Just something quick to reveal today. After getting back a little to the research, I did manage to find a rather new Patent filed back in 2008 from a Korean researcher, Myung Keun Ji, which wrote up and filed a Patent entitled “Apparatus for Stimulating Growth Plate” which I found from Google Patents. It seems that his idea for using pulsing electrical currents to stimulate growth plate cartilage is very similar to what Brighton talked about in his patent (Method for non-invasive electrical stimulation of epiphyseal plate growth, US 4467809 A), which we have already referenced and reviewed quite extensively. Myung Keun even makes sure to reference Brighton’s patent since his patent seems to be an extension of the older patent. We clipped and linked to the specific patents he references in his Patent. The other patent is Modification of the growth, repair and maintenance behavior of living tissues and cells by a specific and selective change in electrical environment by John P Ryaby

From the Abstract…

An apparatus for stimulating a growth plate is provided. The apparatus for stimulating a growth plate includes a controller, a current supplying unit, and at least one growth plate stimulator. The controller outputs the driving command signal in response to an external input which determines at least one of an amount of the current and a frequency of the current. The current supplying unit supplies a current corresponding to the driving command signal to the growth plate stimulator. The growth plate stimulator stimulates the growth plate by using the current supplied from the current supplying unit

From a quick Google Search, I also found that it was listed on Patent Scope. From the website…

“…a growth plate stimulating apparatus capable of effectively stimulating a growth plate of the knee even in an asleep time”

So it seems that the device that this Myung Keun Ji has stated might be capable for stimulating the length of the legs closer to the knee area for kids while they are sleeping.

From the Product Description section….

“…The increase in length of the bone is a result of changing a cartilage bone at a distal end of the bone into hard bone cells. If the number of new bone cells is increased, the length of the bone is increased, so that the height of the child is increased”

“…Conventionally, as a growth plate stimulating apparatus, shoes for stimulating the growth plates are mainly used so as to stimulate the ankles or the bottoms of the feet.”

Analysis: What this Korean Medical researcher has revealed is that maybe in traditional Korean medicine, to help young kids become taller, they put on some type of bone lengthening shoes. However he does does in the description that the conventional ways of wearing electrically stimulating shoes to stimulate the growth plates close to the ankle areas was probably not effective.

His approach is to stimulate the growth plates in young kids in the knee area.Refer to the pictures below. At some point, we will be breaking down the patent into something much easier to understand for the lay person within the coming months.