Harald From Biomedical Growth Research Initiative, BGRI Answers Questions

About two months ago I got into exchanging emails with Harald Oberleander about whether he would be interested in coming on to the podcast and record an episode. Due to his desire to not reveal his voice and preserve his anonymity, he preferred that he would answer the questions I proposed to him in word doc format. This is the result of him working on the questions and getting us his answers. I hope any people who can help him and his organization will be able to help him and the cause out.

These are the 26 questions I asked him and the answers he gave to them.

Interview questions with Harald Oberländer, founding member of the „Biomedical Growth Research Initiative” (BGRI)

http://www.growth-research.org

Part I

Question 1: So what is your story? What makes you decide to take up this cause?

  • Answer: I am a short statured German teacher, who has always been interested in the progress of biomedical research. I have always been sure, that biomedicine has the potential to revolutionize the therapy of unwanted short stature. But unfortunately there is currently worldwide nearly no specific research concerning the development of an innovative height increase therapy (for adults). That was the reason why I founded the “Biomedical Growth Research Initiative” together with some other short statured people from around the world.

Question 2: How tall are you? Do you feel a sense of insecurity over your size/stature?

  • Answer: I am 1,67 m. Yes, I have always felt insecure because of my short stature.

Question 3: What got you interested in the subject of height increase or auxology?

  • Answer: The problems resulting from my short stature and my interest in (bio-)medical research.

Question 4: Before you found this website, what other resources were you using in your

research?

Question 5: … And how did you find about the website?

  • Answer: I found it with a google search result.

Question 6: Now do you want to talk about your experiences with interacting with people on the other boards and forums?

  • Answer: There has always been some interest concerning our support for serious height increase research. But unfortunately very few people want to support the development of such a therapy actively.

Question 7: Why has it been so hard to deal with those people on the internet forums and boards?

  • Answer: As I already said: Most people don´t want to invest time and efforts in order to support the development of a safe and effective height increase therapy.

So we have been quite ineffective during the last few years, as we only have few active members.

Question 8: So how much money in initial funding are you looking for?

Answer: We have received three detailed research proposals from research teams at universities in the USA, Canada and Hong Kong. Lately we were also contacted by a young German researcher, who has some very interesting ideas, but not a formal research proposal yet. At least 250.000 dollars are needed to start one of these projects. This money would be given directly to the researchers, not to the BGRI. Of course every seriously interested donator or investor will receive the official research proposals after signing a standard confidentiality agreement and he/she will be able to visit the researchers personally at their universities before making a final funding decision.

Question 9: How long has the organization existed?

  • Answer: We started with some first steps concerning the “Biomedical Growth Research Initiative” in 2003.

Question 10: Why is the address of the organization based in Israel?

  • Answer: Our former webmaster lives in Israel and he also created the P.O. Box address for us. Unfortunately he is no longer active. So we are currently looking for a new webmaster in order to update our homepage from time to time.

Interview questions with Harald Oberländer, founding member of the „Biomedical Growth Research Initiative”

(http://www.growth-research.org)

Part II

Question 11: Why do you think it has been so difficult in finding even one investor into the research?

  • Answer: We have contacted several venture capital companies. But unfortunately it is not so easy, as you may think. First of all: Short stature is only in extreme cases (like e.g. achondroplasia) an accepted medical disease and nobody has ever really tried to develop a safe and effective biomedical height increase therapy for short statured adults. Additionally most biotech investors prefer to invest into late stage products, that are already in human clinical trials. There is a significant fear to loose money, if you invest too early in a biotech therapy. You have to know, that even established biotech companies (like e.g. Advances Tissue Sciences, Valigen, Kimeragen and many others) with promissing product candidates have run out of money during the last few years. To sum up: At least during the starting phase a donator or an angel investor with a significant personal interest would be the ideal answer. As soon as human clinical trials have started, it will be much easier to attract large institutional investors. But without personal contacts it is really hard to find serious wealthy short statured donators or investors. In the past we have had three contacts with individual investors, but in the end they couldn´t fulfill their promises. So we need every help we can get in order to find a serious donator or investor (ideally with a personal interest in height increase research).

