Novel Treatment Options in Childhood Bone Diseases

“Several novel treatment options have recently become available in childhood bone diseases. The purpose of this article is to provide an update on some of the therapeutic agents used in the treatment of pediatric osteoporosis, X-linked hypophosphatemic rickets, and achondroplasia (ACH){this is what we’re interested in as it’s related to height}. Summary: Vitamin D3 and Ca supplementation remains the basis of childhood osteoporosis treatment. Bisphosphonate (BP) therapy is the main antiresorptive therapeutic option, while denosumab, a human monoclonal IgG2 antibody with high affinity and specificity for a primary regulator of bone resorption – RANKL, represents a possible alternative. Its potent inhibition of bone resorption and turnover process leads to continuous increase of bone mineral density throughout the treatment also in the pediatric population. With a half-life much shorter than BPs, its effects are rapidly reversible upon discontinuation. Safety and dosing concerns in children remain. Novel treatment options have recently become available in two rare bone diseases. Burosumab, a monoclonal antibody against FGF-23{FGF23 has an impact on height but there’s mixed evidence on whether it’s good or bad therefore Burosumab may have an impact on height too}, has been approved for the treatment of children with X-linked hypophosphatemic rickets older than 1 year. It presents an effective, more etiology-based treatment for rickets compared to conventional therapy, without the need for multiple daily oral phosphate supplementation. Its long-term efficacy and safety are currently being investigated. After years of anticipation, a novel treatment option for ACH has become available. C-type natriuretic peptide analog vosoritide effectively increases proportional growth and has a reasonable safety profile in children >2 years. Its effect on other features of the disease and the final height is yet to be determined.{studies show that vosoritide definitely increases growth rate but there’s yet a study that shows it’s impact on adult height; Micheal’s thoughts on vosoritide; I also speculate that CNP could help with longitudinal bone growth in adults if one as an adjunct to other methods or maybe to help grow via the cartilage in the spine or knee etc; CNP increases the proliferation of chondrocytes in general} Several other treatment options for ACH exploring different therapeutic approaches are currently being investigated. Key Messages: Denosumab is effective in the treatment of childhood-onset osteoporosis; however, further studies are necessary to determine the optimal treatment protocol. Burosumab is more etiology-based and convenient in comparison to conventional treatment of X-linked hypophospha­-temic rickets in children and adults. Vosoritide importantly changes the natural course of achondroplasia, at least in the short term.”

“Burosumab is the first etiologic treatment option that actively increases phosphate levels while also decreasing FGF-23 actions in XLH. It is a monoclonal IgG1 antibody that suppresses the actions of FGF-23. FGF-23 is the key phosphaturic hormone and acts as a regulator of phosphate homeostasis. It mediates its actions by binding to its cofactor alpha-Klotho and FGF-receptor 1 (FGFR1), through which it inhibits phosphate reabsorption in the kidney via downregulation of the sodium-dependent phosphate transporters (NaPi-2a and NaPi-2c) in proximal renal tubules. Additionally, it suppresses renal 1α-hydroxylase (CYP27B1) and activates 24-hydroxylase (CYP24A1), both of which contribute to lowering serum concentrations of 1,25-dihydroxy cholecalciferol and thus reduce intestinal uptake of phosphate. The elimination of burosumab follows the endogenous immunoglobulin degradation pathway”

“In another phase 3 study (study identifier NCT02915705) burosumab treatment was superior to conventional therapy regarding growth velocity and disease progression determined by RSS”<-burosumab’s impact on growth  velocity suggests that it may impact height.  IF you look at the study menionted figure 4,Height was increased by about 0.2cm.

“Excessive FGFR3 activation results in downstream activation of multiple intracellular signaling pathways, leading to intensified inhibition of cartilage tissue formation at the level of chondrocyte proliferation (via STAT1), hypertrophy, differentiation, and synthesis of the extracellular matrix (via Erk-MAPK signaling pathway) “

“Growth hormone supplementation has not shown promising results and is not viewed as a standard treatment for ACH. The progress in the understanding of ACH pathogenesis has led to the development of many potential therapeutic strategies for modulating excessive FGFR3 activation. Approaches are varied and include inhibiting the tyrosine kinase activity of FGFR3 (infigratinib), producing artificial FGFR3 as a decoy for FGF ligand (recifercept), inhibition of FGFR3 downstream signaling pathways (meclizine, C-type natriuretic peptide [CNP] analogs), modulation of growth via natriuretic peptide receptor 2 (NPR2) receptor (CNP analogs) and use of aptamers or monoclonal antibodies to prevent binding of FGF to its receptor (aptamer RBM-007, vofatamab). The investigations into analogs of CNP, especially vosoritide, are currently the most advanced”

