso or spine in some way to achieve the goal of increasing their height even as adults with closed growth plates is indeed already here. “How is that possible?” the reader might ask.

The technology has finally arrived, but the biomedical researchers which have succeeded might not even realize just how they can use their new technology in lateral thinking unique and potentially extremely financially rewarding applications.

Update: May 16, 2014: I finally realize now that Dr. Bonassar’s research group had made a very similar ear cartilage tissue like the group from Wake Forest University, which I had referenced twice already on this website. Interestingly he was recently promoted to the rank of Full Professorship back in January of this year, 2014. I guess doing breakthrough research that gets the media and the rest of the world talking definitely helps move one’s academic career much faster. He has quite an impressive Curriculum Vitae, having a BS and MS from MIT in MSE (Material Science & Engineering) and finished his graduate work at JHU (John’s Hopkins University) with his Ph. D in BME (Biomedical Engineering). After getting his Ph.D, he did fellowship work at the Orthopedic Research Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital and then another fellowship at the Center of Biomedical Engineering at his Alma Mater MIT. Before coming to Cornell, he had spent 5 years at the Center for Tissue Engineering at UMass in the Medical School.

So he knows what the hell he is doing and understands tissue engineering and cell culturing and cartilage regeneration much better than me.

I had written quite a few posts talking about how we can use 3D-Printing, and even 4D-Printing of “smart materials” for our endeavor and used his research as an example already. (I also referenced Dr. Valenti’s work on regrowing ear tissue on the sides of lab mice.) The posts were “How 4-D Printing Can Synthesize Biological Tissues And Organs Which Grow Themselves” and “Increase Height And Grow Taller Through Bioprinting And Electrospinning” and “Programmable 3D Printers Creating New Epiphyseal Growth Plate Cartilage As Interchangeable Body Parts“.

Interchangeable-Body-PartsThe group from Wake Forest University were the ones who managed to successfully regrow human ears. Remember the picture above??

Even NPR did a short piece on them back in Feb of 2013 on the research going on in Bonassar’s Lab at Cornell (Available Here). Back then, he was still an Associate Professor in BME. Their paper is entitled High-Fidelity Tissue Engineering of Patient-Specific Auricles for Reconstruction of Pediatric Microtia and Other Auricular Deformities“.

This researcher with his team in some lab at Cornell University has been able to validate and prove a concept which had been another huge block in our progress. You can click below to get the webpage for the Bonassar Research Group, whose goals are focused on regeneration of the musculoskeletal tissue.

I am referring to the viral post which was written on the website DVice.com entitled “3D printing right into your spine could make you whole again”. I am surprised that neither I or any of the readers of the website ever mentioned it or did not see it written. It proved the validity of an idea which I did not think was reasonable for at least another 10-15 years. However, the whole advent and spread of 3-D Printing technology has made me reconsider so much of what is possible.

So how can we make such a leap in theory from the achievement of regrowing an ENTIRE Spinal Disc, and achieving the goal of increasing our heights as adults?

It turns out that I was wrong before (I admit it. I made a anatomical mistake which led to a bad judgement call, which I will correct right now). Before, I said that there is no way that we should ever touch the spinal disc since we could cause the person in operation to become paralyzed if the spinal cord, which I thought was inside the disc, was nicked or sliced in some way.

Thinking back on it, I realize now that anatomically speaking, it made no sense to assume that the Spinal Cord with the CSF (cerebral spinal fluid) would be in the core of the disc. I was off by around 2 inches at least.

I was reminded of the horrible case of the former Superman actor Christopher Reeves and what he had to go through for over 20 years suffering in a wheelchair after suffering a fall from a horse ride. At the time, I felt that no one should ever be stupid enough to ever choose to go through such an invasive surgery as spinal disc replacement or similar since the risk of paralysis and turning into a paraplegic was just too high, just to gain extra height. If someone did actually go through a surgery like that and risk becoming a paraplegic for just a few centimeters into their torso, they should have their mental state checked out and get major psychiatric help.

