Today I plan to do two reviews of product out in the internet space that makes the claim that they will help you grow taller.

The first product is an “all-natural, multivitamin, nutritional “supplement called GrowthMax Plus. One of the websites that sell this supplement is found HERE. On the website, the sellers claim this which I quote,

“”GrowthMAX Plus® is our revolutionary, trademark, patent-pending nutritional supplement that is taking the nation by storm. GrowthMAX Plus® is the only all-natural, completely safe nutrition supplement that enhances your height potential to the maximum your genetic composition will allow. GrowthMAX Plus® height increase supplements are formulated to provide your body with the vitamins, minerals, trace elements, enzymes, anti-oxidants, herbal extracts, neuronutrients, flavonoids, carotenoids, and essential amino acids and nutrients it needs to grow taller, plus feel healthier and more energized. This is a safe, all-natural formula that will increase your height by promoting new generation of tissues, bones, and cartilage. Even the disks in your spine will experience regeneration and becomes stronger and you’ll grow 2-6 inches taller. “”

Me: So this product states that it is a special mixture of nutrients that will allow the generation of “tissue, bones, and cartilage”. However, the product seems to do more than jsut make you grow taller. It also has other benefits which they talk about here. 

Besides giving you the extra inches you desire, GrowthMAX Plus® has been proven to increase blood circulation, improve digestion, increase metabolism, reduce tiredness, slow-down aging, smoothen breathing and promote general good health. Here is a full list of benefits you get from using GrowthMAX Plus®:

• Grow 2-6 inches taller
• Stronger bones and increased bone density
• Assisting with Calcium Retention
• Increased lean muscle
• Greater memory and focus
• Reinvigorated sex drive and performance
• Better mood and mental sharpness
• Lowered cholesterol
• Better sleep
• Clearer, healthier vision
• A strengthened immune system
• Faster results from working out
• A faster metabolism
• Restored hair condition and color
• Blood Sugar Control
• Strengthened nails
• Slows the aging process to prevent wrinkles
• Prevents cardiovascular disease
• Fights the cause of allergies in your body
• Reach peak height enhancement
• Increased Confidence
• No Unpleasant Side Effects
• Safe All Natural Formulation
• Scientifically formulated with natural herbal nutrients
• All-natural active ingredients
• Amazing 180 Day, 100% Money Back Guarantee
• Quick and easy ordering
• No prescription needed
• Discreet Shipping

Me: Now that is a long and amazing list. Supposedly it “prevents cardiovascular disease”, “slows the aging process to prevent wrinkles”, “increase confidence”, and give you “clear, healthy vision”. I wonder why is it that if this miracle supplment is not sold at a more massive scale if the great benefits are so many and they say that they is “no unpleasant side effects”? The FDA and the entire medical community would be going crazy if this product was actually released into market. This type of product would change the world and revolutionize many medical fields. If it can prevent cardiovascular disease like heart attacks, strokes, and high blood pressure, it should be able to save just in the US over $100 billion in annual medical bills attributed to heart disease alone. If it really does slow the aging process, women will be coming in droves to get this product to make themselves look and stay younger. In the youth obsession society of the US, this product would instantly become one of the best selling things ever!

So how does the product actually work? On the site they state,

“”GrowthMax Plus® makes you grow taller by using all natural ingredients to make your body respond with an increase in growth hormone production. These hormones will lengthen the cartilage between each vertebrae in your spine, making it longer and increasing your height. They will also help to strengthen and thicken the cartilage in your joints, including your knees. Over time, the cartilage will be replaced with the calcified bone matrix. This will add to your body’s ability to respond to stress and injury. The length of the spine in the upper part of the body is what makes a person taller or shorter and contributes to over a third of a person’s height. There are over thirty individual bones in a person’s spine which are held together by tissue known as a ligament. Only the two that sit lowest in the spine are immoveable as these are what form the back of the pelvis. All of the other bones are always moveable and so are not fused together. The formula in Growthmax Plus® works by lengthening the discs between each bone, or vertebrae, which increases the entire length of the spinal column and so increases height in the process. The cartilage in a person’s body can grow, thicken, adapt and remodel. Furthermore, Growthmax Plus® strengthens and thickens the cartilage in the body’s joints which further adds to the increase in height.””

Me: So I guess the specially formulated supplement works by lengthening the disks between each vertebrate which increases the entire length of the spinal column, thus increasing the height. The supplement is supposed to signal to our pituitary gland to produce and secrete more growth hormone into our system , which can then lenghten the cartilage between each vertebrate making it longer. The science does make some sense. The formula is supposed to be patent pending. 