Question 12: What types of research have you personally been doing?

  • Answer: I am not a researcher, I am a short statured person. The BGRI is some kind of international support group. We are “only” in contact with (bio-)medical researchers around the world.

Question 13: What areas of research or ideas do you think are the most promising?

  • Answer: Tissue engineering, growth factors, gene therapy, stem cells and maybe LIPUS offer interesting perspectives. But only specific height increase research projects could tell, which way will be successful. So I can´t answer your question without further scientific research results.

Question 14: Which countries are actually looking at this scientific endeavour seriously?

  • Answer: As I already wrote: we have been in contact with researchers working at universities in the USA, Canada, Hong Kong and Germany.

Question 15: Have you ever thought about going through with the limb lengthening surgery?

  • Answer: Yes, I have thought about that. But I still hope for better options in the foreseeable future.

Question 16: Are you familiar with Tyler´s method Lateral Synovial Joint Loading? What is your opinion on his proposed technique?

  • Answer: I have read about it. My opinion concerning Tylers´s method is: maybe it will have some little effect (like e.g. regular stretching exercises) of about some centimetres in the best case. But I don´t know any published human clinical studies concerning this program. So there is no scientific prove, that it will work.

Question 17: Can you go into a little more detail in explaining how you think the theory actually works out?

  • Answer: I had to sign very strict confidentiality agreements with the involved universities. So I am not allowed to reveal more information in a public interview. If an interested donator or investor wants to have more detailed information, he/she will be very welcome to contact me personally at any time.

Question 18: Have you found anything recently?

  • Answer: Our most recent contact has been the ideas of the young German researcher.

Question 19: Now, this next question is to sort of play Devil´s Advocate. What makes you believe that the ability to increase our height after growth plate closure is even possible?

Question 20: Can you give some evidence in terms of recent studies or published papers which show that there are some researchers and groups that are really making headway into the search?

  • Answer: Unfortunately there is currently worldwide nearly no specific research concerning an innovative height increase therapy for adults. Nevertheless some research results for other indications (e.g. growth plate injuries, bone healing, limb regeneration) would surely have relevance for developing a safe and effective biomedical height increase therapy. You will find some very interesting studies on pubmed by searching for e.g. “bone tissue engineering”, “growth plate regeneration” or “limb lengthening growth factors”.

Question 21: In your professional opinion, What is the area of study me and other seekers out there should probably be focusing on? Stem cells, gene therapy, bone loading techniques, growth plate regeneration?

  • Answer: In my opinion all these approaches could lead to innovative therapy options.

Question 22: Within 20 years, do you think we will have an alternative to limb lengthening surgery?

  • Answer: As far as I can see this is mainly a question of the invested money and resources concerning specific height increase research. From the scientific point of view this would be more than realistic, I think.
  • With adequate support a much shorter timeframe should be possible.

Question 23: Beside height increase, what other interests and field of studies are you doing research in?

  • Answer: I am not a researcher, but a short statured support group member. So I am not doing research myself.

Question 24: Now do you have any suggestions on how the website can be improved on?

  • Answer: A discussion forum would be great, so that your readers could connect with each other.

Question 25: Do you have your own blog or website?

Question 26: Now if we wanted to find out more about your research, how can the readers reach you?

  • Answer: You can contact my by e-mail at harald_oberlaender@hotmail.com

Generation Of Cartilage From Periosteum In Vivo, A Clear Clue How To Start Epiphyseal Cartilage Regrowth Using Minimal Invasive Techniques (Breakthrough)

When I wrote ideas on how to possibly create or implant replacement epiphyseal plates for adult height increase, I had talked extensively about the idea on possibly using the articular cartilage layer or the cortical bone proliferation cell layer underneath the periosteum as a initial starting area to regenerate some form of columnar structured growth plate again.

What we see from these next articles is the first example of how it may be possible to regenerate new cartilage from the periosteum itself.