Getting back to the question which I still haven’t answered before yet… “So how can we make such a leap in theory from the achievement of regrowing an ENTIRE Spinal Disc, and achieving the goal of increasing our heights as adults?”

So here is what I am going to outline in only semi-technical fashion to show the readers that we already have the technology and the technical know how to achieve this goal.

IVDWhen we actually look at the positioning of the intervertebral disc relative to where the spinal cord is, it seems that they are in different areas of the dorsal region.

The group of researchers was able to using electro-spinning techniques in a Bio-3D Printer to recreate the entire disc, getting the material strength and properties of the nucleus pulposus and annulus fibrosis correct.

Remember that the composition of the NP and the AF are just slight varying percentages of a combination of proteoglycans, collagen, and water.

There is a nice picture that was available on the DVice.com article which I clipped below

Disc regeneration

This is going to be a 2-Part process which will be combined together in the end for implantation..The steps to do this are the following….

Part 1: For the hyaline cartilage layers…

  1. Get a sample of the person’s marrow through a bone marrow biopsy. This one is going to hurt quite a bit!
  2. Take some of the patients own MSCs from their bone marrow through centrifuging and filtration processes.
  3. Differentiate the MSCs into the chondrogenic linage using growth factory combinations.
  4. Culture the chondrocytes into cell colonies using a culture medium to increase the cell density
  5. Take the chondrocytes and using a 3-D Printer layer them into the shape of a thin disc shape. Note that since we are using the 3D Printer to extrude layers upon layer, we can precisely program the alignment of the chondrocytes. With a simple script, we can have the chondrocytes stacked on top of each other like the column-like fashion of the growth plates.
  6. Don’t forget to also inject the right IHH and PTHrP combination to get the cartilage to expand on its own.

Part 2: For the collagen disc layer…

This is what has been achieved by Bonassar and his research group. They got the structural alignment correct, with the right tissue material properties.

This was one of the other technical problem which I realized we had to figure out, which was shown to have been solved.

Part 3: Re-implantation

  • You just layer the cartilage on top and bottom of the collagen disc layer. It turns into a sandwiched multi-layer. This can be implanted into the backs of the patients.
  • Since the discs are themselves in the back of the spinal cord, this surgery will be relatively safe from the possibility of cutting the spinal cord.

Part 4: Growth Factor Injections

  • After the surgery, the person is recommended to take about 1 week to let the implant to fuse to the vertebrate bones.
  • Due to the fact that the printed cartilage sides had the chondrocytes specifically positioned in columnar structures, the cartilage would act like any growth plate and expand in thickness, aka make you grow taller.
  • Of course, we recommend increasing the rate of cartilage growth with some carefully positioned growth factor injections, like PTHrP and IHH which I had mentioned before as well as OP-1 (aka BMP-7) which had been proven successful in increasing the disc height of lab rabbits.
  • It might even be as simple as using a growth factor patch, where you stick it on your back to let the growth factors diffuse into your back, like the smoking patches you see quitters use.

On The Issue of The Facet Joints Between the Irregular Vertebrate Bones…

  • Anatomically, we also have to take into consideration the fact that not only are the irregular vertebrate bones attached to each other through the discs, they are also attached to each other in in the area known as the facet joints, which are areas on the sides where it is ligaments or cartilage.
  • I have not done any research on the facet joints, however the joints can be easily be stretched out using injections of a certain type of chemical.
  • If the facet joints were mainly ligaments, an injection of the compound relaxin would make the facet joints looser, and easier to stretch out. (The use of relaxin to increase the torso and/or the pelvic girdle bone was the proposed theory me and Tyler gave on why a minority of the female population who went through pregnancy seems to end up taller too.) Even just a few days ago, we had this message to the website where another woman claimed that she increase in height by 2 inches over a span of 2 pregnancies around the age of 33!. (It could be a lie though since we can’t validate all these pregnancy claims, but we wanted to post it here anyway.)

Pregnancy Height Increase

  • If the facet joints were mainly elastic or fibrocartilage, a small inject of growth hormone would make the area go into hypertrophy.

