When the site first began I did a somewhat detailed and extensive post entitled “Grow Taller By Feet And Heel Implantations, Macrolane And Bio-Alcamid” on the ideas of implanting some type of foreign collagenous, elastic material into the heel to make a person taller.

Recently someone emailed me to take a closer look at the science and I felt that it was appropriate now to look back at this idea in a more scientific and analytical manner than when the site was only 1 month old when I much less information and knowledge on how growth in the human body works.

This idea on implanting a type of silicone into feet to gain upwards of only 1 inch was also mentioned in a thread entitled “Silicone implants in feets (LL 2-4cm)” on the Make Me Taller Forum

Analysis #1:

The actual article that is referenced in the thread is entitled “The latest in cosmetic surgery is hyaluronic acid“. The section that is taken and put on the Make Me Taller forum is actually sort of revealing. There is two options, go with the Microlane one or the Bio-Alcamid one. The Bio-Alcamid one is supposed to be permanent. The maximum height achievable with oen surgery is supposed to be 2 cms. For getting the temporary type of injection using the Microlane, one would pay around $1500 while the Bio-Alcamid would coast slightly more. If one wanted to increase their height more than 2 cms, they need to come back for subsequent surgeries.

The actual surgery seems to be extremely simple. There is the anesthetic injection in the beginning. Then the prosthesis is injected into the feet heel.  The prosthesis is not actually a physical device, but a polymer. The polymer seems to be a rubber like liquid form, which is injected into a needle into the heel of the foot. It takes only 30 minutes

As for the actual article reference , the stuff on hyaluronic acid, the idea is reasonable but would not work. Hyaluronic acid is one of the major components of the proteoglycans and glycoaminoglycans in the cartilage matrix and act as the lubricant in joint cavities. Along with aggrecan, hyaluronic acid is the most common element in synovial joints like the knee.

Hyaluronic Acid does have some good application in medicine and cosmetics (source). It has been used to remove wrinkles temporarily, decrease neck lines, make face look fuller, improve acnes scars.

The compound is very safe and is organic, and is made by the human body. It is shown to also stimulate collagen production a little. I even wrote a few posts about the possibility of using hyaluronic acid to gain a little bit of height in the posts…

1.  “Increase Height And Grow Taller Using Hyaluronic Acid” 
2.  “New Proposed Method To Increase Height And Grow Taller Using TGF-Beta1, Hyaluronic Acid, And Autologous Synovial Fluid” 

I would even list Hyaluronic Acid as one of the only compounds, besides Glucosamine Sulfate which has a chance to help adult humans increase their height, if just a little in the Supplements Guide section. The way that hyaluronic acid lubricates joints means that there is a chance that joint cavities will expand slightly from increased Hyaluronan consumption.

Interpretation

I would guess that most people who wish to gain some extra height would wish it to be permanent, not temporary. If the surgery was to just make a person 2 cms taller temporarily, it might just be smarter if the person wore lifts and elevator shoes, or get those height increasing socks with the thick insoles in them. The cost is around $1500 for the MicroLane is not permanent but lasts just 12-18 months. It is composed of hyaluronic acid which is hardened to be more polymer-like.

I would rather do more research on the permanent option, which seems to only cost a little more ($300). Let’s see what the Bio-Alcamid can do.

Analysis #2

From an article on website called DailyXtra.com entitled “The Bio-Alcamid Disaster” it is revealed that this compound was manufactured by a company based in Italy but it resulted in some severe facial deformities as side effects and complications.

Bio-Alcamid seems to have been used in the past in helping improve the facial appearance of people who had HIV and suffered through lipoatrophy, which is when the collagen and fat in the face becomes removed due to the antiretroviral drug cocktail solution taken to treat HIV (developed in the 90s)

Apparently the Bio-Alcamid was supposed to be designed with some type of protective layering around itself but there was none. From one source, it states about the protective layer…

“Once implanted, Bio-Alcamid, unlike many other injectable fillers, becomes covered by a very thin collagen capsule (0.02 mm) which completely surrounds the gel, isolating it from the host tissues and making it a real endogenous prosthesis…”

The primary active ingredient is called polyalkylimide which is a type of polymer. From the study “Cheek augmentation with Bio-Alcamid in facial lipoatrophy in HIV seropositive patients.”…

“Bio-Alcamid, which is an injectable, biocompatible, nontoxic, nonallergenic soft tissue filler designed to correct tissue deficits of various volume by intratissue administration…”

The composition of the BIo-Alcamid are “… a gel polymer comprising exclusively of networks of alkyl-imide groups (approximately 4%) and nonpyrogenic water (approximately 96%). Alkyl-imide belongs to the family of acryl-derivatives and its polymeric structure does not contain free monomers.”

Interpretation

The idea of injecting polymers into heels to gain around 1-2 extra inches is not reasonable. The people who tried the Bio-Alcamid polymer on their face was trying to make themselves better looking after loosing so much collagen and fat. The Bio-Alcamid would over time settle in a way that distorted the face to look ugly. If the same Bio-Alcamid was injected into the feet, over time the polymer would start to loss it’s strength and start to distribute on the heel in uneven ways, making the heel also deformed. If the face which has no loading applied to it causes the Bio-Alcamid to start having problems, there is no way that Bio-Alcamid would ever be able to keep its structure and integrity (in a strength of materials sense) permanently. It would break down eventually, go into the body stream, and converted in the same way that adipose tissue and collagen are in the body.

So the idea of injecting any type of polymer as heel implants won’t work. The implant at the bottom of the bottom would get so much loading from the daily wear and tear of walking that it would eventually break apart, turning it into a jelly-like substance that gets absorbed into the body.