I remembered while working on this site that there was a very unique site named wiseGEEK that I had found years ago that was in a similar format to Yahoo Ask. The reference link to wiseGEEK is found HERE. Someone asks a question and there is a standard answer and the readers can also leave their comments and answers to the question posed.

The question was “Which country has the tallest people?” I think the question was posed maybe 5 years ago (I am not sure about the real time frame, this is just a guess). However, the question has generated up to last count 310 comments.

The standard answer to the question is that the tallest nation is The Netherlands. The average male in the Netherlands was measured at 1.85 meters or slightly less than 6′ 1″ in US units. In 2nd place is Denmark , with the average male Dane being 1.83 m or 6′ 0″ tall. This claim apparently is verified quite strongly by other reports from back in 2007/2008 (Reference Link 1, Reference Link 2, Reference Link 3)

However , the answer is quick to note that “” There are taller people belonging to certain populations within countries. This is especially true of the Maasai people, who live in parts of Tanzania and Kenya. But as a whole, the citizens living in the Netherlands are on average, the tallest people. “” On a side note, the tallest member of the most recent USA swim team Matt Grevers at 6′ 8″ is Dutch.

After officially answering the question, the writer goes a little deeper in trying to figure out why the Dutch are the tallest in the world. They claim that “” the Dutch emphasis on early childhood care, a diet rich in dairy products and thus high in protein, and a fairly even distribution of wealth have contributed to making the Dutch the world’s tallest people. “”

It is also noted that the Netherlands provide for its residents some of the best Healthcare for newborns and children. The most critical stages and phases for grow are in those stage. Smart Dutch.

So basically get your calcium and vitamin D through eating a lot of dairy and getting a lot of protein. The relatively even distribution of wealth I guess means that the people don’t feel too much pressure and stress to compete and struggle to survive, thus the effect of stress reducing height is removed. OK, I am willing to go with that rather “hand waving” science reasoning.

A nice little last point made by the writer is “” Further, the measurement is “average height” which means some people far exceed 6 feet 1 inch. Some people are significantly taller and may stand nearly 7 feet (2.13 m) tall,””. Well DUH, since when any statistician creates bar graph noting all the heights of a large number of people, the distribution will become more and more bell shaped and the line will become smoother as the number of people measured becomes bigger. If that bell curved is than checked at the upper end, we are bound to find a few 7 footers. It’s not like we are measuring from a group of only 1000 people. Of course even from a 1000 people, with a country like the Netherlands we should probably not rule out that a 7 footer would be in there. I personally have not been to the Netherlands but I have heard people claim that the real local natives there (not the recent immigrants say from the middle east or northern africa) are very tall.

What is just as strange was that maybe only 1 year after the first reports came out that the Dutch were the tallest in the world, there was a few reports that showed that the Dutch do seemed to have plateaued in their height too. (Reference Link 1, Reference Link 2). Some researchers have shown that the height increase slowing down could be explained because of the influx of immigrants from shorter countries like the Middle East or South Asia. However, it is noted also that even the immigrants who arrive come to The Netherlands are on average taller than their counterparts back in their native nations.

In the last two posts I made, the focus was on the method of using cosmetic surgery to gain the height increase H.I.S. are looking for. From watching the videos, I understand the desire and intent of the men who decided to go through the surgery. It made me wonder whether they might have been suffering from some form of psychiatric disorder that kept them extremely dissatisfied with their height.

After a while, I realized that the problem is not whether they are suffering from such a condition or not (because they are suffering and dissatisfied), but more on how the psychiatric conditioned will be evaluated to be termed.

In this article HERE written by the “In These Times” blog by Lindsay Beyerstein, she argues that  Dr. Dror Paley’s term to describe his patient’s mental anguish “Height Dysphoria” may be wrongly named. I take this section from her writings.

Dr. Dror Paley, a Florida surgeon who performs cosmetic leg lengthening, claims his patients are suffering from “height dysphoria,” which he characterizes as a psychiatric disorder that can lead to suicide, but which can be cured by surgery.