The Stretching of the Spinal Cord

This was the other big technical problems we would need to consider. The question is, “If we started to stretch out the torso/back again, would the spinal cord also be stretched out?”

Or is the spinal cord like a piece of string which goes through the vertebrate bone acting like a needle hole?

Ventral Dorsal Root Spinal CordIt seems that even a slight bruising of the spinal cord can cause paralysis so we have to be very careful here. It might be that the spinal cord can NOT stretch out or increase in length at the speed of the increasing of the back. If not, the ventral and dorsal roots that laterally comes out of the spinal cord might be pulled out or snapped off, like the branches on a tree.

My personal belief on the elastic nature of the spinal cord says that due to the slow, but noticeable changes in the volumetric size of the irregular vertebrae bones, the spinal cord should not have any difficulty in slowly increasing in small incremental length along with the bone surrounding it.

To all the people who said that Limb Lengthening Surgery is the only way to increase in height, I believe I might have proven you guys wrong, at least in theory. Based on the following steps I have outlined above, there will be some biomedical researcher or company with the funds to take every single step I have outlined above, execute on them, and become a future billionaire.


How Future Stem Cell Technology Will Allow People With Closed Growth Plates To Grow Taller

How Future Stem Cell Technology Will Allow People With Closed Growth Plates To Grow Taller

Future Stem Cell TechnologyRecently one of the regular readers to the website, who calls himself Ankit. We almost never reveal last names on this website to keep the identities of our readers, and contributors anonymous. Ankit stated that he has been reading ours website for 2 years now, and wanted to congratulate us on our work. Well, we wanted to thank Ankit but would like to point out that technically this website has not been around for 2 years. I only started writing for the website back in June or July of 2012.

His major question was to ask us about contacting this Russian Stem Cell researcher named Alexander Teplyashin. The name did sound familiar and I think that this guy was someone I wrote about in a previous post “Great News For Stem Cell Method For Height Increase! :)”. We chose not to try to get in contact with this guy since he seems to be a sort of a controversial figure in Russia. We also believed that no matter how many times we emailed him or his secretary, they would not respond. The website (StemCellRussia.com) seems to not reveal a lot of information. However, there have been at least one person who has messaged them and got a response. At the moment, certain pages on the website do not load up.

Given the recent news about how the current Russian president Putin is about to sent Russian Forces into the Crimea and Ukraine to control the uprisings, we suspect that anyone who is going to try to meet this Teplyashin guy to get stem cell research done on themselves to grow taller will be extremely disappointed. Russia has always been a sort of unstable nation with a violent history for the last century or so. How much is the story coming out of Russia actually based on facts and reality and how much is just exaggerations and lies?

We decided to google this guy’s name into Google, Alexander Teplyashin to see what is said about him. The first result was found was an article written in a well respected medical research journal, The Lancet. The article was entitled “Russian scientists voice concern over “stem-cell cosmetics””.

So who is this guy?

It seems that this guy Alexander has been linked to not just claims made by stem cell providers about using the technology to grow taller, but also to stop the process of aging. Some of the claims that he makes include….

  • Curing Alzheimers
  • Curing Parkinson’s
  • Stop Aging
  • Remove all diseases
  • Hepatitis
  • Eye Disorders
  • Skin Problems

Most sources and internet results reveal that Alexander Teplyashin was head of the Beauty Clinic Plaza, which is located in Moscow. We would learn later that the Beauty Clinic Plaza is not some type of single stand alone office, but is actually the name of a chain of beauty clinics and salons (The only source we did find suggested that there was 2 locations, in Moscow and on the elite Rublyovskoye Shosse) This guy was the director for the chain, not one single clinic or institute. He supposedly had an assistant named Ekaterina Kulneva with her email at  scelltimes@gmail.com. The website that has all this information was www.stemcellrussia.com. He supposed also had a wife named Dr. Nata Toptchiachvili. It turns out that they are quite rich. He is described back in 2005 to have thinning grey-black hair and single, well defined crease over his forehead.

Maybe a decade ago, there was a lot of controversy over this guy since he was believed to have been connected to a discovery that barrels of fetuses where found somewhere close to the Ural Mountains.