“Vosoritide is a recombinant CNP analog. Endogenous CNP and its action on the growth plate through NPR-B are recognized as one of the important regulating mechanisms of longitudinal bone growth. Coupled with NPR-B, CNP antagonizes downstream FGFR3 signaling by inhibiting the Erk-MAPK signaling pathway at the level of Raf. This leads to chondrocyte proliferation, differentiation and increases the extracellular matrix synthesis. CNP-targeted overexpression in the cartilage or its continuous delivery by intravenous infusion has shown normalization of the impaired bone growth in mouse models with ACH”

” In August 2021, results of the extension phase 3 clinical trial in children with ACH aged between 5 and 18, receiving vosoritide 15 μg/kg once daily in subcutaneous injection, were published. An increase in annualized growth velocity was observed, with 3.52 cm of height gain over a 2-year treatment period in comparison to untreated patients. In addition, improvement in the proportionality of body segments and no acceleration of the bone maturation process (determined by bone age assessment) was observed{this is a positive indicator that the treatment will increase adult height}“

“Recent preclinical data in healthy cynomolgus monkeys showed that treatment with TransCon CNP subcutaneously once per week resulted in significant growth increases in body, tail, and long bones compared to controls. An increase in height was also more pronounced in comparison to the animals receiving a daily dose of CNP analog with the same amino acid sequence as vosoritide (5% vs. 3%, respectively), and no significant changes in bone quality were observed with both treatments. Moreover, sustained CNP release resulted in lower systemic CNP peak levels and has not been associated with adverse cardiovascular effects in monkeys treated with repeated weekly doses up to 100 μg/kg”

According to A long-acting C-natriuretic peptide for achondroplasia, “CNP-38 was slowly released into the systemic circulation and showed biphasic elimination pharmacokinetics with terminal half-lives of ∼200 and ∼600 h. Both preparations increased growth of mice comparable to or exceeding that produced by daily vosoritide.”

So both vosoritide and Transcon CNP increase height during development and I suspect may have some applications for adults as well.  Burosomab and the other FGFR3 inhibitors likely have impact on height as well.

{Note I accidentally made this post in Michael’s account}

{Tyler-This was a post by Michael John.  I am still very much working towards finding a way to grow taller.  Now I am focus on in inducing endochondral ossification of the articular cartilage.  I am growing through old studies.  It’s just a lot of studies are more of the same}

Note: The efficacy of this compound has been very controversial

I have been spending a ridiculous amount of time recently doing a LOT of research on the chemical compound known as Menaquinone-7, aka MK7, aka Vitamin K2. There has been a lot of research that I have found which confirms this idea that MK7 Supplements will lower the risk of hip femoral neck fractures in post menopausal women.

A recent PubMed Study “Three-year low-dose menaquinone-7 supplementation helps decrease bone loss in healthy postmenopausal women.” finally has admitted to the idea that it may not just be the Bone Mineral Density that can be dramatically reduced in its decreasing rate, but maybe the overall height of a person, at least slightly.

Let me quote the following…”MK-7 significantly decreased the loss in vertebral height of the lower thoracic region at the mid-site of the vertebrae.”

Something that has been worrying me for so long, from looking at so many claims of professional MDs is that since the most well known type of food source which has high concentrations of Vitamin K2 is Natto, was this “Why is it that if the Japanese are eating so much Natto (Since Natto is such a critical part of the Japanese diet, unlike any other country in the world) and soy based products relative to other ethnic groups, do Japanese women (or even Eastern Asian women in general) seem to have the highest rates of osteoporosis?”

Wouldn’t eating Natto have the opposite effect?

Is it just a racial thing, where different races actually have different levels  of BMD on average?

The Science behind Menaquinone-7

It seems that with MK7 at least, it can stimulate the level of osteocalcin and GLA in the body. the osteocalcin and GLA have a certain area of their molecular structure which allows them to chelate the Calcium atoms out of the soft tissue areas of the body, like the blood vessels. Remember that one of the things that happen as we get older is that there is a sort of plaque buildup in our blood vessels. 20% of the buildup in our vessels is calcium in nature. Somehow the K2 can cause the calcium buildup in the soft tissue area/blood vessels to reverse in ossification.{Tyler-obviously this would be very powerful if it happened in the bones}

What I am sure about

When the dentist Weston Price did his analysis on all those kids who didn’t seem to develop cavities back in the 30s or 50s (not sure what decade it was), he claimed that the compound was something he called Activator X. Recently people are saying that the activator X compound is just Vitamin K2, specifically the MK-7 version.

The K2 he managed to give to kids to reverse their cavities was some type of grass feed butter, combined with Cod Liver Oil. Remember what Dave Asprey has been asking the people who take his Bulletproof coffee to do? Put some grass-fed butter in it. It turns out that the Grass Feed Butter Oil has a higher than average concentration of K2 in it. Not only that, the entire idea of the possibility of reversing cavities was because I used to lurk in the Bulletproof Executive Forum , and heard other people who claim to have it happen to them. Dr. Pamela Smith has claimed in one Youtube video though that you would need a recommended 100 mcg of Menaquinone-7 to get a reasonable effect.