Clearly, the doctor is eager to reframe this extreme procedure as therapeutic, rather than cosmetic. He’s not breaking people’s legs for vanity’s sake, he assures us, he’s curing a dangerous psychiatric disorder. Ethically, the maximum allowable risk for a cosmetic procedure is much lower than for a procedure that’s treating a potentially life-threatening disease.

The interviewer asks if people who are on the brink of suicide might be better served by counselling rather than surgery. The doctor replies, self-servingly, that counselling just doesn’t work for these people. Their only hope is to go under the knife.

It turns out, “height dysphoria,” (aka “short stature dysphoria”) isn’t a psychiatric term at all. It’s just a pseudo-technical way to say that someone is unhappy with their height. Dissatisfaction with one’s appearance is not an illness. Supposedly, “short stature dysphoria” applies to people who are consistently unhappy about their height, but happy and well-adjusted in other areas of their lives. If someone is on the brink of suicide because of their height, it’s pretty hard to argue that they are otherwise healthy and well-adjusted. The cosmetic leg lengthening industry wants to have it both ways.

The doctor may have painted himself into an ethical corner with his claim to be treating a psychiatric illness. Unlike “height dysphoria,” body dysmorphic disorder is a recognized psychiatric condition in which a person is overwhelmingly preoccupied with some aspect of their appearance. An estimated 1%-2% of the population suffers from BDD, and BDD sufferers account for 6%-15% of all patients seeking cosmetic surgery.

BDD sufferers may be fixated on their height, their nose, their skin, or other features. “Height dysphoria” sounds suspiciously like BDD focused on height. The thing is, cosmetic surgery does not ease BDD symptoms. In fact, many experts argue that BDD should be a contraindication for cosmetic surgery because it doesn’t help and may even make BDD symptoms worse.

Paley’s website claims that he does not operate on patients with BDD. But he tells 20/20 that he’s curing a psychiatric disorder with surgery. 20/20 should have challenged him to explain how “height dysphoria” differs from BDD. If his patients are as distraught as he says they are, I have a hard time believing that he’s screening out BDD cases.

Note: I tended to agree (and disagree) with the writer on her point that Dr. Paley is being kind of innacurate (whether in intentionally or unintentionally) in labeling his clients real mental condition. He does have something to be gained in having more clients and getting a bigger practice but that does not take away from the fact that his intentions can still be good and that through his work, he makes people far happier with their height and their lives after going through with his surgery. It appears that the main differences between how Dr. Paley defines say dissastifaction with short stature and how many therapists/ psychiatrist define dissatifaction with short stature comes down to whether the dissatisfaction translated beyond just height but into the overall quality of ones life. 

Beyerstein points out that Paley’s term is not medically recognized but is just another say that a person is dissatisfied with their height. She states that “”Dissatisfaction with one’s appearance is not an illness. Supposedly, “short stature dysphoria” applies to people who are consistently unhappy about their height, but happy and well-adjustedin other areas of their lives.””

“”Unlike “height dysphoria,” body dysmorphic disorder is a recognized psychiatric condition in which a person is overwhelmingly preoccupied with some aspect of their appearance. An estimated 1%-2% of the population suffers from BDD”” – I would also like to point out to Beyerstein however that new psychiatric terms are being coined and added every year. It seems like every few months, a new type fo autism is discovered and given a name. From what I’ve known, the number of terms with each new edition of the DSM only gets bigger and bigger. I am sure given enough time, Paley’s term could be medically recognized, sort of like how Fibromyalgia is like an umbrella term for most of the small chronic pain that occurs in a person’s body where the symptoms could actually be reclassified and renamed for some other disorder.

I can make the point for myself that during my phase off intense obsession with the issue year ago, I was very focused on that area of my life but I never felt that my life quality decreased from it. I was not preoccupied with it because I was also focused on improving my health and my mind. I had many other activities I was doing. It was just something that I wanted to do and accomplish extremely badly but I never got depressed from it. I

So my final question to you then is “Do You suffer from Body Dysmorphic Disorder or Height Dysmorphia?” – Or are they pretty much the same thing??