In addition, there are sources which say that this Dr. Alexander Teplyashin guy was the president of “Pyramids” Clinic network, as well as the director of the Institute of Stem Cell Research.

Institute of Stem Cells

The exact location for the clinic (or more accurately clinics, if it was indeed a chain of beauty salons/clinics) is described to be in the center of the capital. The building has been described as being “an immaculate building with frosted glass doors, chrome fittings, and a spiral staircase

We found out that he has a patent for artificial stem cell implant “Method for obtaining mesenchymal stem cells”. The IPEXL database shows that while there are 3 results for this Russian researcher, the 3 results all show one patent title. The time frame was from 2005-2007.

Part of the Abstract is below (To get the full Patent PDF, Click Here)

“…obtain mesenchymal stem cells from human tissue with high homogeneity of the cell suspension, since the used method for obtaining mesenchymal stem cells from human tissue comprises the crushing and enzymatical treatment of the tissue with collagenase solution in Eagle medium in the Dulbecco modification, removal of erythrocytes by the aid of the lysis solution and subsequent filtration of the prepared suspension; as human tissue fat tissue or decidual or amniotic placenta membrane or chorion placenta stroma is used, whereas the filtration is performed sequentially by the use of filters comprising a pore size of 100 μm and 10 μm. In the enzymatical treatment of the fat tissue, of the decidual or amniotic placenta membrane collagenase of the type I is used, and in the enzymatical treatment of the chorion placenta stroma collagenase of the type IV is used.”

The idea for extracting MSCs from human fat does make sense. After a plastic surgeon plugs the hose into the area of fat in a plastic surgery patient, the fat is sucked often into buckets which is often dumped. The fat can however be chemically converted into other uses. (Tyler Durden in the movie Fight Club took the fat removed and using some basic chemical principles turned the fat into soap.) You want to use some type of collagenase enzyme to dissolve/break down the collagen, which makes up most of the fat. You have to remove the red blood cells, which are the erythrocytes. That is done using a lysis solution. You are still left with suspensions of fat suspension (which are often emulsion combinations) which are removed through a series of filters, which I would guess is just using the principle of various densities and spinning the resulting solutions in the lab centrifuge so that the different materials separate out due to their different densities (basic introductory chemistry lab idea). Overall, this patent makes sense.

There was also another source which was a study entitled “Characterization of human MSC-like cells isolated from bone marrow, adipose tissue, skin and placenta” where he was cited as an author.

The laws based in Russia suggest that apparently you are allowed to extract out stem cells and even stored it, but you can’t used the stem cells in any way, whether for medical or cosmetic applications. The law was implemented by a group of 13 scientists back in 2003-2004 which only stated that stem cell researchers can not use stem cells taken from “fetuses and embryos” since it was unethical based on the source of the embryo. Based on the way other people have interpreted these russian laws, they believe the law states that “clinical application of fetal, embryonic, or adult stem cells is illegal”. Somehow people like Alexander has found legal and semantics loopholes to show that what they are doing, combining the stem cell research with viable commercial use is not technically illegal. The area is still very vague and the people who want to use the stem cells for cosmetic application use the vagueness of the russian laws to their advantage to run those types of “Beauty Clinics”.

The problem with using stem cells is that for the first decade after the discovery of stem cells, most researchers only knew how to extract them from embryos that were still in development, very young new born babies, the umbilical cord, or aborted fetuses. This caused a lot of medical ethical problems. The way that Teplyashin has been able to get around this medical ethical dilemma has been to use stem cells only taken from adults. It seems that Dr. Alexander Teplyashin, who has been offering therapies in Russia with adult stem cells get the stem cells from adult’s bone marrow and fat. The patent that he is associated with does agree with his claims though.

After careful analysis of the patent, it does indeed show that he proposed the idea of using certain filtration methods to separate the mesenchymal stem cells found from adipose tissue (Fat tissue). We would learn later that the adipose tissue is from liposuction. The little bit of stem cells they could isolate, they would cultivate and stored after filtering the right types of cells out from the fat tissue. This we would learn would be the source of the stem cells, fat tissue which had been removed from women and men who had gone in for fat tissue removal.