However, when Price did the X-rays to show that the teeth seemed to fill out, he didn’t consider the factor of Strontium, as well as the fact that to get the caries to reverse, you still need to at least put some filling on the cap of the teeth first. The hole in the center is supposed to be filled up over time from K2 supplementation.

{tyler}-

Here’s more about the effects of Vitamin K2 on GLA

Matrix Gla Protein Is a Developmental Regulator of Chondrocyte Mineralization And, When Constitutively Expressed, Blocks Endochondral and Intramembranous Ossification in the Limb

“Matrix GLA protein (MGP), a γ-carboxyglutamic acid (GLA)–rich, vitamin K–dependent and apatite-binding protein, is a regulator of hypertrophic cartilage mineralization during development. However, MGP is produced by both hypertrophic and immature chondrocytes, suggesting that MGP’s role in mineralization is cell stage–dependent, and that MGP may have other roles in immature cells. It is also unclear whether MGP regulates the quantity of mineral or mineral nature and quality as well. To address these issues, we determined the effects of manipulations of MGP synthesis and expression in (a) immature and hypertrophic chondrocyte cultures and (b) the chick limb bud in vivo. The two chondrocyte cultures displayed comparable levels of MGP gene expression. Yet, treatment with warfarin, a γ-carboxylase inhibitor and vitamin K antagonist, triggered mineralization in hypertrophic but not immature cultures. Warfarin effects on mineralization were highly selective, were accompanied by no appreciable changes in MGP expression, alkaline phosphatase activity, or cell number, and were counteracted by vitamin K cotreatment. Scanning electron microscopy, x-ray microanalysis, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy revealed that mineral forming in control and warfarin-treated hypertrophic cell cultures was similar and represented stoichiometric apatite. Virally driven MGP overexpression in cultured chondrocytes greatly decreased mineralization. Surprisingly, MGP overexpression in the developing limb not only inhibited cartilage mineralization, but also delayed chondrocyte maturation and blocked endochondral ossification and formation of a diaphyseal intramembranous bone collar. The results show that MGP is a powerful but developmentally regulated inhibitor of cartilage mineralization, controls mineral quantity but not type, and appears to have a previously unsuspected role in regulating chondrocyte maturation and ossification processes.”

Due to the subject which we focus on, the types of websites and web forums that link to the website are often very unusual and un-tasteful for many people. The most common type of websites that link to our site are from sites where you have angry, single, lonely young men in their teens and early 20s who think that their lack of dating life and romance is due to their physical appearance. Maybe some of them are right and accurate in that assessment, but a lot of the guys on those places that discuss what is written on our website are often suffering from body dysmorphic disorder. Beside just complaining about how short they are, they also complain about how their facial bone structure is not perfect ie. modelesque. The word “manlet” is thrown around and jokes are made about how even guys who are 6′ 3” are not tall enough anymore, which is definitely not true and not align with reality, at least in the USA. (I am talking about the sites, Lookism, Sluthate, etc. which are not just healthy to visit or read for the normal average male)

Besides trying to grow taller, they also want to have wide jaws, high cheek bones, pronounced chins, more pronounced nose, the right forehead angle, and sometimes even talk about changing their ethnicity. These guys are just not happy with the way they look.

This website has been around for almost 5 years now, and if I also consider the fact that Tyler has brought over many blog posts he has written over the years since the early 2000s, this website has information that may be even a decade old. So in terms of the internet space, this website is the most definitive guide on the subject of height increase on the internet, at least that is written in English. Maybe there is something else like this website in another language which has the same level of authority, but I haven’t found it.

What that means is that there are quite a few guys who read the major posts and they have sourced us. The biggest, most obvious and easiest option for height increase we have stated is Glucosamine Sulphate (although I just recently showed that taking Collagen Hydrolysate was just as important).As for the exact brand of Glucosamine Sulphate to take, I personally take the Dr Joints Advanced, which was what was recommended to me by a guy who worked at a GNC close to where I live who claimed to also teach biology courses at the local university part time.

There was a famous randomized, double blind, placebo controlled study which is always sourced to validate the idea that glucosamine sulphate is effective (the results showed on average about 3 mm of increase after 8 weeks of taking 1500 mg every day), which was also the same source used in an article written by the DailyMail UK entitled “Can This Pill Make You Taller after 4 Weeks?”.

For the longest time, in the online community, from 2000 to 2013, no one was able to validate the Glucosamine Sulphate theory, since there was only anecdotal claims here and there over the years, made by people who had questionable credentials and motives. I found someone screaming about that study (McCarthy & Swindell (sp?), et. al.) on another online forum for others to look at. I read it, and reported it on this website. Since then, the compound has become the one thing that everyone has been stating which really does have high efficacy rates as if it is some fact.

Recently, multiple sites that have linked to the website has had people claiming that it does work.