Her is my conclusion about this product. It is claimed by the makers that the formula is some secret herbal formula so obviously the people will not tell you what exactly is in the supplement. We could do a chemical analysis on the supplement by using quantitative and qualitative methods to get maybe 10 of the biggest compounds found in it. My guess is that these are the big ones found in it due to my studies of other compounds

1. Glucosamin & Chondroitin Sulfate for supposed cartilage and bone improvement,

2. Calcium with Vitamin D,

3. Vitamin D3,

4. Vitamin B6 & B 12,

5. Some Beta Carotene for the eyes,

6. Creatine for muscle and masss building,

7. Arginine, Glysine, Lysine, Orthinine, and Glutamine for protein addition, what would actually work if the growth plates was not closed

8. Some Ginseng and Garlic extract for immune system function,

9. and maybe a little of other things.

Let me say this. This product may help one feel a little better and may provide minimal effect on one’s overall health but it will not do anything for height increase for  a person who has their growth plates closed. There is nothing in the compound that actually does the first step which is to stimulate the pituitary gland to release HGH. Even if the pituitary gland was stimulated, the excess HGH would go towards muscle growth and increase of size in the horizontal direction with an increase in bone width and density, instead of vertical growth. We are all familiar of basketball and football players who inject themselves with HGH to allow for muscle growth and increase physical performance. If this product worked at all, that is what it would do for the person, not increase height. As for the increase in the disks, the HGH does not actually increase the disks, but the bones. The cartilage between the disks and vertebrate bone can not increase that way. From the Wikipedia article on intervertebral disks

“”Discs consist of an outer annulus fibrosus, which surrounds the inner nucleus pulposus. The annulus fibrosus consists of several layers of fibrocartilage. The strong annular fibers contain the nucleus pulposus and distribute pressure evenly across the disc. The nucleus pulposus contains loose fibers suspended in a mucoprotein gel with the consistency of jelly. The nucleus of the disc acts as a shock absorber, absorbing the impact of the body’s daily activities and keeping the two vertebrae separated. “”

I can guarantee that height increase will not happen, much less add the “2-6 inches’ that is claimed by the product. The product does not work for heigh increase, but the herbal supplement might give one a slight increase in energy and muscle definition from the proteins, but not for it’s intended sold benefit. So in conclusion, it is a scam.

This is a story that I remembered which I thought was very unique. 3 years ago I had just lost my job from the great recession in 2009 and I found myself lost on my purpose for a good 2 months. During those two months, I decided that the only thing I should do was just work on improving my skills and learn as much as I can before I found work again. So I would spend about 4 hours a day in the bookstore just reading as much as I can about business, entrepreneurship, marketing, and economics.

On one of those days of intense study, I noticed a rather tall girl walking through the stacks at Barnes & Noble. I was bored so I decided to make the comment to her that she was very tall, maybe 6′ 0″ tall or even bigger. She was quick to thank me but also state that she was still growing. I was amazed at her claim and asked her to explain herself. She told me that she had recently wen to see her personal doctor for her annual checkup and he had measured her height to be 5′ 11.33″, but from her 5′ 11″ which she had previously been measured at the year before. Now, 1/3rd of an inch may not seem like much but when you are in your late 20s and you are a female, that really makes me wonder.

So I let go of all social etiquette and grilled her on this miraculous event. I asked her about her age and she said she was 28. Then she stated something which I remember to this day which went something along like this, “yeah, apparently you can still be growing up until you are 30” . I never asked whether she was talking about men or women, or both but I guessed that from the context of the conversation we were talking about, she might have been referring to both men and women.

After a while, I realize that I didn’t have any other question so she left and went on browsing books. I sat back down and wondered for the entire day about her comment. This was during the time when I was going through my height increase obsession and that is why I remembered this woman so well.

So should I listen to this women who seemed to state something which most doctors don’t believe in, that the human body can keep on growing until the age of 30?

When I look back on that specific time, I realize one critical element which she might have never consider. The girl was rather overweight, and she stooped a lot. In a way, she could only be described as “big”, not just tall or “fat”, but big. She was proportionally very big in all parts of her body, but not in a acrogemalic way. I would assuem that she had tall genes and came from a “big” family. She was the average American large caucasian female with a large frame. At the time, I remembered that she was wearing really thin flip flops, maybe to try to decrease her amazing height. She did not look like the type of girl who has ever wanted to , or needed to wear heels in her life. She stooped and tried not to stand up straight again to divert attention away from her natural height.

My guess now is that she probably had at least 1 inch of hidden height that she purposely tried to hide so that she wouldn’t appear taller than she was already. She seemed to allow her spine to compress down and curve so that she didn’t have to show herself. I would have never have guessed that she was ONLY 5′ 11.33″ but at least 6′ 0″. Her claim that she grew 1/3rd of an inch was that the docotr measured her either in the morning where the height is higher or she decided to actually stand up straighter and improve her posture for the height measurement with her doctor.

At the end, I can only make my own claim on her new found height and dismiss her statement was not true. However, what if she was right and that we do grow until we are 30? That would be truly interesting.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You can find the board discussion HERE.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Article 1: Bone Grown From Human Embryonic Stem Cells

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Article 4: Scientists Closer to Making Implantable Bone Material

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

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

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

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