I encountered through the Make Me Taller discussion board about this ABC Special done that mainly talked about the increased use of cosmetic surgery among men in the US however focused mainly on the part where they talked about how some men are deliberately asking doctors to break their legs to add the inches. The ABC 20/20 Special Aired originally sometime during February of this year (2012).

The article written is about a guy named Apotheosis (aged 37) from the Make Me Taller boards who went from 5′ 6″ to 6′ 0″ (OR maybe 6′ 2″!). An amazing 6 (or 8) inch increase.

However, in the video there are two men who are interviewed about their experiences with the limb lengthening surgery. My previous post was about the first guy, Akash who added 2 and a half inches to his final height to almost 5′ 2″. The other guy in the video I am not sure whether he is Apotheosis or not because what he has stated and what ABC claims are 2 inches off. Dr. Dror Paley is mentioned for his practices and his quick choice to implement the newest technologies in the science of limb lengthening, which I personally have a lot of respect for.

In the video, the guy stated that he had the initial surgery that went from 5′ 6″ to 5′ 9″, a 3 inch increase. Then the video reveals that the guy in the video went back in for a 2nd surgery for more height, and was going to be around 6′ 2″ by the end. That is an 8 inch increase, not a 6 inch increase!

So Either ABC reported it wrong, the guy was lying about how much more height he as going to add, or there was something lost in the communication, assuming the guy in the video is Apotheosis.

I tried recording the video and uploading the file but the file was too big for the server to take so you will have to go to the ABC website to view it. The beginning of the video mainly talks about altering the face but the part where they talk about altering height begins around the 3:04 mark up to the end at 6:46. You can find the ABC 20/20 Special Video by clicking HERE.

I originally found the discussion about the issue from this thread HERE on MakeMeTaller.org

I have been scouring through the old forums on the other sites and decided that I should repost some very unique articles and post in a more organized, available format. Some of the links may be old or dead.

What these posts will offer is a way to see that even though there might not be a natural way to grow taller, if one has the strong enough will and desire they still can using none natural ways. I have always had the attitude that one should have all of the options available. If one has what I would call an obsessive passion, then one is willing to do anything, even illegal and immoral, to be able to get what one wants. The individual drive and desire to get what one truly goes crazy over is strong enough to do near anything.

However, What one will notice as one gets older is that the dreams and desires of one’s younger self disappeared to be replaced with less intensive desires. The rough edges are smoothed over the fire that might have once burned greatly inside oneself is replaced with general acceptance. So if you decide to wait too long in life to get this area of your life changed, you probably won’t if enough time passes. Life moves fast and you are expected by everyone to move on and push forward.

In this short video I found, a young man named Akash Shukla goes under the knife to do Limb Lengthening Surgery at the Institute For Limb Lengthening And Complex Reconstruction at Weill Cornell Medical College located at New York City. If you wanted to learn more about him, his surgery, his story, and maybe also help him by buying his book , go to his website by clicking HERE.

Note: I do not know Akash personally in any way or have ever contacted him. I just happened to find his video on youtube while doing limb lengthening research and was moved at his story. I do not get any money or incentives for endorsing or promoting his book or any other material. Again, this is out of my heart. 

Note: Only choose to read this article if you have any desire to become smarter. This article will not have any information on how you can become taller.

So I wanted to first come out and say that I am sick, very sick. I have noticed that my glands on the side of my neck was swollen and even in pain for the last 4 days and I knew before even the sickness hit that my immune system was down for a long time.  My symptoms include runny nose, dry coughing, dizziness, strange aches in parts of my body, every other classical symptom of illness there is.

So I will only write 1 blog post today.