I frequent reddit a lot and in a recent reddit/r/tall post, some guy who listed himself as 6′ 5” made a claim that he has been taking glucosamine sulphate to reduce the amount of height loss from spinal compression over the day (aka diurnal variation). I can’t find that exact link for that particular r/tall thread. I did clip a picture of the post but it is somewhere in my hard drive, which is a mess right now. This shows that Glucosamine has this ability to mitigate the amount of height loss.

When you consider the fact that so many americans seem to have joint problems and lower back pain, which is the result of gradual loss and degradation of articular cartilage at the end of bones and collagen/water/ECM in the intervertebral spinal discs/annulus fibrosus, taking Glucosamine everyday even starting out as early as in your 20s doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.

So many americans seem to love going to the gym, working out, and bodybuilding. They like to max out on their bench press, deadlift, and squats. I have seen too many Youtube videos of guys who have put on 40-50 extra lbs of muscle to look as wide as possible and they would do squats with 400 lbs or more on their back.

That amount of weight on one’s body is horrible for the joints. I am always reminded of the story my friend told me years ago. His mother and aunt were both huge runners when they were younger (20s and 30s) but now that they are in their 50s and 60s, they have all this joint pain from so much pounding they did on their knees for so long.

From one source – http://lookism.net/Thread-Apparently-glucosamine-sulphate-makes-you-3cm-taller-within-a-month

A guy who claims to be 1.86m tall at night but wanted to be 1.90m said that we said glucosamine sulphate would give 2-3 cm is wrong! The results of the study showed an average of 3 mm, not cm. That person is a full order of magnitude off in reporting. If we said it was cm, and not mm, then I have to apologize for that error in reporting. But the results were 3 mm.
From other source – https://www.reddit.com/r/short/comments/5p2gu5/do_glucosamine_or_mens_huss_help_people_to_retain/

A poster calling himself Jack_Coppit said…

“I have a little experience with these sort of supps and aminos, for some back ground I am 21 and have never had a growth spurt, just grew slowly and gradually. My Father was the same and grew until he was 25. I started taking glucosamine sulphate around 2-3 weeks ago, 2.4gs Glucosamine which was made up by 3 1000mg capsules of glucosamine sulphate. Now my height has indeed increased. Which may sound silly. However prior to taking the glucosamine, I have been taking 5 grams of L-Arginine a day for 3.5 months, and continue to do so. L-Arginine has been proven to raise your resting HGH levels and can do so even more depending on whether you exercise or if you have an empty stomach when taking it.

I started by changing up my diet, and making sure I ate foods that were perfect for raising HGH and maintaining high levels throughout the day and throughout the night. I started this thinking I was a solid 5’8, but discovered that at the end of the day I was approx 171cms 5’7. Now however, my morning height peaked at 176cm 5’9 and my evening height is 174cm. Now whether this is improved posture or with stretches I do not know, but even with days off from stretching, maybe 4 at a time, I am maintaining this height. This also could just be natural growth due to my genes allowing me to grow after 21. Who knows. All I know is that I have 100% grown during this time, I measure my eye level against things I see in real life, my 5’4 Girlfriend now has to look up to me slightly more now when I stand straight, the shelf at work I can look over a little more, and the pains I get do seem to be growing pains. TLDR; 3 grams of Glucosamine sulphate and 5 grams of L-arginine = 3cms growth in 3-4 months. 0.75cms a month currently”

He noted that the Glucosamine does thicken the cartilage at the end of bones, which does seem to be true.

From a 3^rd source – http://lookism.net/Thread-HeightGuide-How-i-elongated-my-spine-and-reduced-height-loss

This guy who basically says he is 6′ 7” or exactly 2.024 m (which is actually 6′ 7.5” to be more exact) gained over 4 cm of height from taking Glucosamine and sticking to this specific routine.

– Hanging from a bar for 1 minutes 5x in the morning and 5x in the evening – total of 10-15 minutes a day

– Upside down hanging with gravity boots with same intervals as above
– Glucosamine – 2000 mg a day
– Posture exercise – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT_dFRnmdGs
– Constant hydration

Morning height increase from 1.983 meters to 2.024 meters. Evening height went from 1.954 meters to 1.999 meters. Notice however that before, the loss over the day was 2.9 cms while after taking the glucosamine the loss of height over the day was only 2.5 cm!!

>This is key right here. Even if we negated everything else and assumed that 4 cm of extra height was just normal natural growth, the reduction in loss over a day shows that oral consumption of Glucosamine does have noticeable effects.

This is his breakdown of the 4 extra cm…

1 cm from glucosamine
0.5-1 cm from hanging
close to 2cm from gravity boots
0.5-1cm from posture exercises

These are the conclusions this young lad made…

Glucosamine reduced height loss and was mostly responsible for maintaining evening height.

Hanging and upside down hanging enlongated my spine which increased overall height.
The taller you are the more height you will gain from this.
A 7’5′ person might gain 6-7cm and a 5’8 cm person only 3cm.