From PubMed, a study entitled “In vivo generation of cartilage from periosteum“… (There is no full text file unless you pay for it)

Tissue Eng. 2005 Mar-Apr;11(3-4):369-77.

In vivo generation of cartilage from periosteum.

Emans PJ, Surtel DA, Frings EJ, Bulstra SK, Kuijer R.

Source

Department of Orthopedic Surgery, University Hospital Maastricht, The Netherlands. pj.emans@orthop.unimaas.nl

Abstract

Periosteum has chondrogenic and osteogenic potential and plays an important role in fracture healing. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reactive tissue formed after damaging the periosteum. Damaging the periosteum may be a way to generate ectopic cartilage or bone, which may be useful for the repair of articular cartilage and bone defects. Periosteum was bilaterally dissected from the proximal medial tibia of New Zealand White rabbits. Reactive periosteal tissue was harvested 10, 20, and 40 days postsurgery and analyzed for expression of collagen types I, II, and X, aggrecan, osteopontin, and osteonectin (by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) and collagen types I and II (by immunohistochemistry). Reactive tissue was present in 93% of cases. Histologically, this tissue consisted of hyaline cartilage at follow-up days 10 and 20. Expression of collagen type II and aggrecan was present at 10 and 20 days postsurgery. Highest expression was at 10 days. Expression of collagen type X increased up to 20 days. No significant changes in the mRNA expression of osteopontin or osteonectin were observed. Immunohistochemistry confirmed the presence of cartilage, which was positive for collagen types I and II at 10 days and only for collagen type II at 20 days. At 20 days postsurgery the onset of bone formation was also observed. At 40 days postsurgery, the reactive tissue had almost completely turned into bone. The quality and amount of cartilage formed 10 days postsurgery make this technique potentially useful to fill large cartilage and bone defects. Also, periosteal callus formation, providing possible useful information for tissue engineering techniques, can be studied with this model.

Personal Analysis, Interpretation & Implication:

articular-cartilage-diagramWhat we are seeing is that the researchers state quite explicitly that “damaging the periosteum may be a way to generate ectopic cartilage or bone”. If we now remember, one of the central ideas on why Tyler thinks the LSJL technique works is because it leads to ectopic (not in the normal impacted location) microfractures which can result in mini growth plates. In the experiment the researchers cut into the bone on the proximal medial tibia side, beyond past the periosteum and got to the layer of proliferative cells right underneath the periosteum which is what really leads the bones to develop width based appositional periosteal growth leading to an overall constant thickness in the outer bone area/volume.

The periosteal tissue is taken at certain days after the cut made past the periosteum into the harvest tissue layer (day 10, 20, and 30). When these tissue is tested looking at the types of cells that develop after a few days, the researchers noticed that the periosteal tissue first turns into cartilage. This is confirmed from an immunohistochemical measurement where the fact that Collagen type I and type II are both expressed from the tissue the most around the 10 days postsurgery point. After a few more days however, the cartilage appear to change into bone cells from noticing the increased mRNA expression of collagen type X.

This indicates that it might be possible through delaying or suspending the inner cambium layer of the periosteum to cause a layer of cartilage to form and that can be converted into a chondrocyte stack leading to longitudinal legnthening.

F3.large

We can see from other PubMed articles like “Articular cartilage regeneration using periosteum.” and “The role of periosteum in cartilage repair.” that this technology has already been proposed and being utilized. Their abstracts are below…

Clin Orthop Relat Res. 1999 Oct;(367 Suppl):S186-203.

Articular cartilage regeneration using periosteum.

O’Driscoll SW.

Source

Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation, Rochester, MN 55905, USA.