What about the part about his proposed technique to make people grow taller?

The original claim was that through injections of extracted and stored stem cells into bone, you would be able to increase your height by as much as 2.5 cms in one month. The patient would even be able to walk after the injections. Of course the rate of bone lengthening was from guesses done before any type of clinical testing. In the beginning, we suspected that there was never any clinical tests done.

It would take the bones 3 months to regenerate (whatever that means). After the 3 months, the bones would lengthen by 8-10 cms. If we were to take a stab at what it means for the bones to regenerate, we believe that the 3 month time line actually refers to when the porous implant would completely dissolve and the stem cells inside would differentiate into the bone material that is surrounding it.

What happens is that the stem cells are first placed into a type of porous material. The porous implant is placed in the space where there is a bone defect/fracture/distraction/break. Over time, the porous implant which is biodegradable dissolves. What is left is the stem cells, which differentiate into the right type of cells to expand the spacing of the bone break.

This method seems to have never been tested in a real medical setting. It was NOT a clinical procedure. It was done only in private clinics and beauty salons.

However, there are also contradictory information we’ve found and read which says that there was indeed at least 1 experiment done at the Cell Technology Center at Russia’s Veterinary Academy on sheep. About 100 sheep had the porous implant placed into their hind legs. We are not sure what to believe.

What is our final opinion?

After reviewing over the science based on just 1st impressions, the method does make sense. From a theoretical point of view, the idea/technique that is claimed could work. If the study with the hind legs of sheep have already been done and we can find evidence in some russian scientific journal, then the technique is valid.

We have read enough studies from PubMed and researchers and experimenters trying out tissue engineering and stem cells to reveal that the idea is theoretically valid. If we were going to take a guess at how future stem cell technology would work to help make people with closed growth plates grow taller, it would most likely be this method as described by Alexander. The problem is that this guy is so controversial. The story of his connection with barrels of fetuses discovered in the Ural Mountains is quite disturbing.

This Non-Prescription Supplement Has Been Scientifically Proven To Make You Grow Taller Even With Closed Growth Plates

This Non-Prescription Supplement Has Been Scientifically Proven To Make You Grow Taller Even With Closed Growth Plates

Grow Taller Even With Closed Growth PlatesThe other day I read an article in a business related website from a well known financial writer that it is next to impossible to change people’s behavior. The internal inertia within people (described as entropic entities) suggest that on average, humans will always choose the path with the least resistance, that require the least bit of energy or effort. It turns out that the way to change a person to adjust their lifestyle and their behavior is either through giving pain which is a form of operant conditioning after they correct behavior, or you give the person who might only make the smallest of effort a series of easy wins in the beginning. Apparently the early wins create a type of reward or positive feedback loop pathway. It causes the release of dopamine which makes people want to continue to do the new behavior, as opposed to falling back onto their old behavior and habits. So, I’m going to take that advice and help you guys get a small win. This will be one of the first posts you will see when you arrive to our website Natural Height Growth.

So I guess it is time to just tell the people who visit this website the first, and probably the only, real supplement or pill that has been scientifically proven to increase height in people, even if they have no hyaline cartilage left between their secondary and primary ossification centers (aka growth plates). I once wrote in a very early post about the people’s desire to find some type of magic pill that will make them taller without pain, effort, and maybe just a little bit of money spent (Read the post There Is No Magic Bullet). Well, today I’ll tell the people that there is just one type of pill. I am not joking or lying to you guys. This pill will make you grow taller even with closed growth plates. We would never make false claims about just things, since that is not the culture and style of this website.

Caveat: Of course, there is just a slight “catch” about this pill, which I will state at the very end. (If you have been trying to get taller before, you already know the “but” part however the ending is reserved for beginners, people who are just starting out and looking for something that can give them some hope and encouragement in the beginning.)

So what is this pill?