In response to what this guy claimed, a poster noted that after being on Glucosamine for 4 months, he probably gained around 5-10 mm at most, which when you think about it is enough of a gain to be more than just variation error. The guy claimed to be 190.5 cm tall at night, and that he would loss as much as 3-4 cm over the day, which is quite sizable. Him taking Glucosamine seemed to have fixed his ruptured discs problem and helped ease his back and neck pain. He sorted of admitted that it is possible that glucosamine may indeed reduce the amount of loss in height over the day, but not increase the morning height. He would late admit that it was not a full cm but more like 0.5 cm, which is about what the original study said (0.3 cm)

The original poster did note that astronauts in zero-gravity can gain 2-3 inches of extra height (that is true), so his routine which includes hanging on a bar can probably help increase a normal increase of only 3-5 mm to something more.

Personal Thoughts and Conclusion

Glucosamine definitely works in increasing height for some people. It is not a lot. The people who read this site and actually bought it and started taking it,, and stayed with it on a routine has debated and almost argued on certain forums and websites just what is realistically possible. A lot of people say it it as little as 0.5 cm, Others like this guy who is now 6′ 7” claim that they got 4 cm, when they combined it with hanging, hydration, and stretching. 4 cm does seem extreme, and the original poster never did answer the question of just how old is he.

It does seem rather odd that a guy who is now 6′ 7” would have desires to be even taller. (I’ve heard storied before of guys who are 6′ 5″ and still wear lifts in their shoes. Guys over 6′ 0″, and often 6′ 2″ now regularly post on whatever bodybuilding forums that they don’t feel that tall and would like to be even taller if they had the chance. I don’t think there is any real way to stop this idea that bigger is always better, even for the biggest of men. “Rarely does a guy say, I am tall enough. I don’t want/wish to be any taller” No matter how big you are, there will always be someone bigger, unless you are actually the biggest in the world.) In his words, he wanted to be 1% of the population where he lives, or 6′ 9”. The way he is talking, it sounds like he is still in university in the Netherlands. He has claimed that the average height in the netherlands is 6′ 1.5” and that in the university, the guys average around 6′ 2” – 6′ 2.5”. Is this guy just height obsessed since he is already extremely tall compared to the rest of the world? I don’t know. We all have our own hang-ups. I don’t judge other people anymore since there is really no such thing as “normal”.

Side Note

There is this rather obscure video of the basketball player Blake Griffin getting his height measured at the Predraft Combine years ago (it can still be found on Youtube somewhere ). This was in the morning, and his height and weight were the first things that the doctors/trainers measured right after he got out of bed in his hotel room. So we can negate the factor that his height was decreased slightly from all the jumping and running around on the basketball court. Blake’s height is tabulated at 6′ 8.5” but in the video he said his height was 6′ 8.75”. Now, a quarter of an inch doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, but when you consider the fact that even half an inch of extra height could mean you get a couple of million more dollars a year (based on a slight bump in the draft), even a quarter of an inch can be worth discussing over. I remember really looking very closely at the video, to see whether he was 6′ 8.5” or a quarter inch taller. I personally would have given him that extra quarter inch from the video, although the guy who actually measured him was only a few inches away from the measuring tape.

My point is that if this young guy on the lookism website who claims to be 6′ 7” now can vary as much as almost a full inch over the day, it makes sense that many of these basketball players who are even taller, would have their height be even more varied.

When Magic Johnson asked Lebron in a recent video point blank just how tall he really was, Lebron said (and I quote) “about 6′ 8”. Lebron has been since his Senior Year in high school “about 6′ 8”. He is not actually 6′ 8” because there are plenty of videos where he walks through a normal US standard doorway without ever reflexively ducking,. The exact height of most US doors is EXACTLY 6′ 8”. This is a standard in door manufacturing. The doors themselves are always lifted about 0.3-0.8 cm off the ground, so the wood doesn’t scrap against the floor. So the top of all doorways is usually 6′ 8.5” – 6′ 9” tall. He has his head always shaved so you can clearly see the top of his head aligned with the top of any doorway. Lebron in shoes at 6′ 8” or slightly more has never once in any of the videos I have seen him touch the top of any normal doorway, ever. He often looks maybe half an inch off. He also never ducks. People who are tall enough to scrap the top of their head or have their hair touch the doorway would instinctively duck, from a lifetime of habit. Lebron never does that. That means that those predraft measurements you find saying he is really 6′ 7.25” is very accurate, with about a 0.25 inch of error factored in, similar to Blake’s measurement’s difference. It is very possible that Lebron is actually 6′ 8” right out of bed, and by the end of a day of jumping, squatting, weight lifting, and running he could be as low as 6′ 7” at the end of a day, which is a very reasonable amount of difference from diurnal variation. I have no doubt that he, as a professional athlete, who is probably the highest paid athlete in the world, who is said to use $1.5 Million a year just to maintain and treat his body, is probably taking some type of supplement mixture to make sure that his joints last as long as possible.

