I couldn’t find anything that showed that bone could grow taller in response to creep strain but it seems that other objects can get longer.  Creep Strain can cause a change in shape of bone at very low magnitudes of strain but at very high amounts of time which is important as the amount of load required to induce plastic deformation of bone is outside ordinary means.  The optimal load for creep strain may about half that of which is used to induce fracture.

I could only find studies that showed that creep strain compressed bone not that it could lengthen it.

However, if creep strain can lengthen other objects shouldn’t it be able to do the same to bone?

Here’s a high school science experiment that shows that creep strain can lengthen objects:

Do Materials Get Tired? Do Rubber Bands Get Longer During Use?

“Some materials will slowly deform when a constant force or displacement is applied to them. This time-dependent and permanent deformation is called creep.

If you have ever noticed that chewing gum gradually sags when it is stuck to something or watched a plastic grocery bag gradually tear apart when it is carrying too much weight, you have observed creep!”

The science experiment involves loading a rubber band with a weight for 24 hours to observe creep and then measuring the change in length.

Now rubber bands are much more elastic than bone which is a problem.

Another problem is that based on how the tensile creep strain is applied to the bone other soft tissues will be loaded which may fail first before the bone has undergone creep for an appropriate amount of time.  Another issue is that inducing creep failure in bone may cause loss of bone structural integrity may cause problems.

Methods of inducing creep strain in bone seem to lend itself to several common exercises:

Holding weights for extended periods of time to lengthen arms.  For creep strain it has to be for a significantly long amount of time and then there’s the issue of the soft tissues failing first.  Can anyone find any anecdotal evidence of people who do farmer’s walks(you don’t actually have to walk to induce creep strain just holding the weights is enough) having longer arms?

Hanging to lengthen arms.  And again there’s no guarantee that creep strain will be induced in the arms before soft tissue failure.  And you’d have to do it for quite a sustained amount of time although you can take breaks as creep train is based on fatigue loading so you can rest for brief intervals as long as total bone fatigue gradually increases.

Inversion to lengthen legs although more load than body weight is likely needed and it would be very hard to maintain the kind of duration for creep to take place.

Does anyone have any anecdotal evidence of these exercises increasing arm or leg height?  While common I’m not sure these exercises are best for creep strain based lengthening due to the likelihood of your joints giving out before your bones.

1) Stretching(on the spine)

Read this summation of the theory of spinal stretching.

Although one study indicates that a twisting motion can increase height in some cases, other human studies have suggested that twisting can only reduce height in human models.  This is due to the nucleus pulposus not being mechanically stable in contrast to the annulus fibrosus which can grow.  In response to mechanically strain, there was degeneration in the nucleus pulposus and there is a medical term for this caused degenerative disc disease.

Now, other joints do not have nucleus pulposus like the joints of the ankle and knee so those can potentially grow in size.  Interesting though is that one study found that wingspan decreased more with age than overall height.  Which is contrary to what we would believe with discs being prone to degeneration.  There is an increase in the hand phalanxes continuously throughout life.  Now I received an increase of 0.8%(at least) in my right index finger metacarpal.  So the normal hand phalanx growth does not explain my growth.  That study suggests that articular cartilage can undergo endochondral ossification which can add appositional bone growth to the longitudinal ends of the bone resulting in longitudinal bone growth.

Now one thing is that nucleus pulposus is so prone to degeneration and can reduce height so much is that we can reduce degeneration.  For example by living in zero gravity, by strengthening the muscles surrounding the spine to reduce spinal load, or via spinal tractors/inversion to reduce load allowing water to return to the nucleus pulposus.

This height increase method listed here(Aquatic Vertical Suspension) resulted in an immediate height increase of about 4mm.

2) HGH

People have supplemented with HGH at levels at or greater than those who have “suffered” from gigantism reported no height gain.  Gigantism does not merely involve elevated HGH levels but also resistance to HGH suppression.  Gigantism also involves a tumor.  Two factors that are not involved in HGH supplementation.

There has been no evidence as of yet that HGH can induce exogenous growth plates to induce new longitudinal bone growth.  Although some anecdotal evidence of HGH induced growth has been reported.

3) Microcracks

There hasn’t been any evidence to suggest that microcracks can lengthen bone.  And mineralized bone seems to be incapable of interstitial growth(growth from within ala growth plates) due to high ECM stiffness.  Thus there needs to be an intermediary tissue involved like cartilage in order to lengthen bone in a roundabout way.  So to lengthen bone via microfractures you’d have to reduce ECM stiffness to allow for interstitial growth.  Here’s one possible method to reducing ECM stiffness using acid that has been suggested.

4)Bone Stretching

For example via the Rack.  The amount of load required to induce a bone fracture is  usually a colossal figure like 25000-lbs.  And the amount of load to induce plastic deformation(bone stretching or negatively compression) is usually very close to the fracture point.  This makes the generation of such loads problematic.  That’s why the design of LSJL is to try to induce mesenchymal condensation and neo-growth plate formation.

Creep Strain can induce plastic deformation at much lower loads.  However, a considerable continuous amount of load is required to induce 1-2 weeks.  I could not find any evidence of creep strain inducing plastic deformation in a positive way(stretching), only a negative way(compression).  I couldn’t find any other studies where length was even considered as only damage to the bone was measured.

This is the 2nd video

There is some medical terms that can’t be translated like “stem cells” and “implant” so the video is quite accurate. Dr. Teplyashin is actually sort of a celebrity surgeon in the Moscow area. The rams/sheeps in the video are adult, so they are not going to get any taller. The implant goes into the bone after a small resection.

If you guys are interested in watching more videos about Teplyashin’s many video appearances on Russian Media TV , click here for the Youtube username Alexander Gaponov – https://www.youtube.com/user/elansky/videos

If any of you actually understands Russian, can you translate what they say in the short video?

Notice also in the video below how his lab follows general GLP (Good Laboratory Practices). This is not like what Gavrill Ilizarov did back in the 60s-80s with his version of leg lengthening.

I haven’t updated this website in a long time because I have recently started a new business venture. However, I promise that I will come back to this venture. There are other medical entrepreneurial ideas that I would like to pursue as well.