Glucosamine Sulphate 1500 mg – Glucosamine Sulphate –

At what dosage? 1500 mg

Yes, that’s right. This is one of the most common non-prescription supplement pill which you probably have seen at your local Costco which lets you buy it in bulk. It has been proven to be not just good for your joints in removing the pain from such cartilage degenerative diseases as osteoarthritis, but also has been shown with almost conclusive evidence to help people increase their height, even after all of their epiphyseal growth plate cartilage has disappeared from endochondral ossification completion. However, it does not increase height in the way that most people are led to believe.

Buy the Supplement From Amazon Here

(Note: Yes, the link above is an Amazon Affiliate Link. If you are kind enough to buy the pills, or anything from Amazon through that link, the website will get about 6-7% commission from your purchases.) 

What are some possible side effects? 

First we note that all supplements are drugs. Let’s remember how our old D.A.R.E course back in middle school defined the term “Drug“. A “drug” is any type of substance , besides food and water, you put in your body that will alter the state of your body or mind. All drugs, taken at high enough dosages can become toxic and start to hurt your body. Even food and water can do that. Remember the story of that woman who died from Dihydrogen Monoxide Poisoning a few years ago trying to win a car? So, our recommendation is this. DO NOT Overdo the dosage. It is asinine to believe that swallowing 5 of these pills in one day is somehow better than just 1. The side effects that are most common has been upset stomach and indigestion. Those are however benign adverse reactions. Also, refer to the WebMD article on Glucosamine Sulfate.

Our Thoughts and Explanations

More than a year ago, we had already questioned the efficacy of this one supplement, and the results and feedback we got about the effectiveness of this supplement in the post Increase Height And Grow Taller Using Chondroitin And Glucosamine (Breakthrough?)showed that there was already a lot of interest and belief that this supplement does seem to work. The video we had uploaded was a guy who explained that he managed to increase his height by upwards of even 1.25 Inches (3 cm) from the supplement. (Note: We originally had made a conversion mistake and said that 1.25 inches was 4 cms, but recently corrected it. It is closer to 3 cms)

We reposted that video below so you guys won’t have to scramble around trying to figure out where we have been getting our information from.

Even I started to take the Glucosamine Sulphate in the middle of last year. I wrote about it back in the monthly update post “May of 2013 – What I’ve Been DoingI had measured myself and I also noticed around 2-3 millimeters of height increase after 2 months of oral supplementation. I would say that the increase was probably not because of measurement error. I made sure to get about a dozen measurements using mirrors and rulers. That was when I shaved my head and was swimming on a regular basis because I was living back in the US, after traveling around Asia the last year and a half.


The Scientific Proof and Studies

Glucosamine Sulphate Grow TallerIf you guys have any doubts about the scientific proof of this claim, Click Here and you’ll get a copy of the PDF of the randomized, double-blinded, placebo controlled study. The title of the paper is “Effects of Glucosamine Sulphate on Spinal Height: A Randomized, Double-Blinded, Placebo Controlled Pilot Study”

One of the authors of this exact study is Dr Peter McCarthy, from the Welsh Institute of Chiropractic at Glamorgan University, who carried out the study. It is the exact study that was referenced by our older post about the effect of using Glucosamine with Chondroitin. The reference we are talking about was written on the Daily UK Website entitled Can a pill make you taller in four weeks?maybe 3 years ago.

The results showed that on average, a person would gain around 2-4 mm of extra height from taking the pill on a regular basis for upwards of 4 weeks. This is assuming that they don’t do anything else to help with the height gain.

The Catch: The pill probably won’t give most people the type of extra height that they would hope for. When we get messages from people asking for help, they ask for usually 4-5 inches.  If people are hoping to turn from a Messi into a Peter Crouch, they are going to be severely disappointed. The maximum one would ever expect from this type of pill form of grow taller technique is probably 2-3 cms, but I know quite a few people who have paid almost $100,000 to get just 5 cm of extra height from going through with limb lengthening surgery. (Click here to listen to our interview with Andrew, who did 9 cms of extra height in his femurs through surgery)

So if you are interested in possibly getting upwards of even 3 cms of extra height which might be more permanent that most people would believe, then this pill is the best, cheapest, most convenient option at the current time. This is as close to a cheap form of magic pill as we are probably going to ever get, at least for the next few decades.