The entire point here is that especially for taller men, taking glucosamine probably has an even more pronounced effect than shorter men, since supplement consumption means that they will suffer from much lower rates of height loss over the day. Basketball players are the type of people who will have the most benefit from taking the supplement.

Next Post Will Be About Anti-Sclerotin vs Fluriprofen

Very recently I found myself ordering from Amazon this product called Collagen Hydrolysate (Great Lakes Gelatin Collagen Hydrolysate – Pure Unflavored Protein Kosher Beef – 16 oz.). (not amazon affiliate link) I had bought it because I remember that the now retired basketball player Kobe Bryant said in an interview of what is his secret to being able to recover so quickly from some type of ligament or tendon injury was from drinking a lot of beef bone and marrow broth.

Since then, I have thought a lot about that claim. Sure, one realizes that after that claim, Kobe finally did announce his retired and leave the game of basketball in spectacular fashion. The sipping of bone soup will not prevent a person from getting older or more likely to suffer injuries as time goes on. Any claims that it can somehow be a cure for musculo-skeletal injury would be crazy to believe.

What I started to think about was the possibility that maybe the idea of consuming more of one specific type of protein would help maybe manage and lessen the erosion of cartilage, specifically the articular cartilage, in a person’s body.

If we remember, the extracellular matrix of cartilage tissue is made up of 4 main organic compounds, not including water. You have the collagen type II, the proteoglycan, and the GAGs (glyco-aminoglycans) as well as specific types of proteins like hyaluranon, aggrecan, and such. When you look at the composition of all of these organic compounds, there is one which really sticks out. I am talking about Collagen, whether it is Collagen Type I, Type II, Type III, or Type X. For our desires to become taller, we want to increase the level of Collagen Type II in our cartilage tissue.

However, when you go online to buy collagen, what you find is usually Collagen sold as a type of cosmetic, which you put on your face, to smooth out wrinkles. That type of collagen formulation does not use Type II, but Type I and Type III. The most effective way to use that type of collagen is to just apply it on your face, thus hydrating your skin layer. I once was approached in an Asian supermarket by a seller of this Japanese anti-aging cream who wanted me to try out their cosmetic product. I thought they would let me put some of the lotion/cream on my hand and then apply it on my face. No. They wanted me to swallow the collagen to obtain less wrinkles.

I knew back then about the types of collagen and she admitted that there is no Collagen Type II in that collagen drink, but just Collagen Type I and III. I called up the owner of the company which sold this product and they were not able back up their claims, except cite a few sources which did not admit that oral consumption of collagen helps remove wrinkles.

So I take this idea of beef bone marrow broth and combine it with the idea of swallowing a collagen drink for anti-wrinkles, and realized that it might be possible to find some type of oral supplement online like on Amazon which would claim to help a person’s joint health.

Maybe if you took the supplement of collagen, you can help treat and reduce the likelihood of muscoskeletal injury and damage as one gets older. Collagen, in its various types is found in skin, cartilage, and bone.

I personally have had this idea of buying this supplement for 8 months now but it was only recently that I actually bought the 16 oz one. After I bought it, I read the label and it said that it could definitely help with joint health, similar to those labels you find on Glucosamine/Chondroitin/MSM supplement bottles.

It got me curious to see if oral consumption of collagen powder (which is similar to those protein powders you see bodybuilders always taking) has any possible chance of stimulating osteoblast or chondroblast activity, maybe to increase the bone mineral density in bones, or maybe increase chondrocyte production levels.

What I found was very surprising. I refer to the studys below…

• “Hydrolyzed collagen intake increases bone mass of growing rats trained with running exercise“
• “Assessment of effectiveness of oral administration of collagen peptide on bone metabolism in growing and mature rats“
• “Bovine Collagen Peptides Compounds Promote the Proliferation and Differentiation of MC3T3-E1 Pre-Osteoblasts”
• “Porcine Skin Gelatin Hydrolysate Promotes Longitudinal Bone Growth in Adolescent Rats”
• “Collagen supplementation as a complementary therapy for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis and osteoarthritis: a systematic review”

I am fully aware that I wrote a very similar post very early on in the website about the possibility of taking Collagen Type II supplements and height increase (http://www.naturalheightgrowth.com/2012/09/12/increase-height-and-grow-taller-using-collagen-ii/), and linked to Tyler’s old site Height Quest, since he has written almost the exact same idea citing the 4^th study above, in a 2013 post (Grow taller with Collagen Hydrolysates).

This post is to get much more in depth into looking at the possibility, and seeing just how it would work.

And yes, we fully realize that the dosage needed to be taken by a human child who is 50 lbs in weight for collagen supplementation to have any real effect would be extremely large, as Tyler noted in his post.

Here is what recently has been claimed about it.

