In a previous post entitled “Sultan Kosen Is Proof That Height Increase Is Possible After Growth Plate Ossification” I had tried to prove that height increase apparently is still possible after growth plate ossification by looking at the current tallest man in the world as an example. Kosen is the typical pituitary gland giant and what I tried to prove was that from the age of 27 to 29, when his plates should have fused and longitudal long bone growth not allowed, Kosen still somehow managed to add 2 inches in extra height.

The problem with this huge issue is that there is a big information gap and knowledge problem between the general population and people like us on here who are regular readers and height increase researchers. For the average person on the street who hears the facts that a pituitary giant was still growing even in his late 20s while suffering from acromegaly, that make total sense to them. What they have heard and have been taught is that thire pituitary gland is just releasing far much more HGH converted into IGF-1 into their body and that causes their bones to grow.

The other thing the average person would have learned about growth is that the main reason people can increase their bones and thus grow is because they have these cartilages on the ends of their long bones. These cartilage grow longer from increased absorption of calcium, vitamin D, and HGH. Once one past the puberty age, something in the body tells the cartilage to stop getting bigger, and it shrinks and disappears eventually turning into bone. After that is done, one can not grow taller anymore.

So this is the basic education on height increase and growth the average person on the street knows (if that). However, the problem with the average education is that the 2 fundamental ideas directly contradict themselves!

We knew that Kosen was suffering still an excess release of HGH up until he was 29 when a brain operation was done to remove the tumor to stop the excess HGH release. The general news report was that his growth finally stopped. However ,how could Kosen grow with his plates closed, since he was in his late 20s? That question is what got me wondering whether there is something lacking in the fundamental understanding of hieght and growth by endocrinologists, orhtopedics , and height increase researchers like me. I posed the original post and there was one reply to it by Minigolf which claimed that Kosen probably was transgenic for having growth plates that either did not suffer from or suffered at a far lower rate of senescence (the biological process of aging). I would have gone with that arguement and believed that maybe, just maybe Kosen was special even for pituitary giants in that his growth plates were also very extraordinary, if not for the fact that many pituitary giants seems to go through the same problem.

If we remember back to one of my earliest posts, about the unique case of Adam Rainer located HERE, there was 1 critical piece of information that I forgot to mention! It was not by intention I forgot about this critical element, I really did forget. I read from a source (I can’t find it right now) that Rainer apparently suffered a big fall around the age of 21 or and cracked his head open. His brain was injured and that is one rumor on why adam started to grow. The obvious guess is that his pituitary gland was affected in that fall and that led to a lifetime of excess HGH release. 

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Now, I wanted to move on to the subject of Tanya Angus. She is quite possibly the most famous case in current of a person who went through something quite extraordinary. The sites and resources I used are Tanya’s Main Website, ABC NEWS (from May 2011), ABC NEWS (from August 2010), ABC Nightline (from March 2010) MSNBC (from June 2009), and the Daily Mail UK (2009).

The general story is that Tanya Angus was an ordinary girl from Nevada who grew at a normal rate. She seemed to have reached her maximum height of 5′ 8″ and 140 lbs when she was at age 18. Now that is a perfectly reasonable height for an american caucasian female. Between the ages of 20 (which is when she started to grow again) and 31, Tanya went from 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighing 140 pounds to 6 feet 6 inches and weighing 430 pounds. So my big question is ” How is that possible??”

Now, if we look through the news about her and their prospective dates, we realize something amazing. Her height was reported at 6′ 6″ in 2009. By 2010 her height was reported at 6′ 11″. So how did she grow 5 inches in 1 year from her 30th to 31st birthday?

From doing a little more research it appears that her measured height is 6′ 6″ but her curved spine hides the other 5 inches, at least stated by her mother. So maybe Angus didn’t go through another 5 inch growth spurt… The news clearly state that she is suffering from acromegaly, which is the condition developed after one reaches past puberty who used to suffer from gigantism. The news stated that she was STILL growing.

She has been taking a new medication called Somatuline and that has taken her growth hormone rate from 1000 to 600. 300 is considered stable for her.

“”Acromegaly Affects Organs, Too

“The tumor has been growing from the time Tanya hit puberty,” said Strutynski. “Her back is collapsing due to the overgrowth. As she grows her bones weaken and they break down. She is so big, her spine looks like a boomerang.” – “”

From one of the ABC sorces we learn about another guy who suffered from Acromegaly, Wayne Brown.

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The group was founded by Wayne Brown, a former history teacher from Buffalo, N.Y., who suffered from years with jaw pain before he was diagnosed with acromegaly in 2004.

Brown, 38, recently published a book, “Alone in My Universe: Struggling With an Orphan Disease in an Unsympathetic World,” which is a compilation of his story and those of others.

“Orphan diseases are the stepchild of the medical industry,” he said. “Because of that, our people get ignored and run over.”

By the time, he sought help, Brown had grown to 6-foot 3-inches tall and gained more than 100 pounds. His shoe size had jumped from a 12 to a 16EEE and his blood pressure was at a high of 160 over 100.

His growth is now under control, but he still has chronic joint pain. “It gets really rough some days,” said Brown.

He administers a subcutaneous shot of growth inhibitor once every four weeks.

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So is it that another guy with acromegaly grew as well, just like Angus or Kosen. All of these cases has people who were supposed to have sealed long bones. Somehow they still grew extra inches! If you want to check out Brown’s book, buy it and tell me how tall Wayne Brown was before he started on his growth spurt, and at what age. I can almost assure you that he was probably in his mid to late 20s at least and that most doctors would have said his bones were sealed. So where did his height come from? Note the fact that he still gets joint pain from the growth tendencies.

Something is not making any sense right now. Our current knowledge on what is possible and how height can increased must be changed. Angus apparently grew 3 inches from the age of 20 to 22, which is a very noticeable difference when you are not supposed to grow anymore. So can anyone explain to me what is going on?

This is my conclusion: The current model on how we think of height growth, that one can not grow taller after the epiphyseal plate are sealed, is wrong. Even after our growth plates are gone, we still can grow.