I also plan to go take a break for tomorrow because usually this type of illness I have (pneumonia) lasts quite a few days. I know I am not invincible and I have to protect this body of mine from shutting down. I feel that I still have so much more to give to this world before this body collapses.

So what is the topic for today??

Well to do something rather completely different than just talking about height, I wanted to talk about intelligence today. My mother once told that a man is measured in only two primary ways

1. How tall he is

2. How intelligent he is

I think her message has really stuck within me for my entire life. All of my younger life all I ever wanted to be was smarter and more intelligent all of my friends and classmates. When that didn’t work out so well and I had to go to a state school to get my engineering degree, I kind of gave up on that idea. So I decided to switch and see if I could be the tallest among my peers and friends. I know, I only judge myself in two 2 ways, by my intelligence and my height. It does feel like my entire sense of confidence, self, and identity is directly connected to these two qualities.

When I was back in school, I also did an INSANE amount of research on how to become smarter, not just hot to become taller. So far, I have found a few tricks and hack one can do to increase one’s brain to operate at its optimum state.

So this article is basically for all of you out there who is interested also in making yourselves smarter. And you know what? There is apparently a “magic bullet” for this. In one of my most recent posts, I have stated that there is no magic bullet to make you taller. And that is apparently true, at least for quite a while.

However, to become smarter there is a magic bullet, at least as good it gets. I am talking about cognitive enhancement pills. The two pills I want to focus on is Provigil and Piracetam.

1. Provigil

Provigil is the advertised name of modafinil which is FDA approved. It is mainly prescribed for the conditions of narcolepsy, sleep disorders, ADHD, and sleep apnea however the biohackers out there have figured out that the supplement is a very good cognitive enhancement. The effects of the drug is that it makes your brain remove the fog and your thinking becomes far clearer. It is supposed to be able to increase your IQ by 15 points (almost an entire standard deviation) Apparently the side effects have not been found or noticed yet. It seems to be perfectly safe.

To obtain Provigil, you have to get a prescription from your doctor claiming (I don’t endorse the idea that you should lie to your doctor just to become smarter) that you suffer from Sleep Problems. Then you go to your local pharmacy. For more information about how to obtain Provigil, click HERE.

This is the wikipedia article about modafinil/provigil HERE. 

1. Piracetam

Piracetam is another “smart drug” which will help you think clearer and better. It works similar to Provigil.  If you ever saw the movie “Limitless” here the main character becomes like 100 times smarter after taking this fictional drug NZT. Well, Piracetam and Provigil is basically the real life version of NZT, only without the extreme exaggeration that Hollywood movies place on it. 

Apparently Piracetam is obtainable without a prescription. You can even go to Amazon and order it. The link available is HERE. So you pay $20 for a bottle of 60 tablets of 800 mg of piracetam. Or you can go to drugstore.com I don’t do affiliate marketing (yet) so I am not getting paid for endorsing these products.

This is the wikipedia article about piracetam HERE

On a related note, I recently contacted Dave Asprey of Bulletproof Executive through his twitter account and asked whether I could interview him and he said yes. I saw him on an ABC special on the use of “smart pills” . For his CNN interview about his Provigil Usage click HERE. For his ABC appearance , click HERE.

Apparently Dave has no idea who the hell I am (yet) and doesn’t know what the projects I am working on are. Apparently his hobbies and projects are very similar to mine. His Bulletproof Executive blog/website is to help the reader learn how to hack his body and mind to reach it’s optimum performance. It is sort of like Tim Ferris’s Book the 4 Hour Body (which I bought and read)

If you go to Asprey’s website and watch his video, you would see that he has done some of the same stuff that I intend to do. His experiences with Ayahuasca is on my bucket list. I first found out about Ayahuasca (and Chacruna) about 3 years ago from a seminar. He has done meditation with monks in Tibet which I have wanted to do.

If I ever do manage to interview him, I would like to record the interview in mp3 format and post it on this blog here. It is really worth listening to. I mean, our body is more than just our height. I want to hack my body in more ways than just making it be taller.