There are a few famous podcasts where professional medical researchers who are guests have come on to talk about the benefits. It was Dr. Rhonda Patrick who came onto the Joe Rogan Podcast who spoke about the benefits of collagen, and then she mentioned the compound again as an additional ingredient to be added into a smoothie. She would say that the collagen formulation has been proven to help with cartilage and osteoarthritis. The exact study that she cited was “Oral Administration of 14C Labeled Gelatin Hydrolysate Leads to an Accumulation of Radioactivity in Cartilage of Mice (C57/BL)”.

In that study, there was a mention of another 2 studies which showed that orally administered gelatin hydrolysate can be used in the treatment of osteoarthritis, which were the studies “Therapie der Osteoarthrose, Welche Wirkung haben Gelatinepraparate?” by Adam, M. in 1991 in the Journal Therapiewoche and the study “Dem Knorpel auf die Sprunge helfen” by Seeligmuller and Happel in 1993 in the same journal.

(And yes, I realize that those studies are not in English. I am guessing those studies are in German.)

Not only that, there were two other studies cited which showed that oral ingestion of Collagen Type II really helped against the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis.

This particular study however revealed that the gelatin was absorbed into the cartilage, at least compared to the control, which was proline.

The big question for us then is “Will consuming collagen and this gelatin hydrolysate actually help me grow taller?”

There is very good evidence that because the cartilage layers are absorbing the collagen and gelatin, they are swelling up and staying plump, thus decreasing loss of height from spinal decompression as well as increase height.

The 4th study I cited shows that adolescent rats bone growth increases from collagen consumption. Obviously, it would be beneficial for a human who is still growing, as an adolescent. Even for a human with closed growth plates, the collagen would still be beneficial because the little bit of articular cartilage that is still left could be thickened and strengthened.

Combine the collagen consumption with daily stretching, and the temporary height gains one would see from only stretching would be slightly more permanent. 

The honest truth is that there is no easy, simple chemical compound that you can buy cheap off of Amazon who can even have the possibility and small chance of increasing your height. Besides Glucosamine Sulphate, a Collagen derivative like the Collagen Hydrolysate, which may not contain Collagen Type II, but actually a mixture of amino acids and collagen type I and type III would still be helpful, would be the best, and smartest next choice. Of course, you don’t need to always buy the pills and supplements. I showed years ago in a post that instead of buying Glucosamine Sulphate pills, you just have to eat the shells on Shrimp in high amounts. Don’t de-shell the shrimp.

As for the collagen, I could suggest it to the younger people reading this, ask your parents to buy Oxtail and bones to boil to get the bone marrow and gelatin broth. There is an extremely high level of collagen and protein minerals inside.

There was a very interesting story that was reported today on the show Good Morning America. It involved two Chinese female twins, a Andrey Doering and a Gracie Rainsberry. Andrey is from Wausau, Wisconsin and Gracie has been living in Richland, Washington.

There doesn’t seem to be that many videos or pictures of them standing next to each other, but a very careful analysis of these two twins who had been separated at birth, and then raise independently of each other, seems to show that they are exactly the same height.

If identical twin siblings were born together and raise in the same family, eating the same food, wearing the same clothes, and sleeping in the same bed grew up to be exactly the same in height, that type of conclusion would be almost expected.

However, the fact that these two twins, raise hundreds of miles apart, seem to look exactly the same, (same face, same glasses, same teeth, etc.) and still end up exactly the same suggest that genetics plays an overwhelming factor when it comes towards determining height of the developing person.

I have told people who have messaged me on the website that to find figure out how tall they would end up, to look at both of their parent’s height, and then use the height calculator. An even better approximation of their eventual ultimate adult height is to see if they have siblings of the same sex. If it is a girl, I tell her to look at the the sibling that is the closest age to them, but older, and of the same sex. Once they know how tall that sibling is, just add 1 inch for every 2-3 years that they are younger.

It seems that the epidemiologists and the people who study population growth patterns are extremely accurate about something, which the people at the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control also validate.

When you are brought up in an environment that provides enough food and nutrition for your growth, there is really no way for a person’s growth to be stunted or increased, at least by a dramatic amount like 4-5 inches.

These two girls who were probably born in China, a developing nation which has a horrible track record for health care and environmental pollution, being identical twins have the exact same copy of DNA. They were both eventually brought to the USA to a middle-class environment to be raised, and it would be obvious that they were never put in a situation where they were starving, which would indeed stunt a person’s growth.

Assume that the families they were brought into were about the same, with roughly the same yearly annual income ($60K- $100K).

Lets do a comparison of the main characteristics of the two cities

Wausau, Wisconsin

• Latitude-Longitude – 44D 57′ N & 89D 38′ W
• Population – about 39,000
• population density – 2000/ square mile
• Median family income – $36831

Richland, Washington

• Latitude-Longitude – 46D 16′ 47″ N & 19D 16′ 53″ W
• Population – 48,000
• Population Density – 1,345/ square miles
• Median family income -53,090

Richland Washington is slightly bigger, the median average income of family is definitely higher, at least in the city.

Can we say that the two environments of the twins were about the same? The Latitude and Longitude would say that. So we don’t ever have to use Bergmann’s Rule to account for a sibling or twin being 1-2 inches taller because they lived further north than the other.