Restore Spinal Disk HeightRemember that for most people, getting 3 cm is probably very abnormal without other factors included. The extra rewards will require more than just popping a pill into one’s mouth every night before sleep. It won’t be that easy. You will be required to do some types of stretching/decompressing of the vertebrate discs exercises to get more height. Refer to our other post  Restore Spinal Disk Height And Increase Height Temporarily Through Land Based Supine Flexion. This will get one’s lower back/lumbar intervertebral discs to become fully straightened out/decompressed.

Future Research: There have been claims that Chondroitin, Hyaluronic Acid, and Heparan Sulfate would also work, but let’s just start off by taking this supplement for now, and worry about other supplements for a later time.

Again, here is the link to buy the supplement from Amazon

Here’s the full study:

The study says that with age there is a decrease in glycosaminoglycan in the iVD.

 

The authors state that glucosamine can affect the height of normal spinal height of non arthritic population. The authors speculate that this may be a result of reduction in dirunal shrinkage.

“Both the glucosamine sulphate and the placebo were supplied by Health Perception (UK) Ltd and
were identical in appearance and packaging. The active tablets contained 500 mg of glucosamine sulphate with potassium chloride. In addition, both the active tablets and the placebo contained microcrystalline cellulose, di-calcium phosphate and magnesium stearate. It was necessary for all participants to take three tablets per day of their respective treatments so that those in the
glucosamine group would be taking 1500 mg day of the active substance.”

This study found that glucosamine had no effect on cartilage parameters:

Assessment of the effect of glucosamine sulfate and exercise on knee cartilage using magnetic resonance imaging in patients with knee osteoarthritis: A randomized controlled clinical trial

“Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic disease characterized by the focal deterioration and abrasion of articular cartilage. The goals of therapy are preserving normal joint function, relieving pain and improving quality of life (QOL). This study is performed to investigate whether glocosamine sulfate and exercise could both delay joint structure degradation evaluated with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and improve symptoms in a short time period. Materials and methods: Thirty-nine women with the diagnosis of knee OA were enrolled in the study. Patients were randomized into two groups. Group I (n=20) received an exercise program, while group II (n=19) received glucosamin sulphate (1500 mg/day) in addition to the exercise therapy. Both groups were treated for 12 weeks. The patients were evaluated before and after the treatment regarding pain, disability, functional performance, muscle strength, QOL, depression and MRI findings (cartilage volume, medial and lateral cartilage thickness{If these increase it could be an indication that height could increase}). Results: Both groups showed significant improvements in pain, disability, functional performance, QOL and depression with no statistically significant difference between the groups after the therapy. While there were significant improvements for all MRI parameters expect right knee cartilage volume and lateral cartilage thickness in two groups, statistically significant differences could not be demonstrated between the groups after the therapy. Conclusion:We found no additional effect of glucosamine in delaying the radiological progression and relieving the symptoms of OA. We also demonstrated that exercise alone was adequate to prevent structural changes and cartilage loss of the knee joint as assessed by MRI. Level of evidence: Diagnostic study (prospective study).”

This study did find a difference:

Effects of Chondroitin and Glucosamine Sulfate in a Dietary Bar Formulation on Inflammation, Interleukin-1β, Matrix Metalloprotease-9, and Cartilage Damage in Arthritis