So we have identical twins, separated when they were very young, but both were raised in similar environments, and the result at least at the ages of 10 or so is that they have exactly the same height. Neither of them is even half an inch taller than the other.

Years ago I had found an article where this researcher on height and growth said that the genetics/genes of a person will determine the baby’s eventual height with having as much of an influence as 80%. After this very recent story of a twin story, which we can dissect to study, I would say that it might actually be more like that height is 90% determined by our genetics, and it is only in very extreme, situations where our height can be stunted or increased (ie. North Korea and Netherlands, respectively)

Ever since I found out that the company EpiBone was working towards creating lab grown osteochondral tissue, it was obvious that they were working towards making bone tissue that will go through the natural process of chondrocyte formation, chondrocyte condensation, osteocyte differentiation, and eventual total ossification of the previously chondrogenic tissue. This process is called endochondral ossification.

The ultimate goal as claimed by the CEO is that they want to grow bone tissue that can be implanted into bone defects in a living human. Based on the claims made, the obvious corollary to this claim is that they will also be working on bone tissue that can expand and grow on their own.

The idea is like this specific situation.

A young child (8-10 years old) who still has developing and growing limbs develops cancer of the bones aka osteosarcoma. The surgeons realize that they have to remove that bone tissue that has the cancer. That bone part is taken out, which could be a rather large chunk, but the orthopedist realizes that the child has not finished growing. They need to now replace that piece of bone they took out with a new one, which can also grow in length and width along with the bone in the limbs of the kid.

Alsberg’s team as early as the early 2000 showed that it was possible to grow “growth plate like” tissue that grows  volumetrically. Using that research as a stepping stone, the research team at EpiBone would be able to use the same growth factors, scaffolds, and peptides to get a growing bone-cartilage tissue in the lab.

The surgical technique of then implanting that Pseudo-Epiphyseal Cartilage tissue into the area of bone that is missing is not hard. That part where you fuse the bone edge of the implant with the edge of the originally cancerous cut bone does not need to be that difficult, although it can be technically challenging right now.

It appears that the real, true critical part that is limiting the possibility of using just stem cells and tissue engineering techniques to lengthen bone is not in the research.

It comes down to the need to fix the cut bones into alignment with each other, and not move about.

This is the entire reason why the original creator of the limb lengthening method need to ever use the External Fixators. The Fixators were always there to hold the bones in place, so that they don’t become crooked, or bent.

If we now really sat down and thought about it like a Monday Morning Quarterback aka “hindsight is 20/20”, the 2 decades of research on lengthening of bones done by Gavriil Ilisarov in the Kurgan from the 1960s to 1980s to perfect the technique of bone lengthening was bound to be successful, as long at the rate of lengthening of bone was just slow enough to account for osteogenic healing and tissue/callus formation rates. Once you realized that the bones in our body is one of the tissues in our bones with have the highest rate of healing potential in terms of broken bones over time fusing together, on a very theoretical level, there was no doubt that bones that have an external fixator that can pulls bones slowly aka lengthening would eventually heal over, resulting after say 3-6 months of tensile pulling, would result in longer bones.

Ilizarov used the Circular External Fixator to hold the bones into place. The technique for bone lengthening eventually was learned by the Germans ie at Dr. Betz, who developed his own internal fixator technique. Dr. Dror Paley developed his own internal fixator way called PRECISE. You always need some type of really strong, non-biodegradable element to hold the cut bones into place, whether it is to be placed inside the bone or attached to the bone from the outside.

The most minimally invasive method for limb lengthening surgery was developed by Dr. Bai Helong in China as early as the early 2000s, which involved a very thin method rod that is screwed to the top cut bone and the bottom cut bone, which is elongated. The rod would run in parallel to the axis of the long bone. As the metal rod is elongated through a mechanical action, the bones that the metal rod is screwed into, would elongate with the rod.

The callus that is formed in the region where the bones meet is stretched out and then reformed. This is what really happens during distraction osteogenesis. This is, and has always been the way bone lengthening actually works. Tissue that is developed between the interface of two bones, in the form of some pre-chondrogenic tissue aka “callus”, is stretched, ossified slightly, and then stretched again, until the desired lengthening of the bones finally is reached.

Notice how you always need to screw metal rods into the bones. You need the metal rods to go through the bones to give the bones enough structural strength.

This is one of the biggest issues that critics of the current bone lengthening methods have. They don’t like the idea that not only do you break the bones, but you also have to drill into the already cut bones at least in 2 different locations of the long bone, just to hold the overall long bone into position.

If an alternative to the current bone lengthening methods is ever developed, the technique will still need to hold the bones into position, without the chance of the cut bones falling apart and the legs ending up bent, or never fully fused back.

In a previous talk I had with someone over Skype, I had believed that maybe it was possible to implant some really strong bio-degradable material as a replacement to the metal rods or metal fixators.