“This study examined the effects of chondroitin sulfate (CS) alone and CS plus glucosamine sulfate (GS) in a dietary bar formulation on inflammatory parameters of adjuvant-induced arthritis and on the synthesis of interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and matrix metalloprotease-9 (MMP-9). Following 25 days pretreatment with dietary bars containing either CS alone, CS plus GS, or neither CS nor GS, rats were either sham injected or injected with Freund’s complete adjuvant into the tail vein. Rats were fed their respective bars for another 17 days after inoculation. Parameters of disease examined included clinical score (combination of joint temperature, edema, hyperalgesia, and standing and walking limb function), incidence of disease, levels of IL-1β in the serum and paw joints, levels of MMP-9 in the paw joints, paw joint histology, and joint cartilage thickness. Treatment with CS plus GS, but not CS alone, significantly reduced clinical scores, incidences of disease, joint temperatures, and joint and serum IL-1β levels. Treatment with CS alone and CS plus GS inhibited the production of edema and prevented raised levels of joint MMP-9 associated with arthritis. Similarly, CS alone and CS plus GS treatment also prevented the development of cartilage damage associated with arthritis. Combination CS plus GS treatment in a dietary bar formulation ameliorates clinical, inflammatory, and histologic parameters of adjuvant-induced arthritis. The benefits of CS and GS in combination are more pronounced than those of CS alone. The reduction of arthritic disease by CS plus GS is associated with a reduction of IL-1 β and MMP-9 synthesis.”

This study did not find a difference:

Effect of glucosamine sulphate on the temporomandibular joint of ovariectomised rats

“Glycosamine is an amino-monosaccharide present in connective and cartilage tissues that contribute to the maintenance, resistance, flexibility, and elasticity of these tissues. This study aimed to determine the in vivo effects of glucosamine sulphate (GS) on the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) of ovariectomised rats (OVX).Thirty-two rats were distributed into four groups as follows: G1, sham-OVX + saline solution; G2, sham-OVX + glucosamine sulphate (80 mg/kg) – oral administration; G3, OVX + saline solution; G4, OVX + glucosamine sulphate (80 mg/kg) – oral administration. Animals were treated for seven days. The TMJ was removed and stained with toluidine blue. The thickness of the cartilage layers and cytokines IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α levels were determined by histomorphometry and immunoassay, respectively. The administration of GS to OVX females did not change the thickness of condylar cartilage when compared with the other groups (p > 0.05). There was an increase in the total cartilage thickness in sham-OVX females. IL-1β and TNF-α levels were significantly lower in sham-OVX females than in OVX females, indicating that ovariectomy acts as potent cytokine inducer. IL-6 levels were significantly higher in sham-OVX females. GS did not affect cytokine production in OVX females (p > 0.05). In conclusion, the administration of GS did not affect cytokine levels, but did induce an increase in the total thickness of the TMJ condylar cartilage in sham-OVX rats.”

It may the type of glucosamine that affects whether it works or not

Effects of glucosamine in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“Osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee is one of the main causes of mobility decline in the elderly. Non-surgical treatments such as administration of supplements to strengthen the joint cartilage matrix have become popular not only for pain relief but also for joint preservation. Glucosamine has been used in many countries based on the increasing evidence of its effectiveness for OA. Although there are many previous studies and systematic reviews, the findings vary and different conclusions have been drawn. We aimed to review recent randomized controlled trials on glucosamine for knee OA to reveal up-to-date findings about this supplement. We also performed a meta-analysis of some of the outcomes to overcome the unsolved bias in each study. Eighteen articles written between 2003 and 2016 were analyzed. Many used visual analogue scale (VAS) pain scores and the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC), which were assessed in our meta-analysis. We found a marginally favorable effect of glucosamine on VAS pain scores. The effect on knee function, as measured by the WOMAC, was small and not significant. A newly established knee OA scale, the Japanese Knee Osteoarthritis Measure (JKOM), is commonly used in Japan. Although the number of subjects was small, the JKOM meta-analysis indicated that glucosamine is superior to a placebo in alleviating knee OA symptoms. Given this, we concluded that glucosamine has the potential to alleviate knee OA pain. Further studies are needed to evaluate the effect of glucosamine on knee function and joint preservation, as well as to evaluate the combined effect with other components, such as chondroitin.”

“Two important reviews, Cochrane review in 2005 and the review by Eriksen et al. in 2014, reported the importance of the brand of glucosamine to explain the variance and that the studies using the Rottapharm/Madaus product showed statistically significant effects on knee OA symptoms, while other glucosamine products failed to prove their effects

” the use of the prescription formulation of patented crystalline glucosamine sulfate (Rottapharm/Madaus product) and chondroitin sulfate”

In the spinal height study the subjects did perhaps a crystalline form.