Abstract

Periosteum has chondrogenic potential that makes it possible to repair or regenerate cartilage in damaged joints. Whole periosteal explants also can be cultured in vitro for the purpose of studying chondrogenesis. This chondrogenic potential arises because the cambium layer of periosteum contains chondrocyte precursor cells that form cartilage during limb development and growth in utero, and does so once again during fracture healing. The advantages of whole tissue periosteal transplants for cartilage repair include the fact that this tissue meets the three primary requirements for tissue engineering: a source of cells, a scaffold for delivering and retaining them, and a source of local growth factors. Data from in vivo studies show that periosteum transplanted into osteochondral articular defects produce cartilage that can restore the articular cartilage and be replaced by bone in the subchondral region. This capacity is determined by surgical factors such as the orientation of the cambium layer, postoperative factors such as the use of continuous passive motion, and the age and maturity of the experimental animal. In vitro studies have shown that the chondrogenic potential of periosteal explants is determined by culture, donor conditions, and technical factors. Chondrogenesis is optimized by suspension of the explants in agarose under aerobic conditions, with supplementation of the media using fetal calf serum and growth factors, particularly transforming growth factor-beta 1. The role of physical factors currently is being investigated, but studies show that the mechanical environment is important. Donor factors that are important include the harvest site, the size of the periosteal explant, and most importantly the age of the donor. Periosteal chondrogenesis follows a specific time course of events, with proliferation preceding differentiation. The current challenge is to clarify the process of periosteal chondrogenesis and its regulation at the cellular and molecular levels, so that it can be controlled intelligently and optimized for the purpose of cartilage repair and regeneration.

{Here’s an article I found-Tyler

Elucidating multiscale periosteal mechanobiology: a key to unlocking the smart properties and regenerative capacity of the periosteum?

“The periosteum, a thin, fibrous tissue layer covering most bones, resides in a dynamic, mechanically loaded environment. The periosteum also provides a niche for mesenchymal stem cells. Periosteum exhibits stress-state-dependent mechanical and material properties, hallmarks of a smart material.”

” In absence of graft, infilling occurs from the periosteum, toward the surface of the implant, which stabilizes the femur and fills the medullary cavity.  Biophysical and chemical environment of PDCs egressing from the periosteum into the critical-sized defect modulates tissue genesis (chondro- as well as osteogenesis).”

“the cytoskeleton is akin to a living bridge that restructures its architecture to minimize areas of stress concentration in high wind or traffic situations. Similarly, at the length scale of a tissue, the periosteum serves as bone’s bounding membrane and harnesses endogenous biophysical cues to modulate environmental conditions on either side (within and outside of bone).”

“Periosteum is highly vascularized and provides at least 1/3 of the blood supply to cortical bone, with the remaining supply coming from the intramedullary niche.”

“The periosteum is anchored to the bone by Sharpey’s fibers, strong fibers with a high collagen content. Sharpey’s fibers serve as a link between the exterior musculature and the interior skeleton and allow the periosteum to remain intact and attached to the bone, even after severe trauma occurs. In certain bones, Sharpey’s fibers anchor tendons and ligaments to the bone. Periosteum is absent at sites of tendon attachments. As tendon and ligament attachments vary by bone, periosteum morphology is highly variable between bones and even within bones.”

mesenchymal condensation genes“PDCs[Periosteum Derived Stem Cells] and BMSCs have been shown to differentiate along different lineages when cultured on the same roughened titanium surface, suggesting different pathways or mechanisms for mechanotransduction for MSCs from different niches.”

“The native environment of PDCs is mechanically regulated by a combination of tension and shear (given that the periosteum itself exhibits different moduli of elasticity in the longitudinal and circumferential directions). The intracellular tension PDCs experience is suggested to regulate long bone growth.”

“PDCs’ capacity to carry intracellular tension through their active microfilament network has been postulated to regulate a signaling cascade which, in turn, is responsible for the expression of soluble factors that modulate cartilage growth. The stiffness of the culture surface determines the magnitude of intracellular tension placed on the actin microfilament network.”

“mechanical signaling alone can cause PDCs to differentiate”

“PDC proliferation during periosteal chondrogenesis can be stimulated by DFP[Dynamic Fluid Pressure].”}

PMID: 10546647 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE
Analysis and Interpretation: The abstract shows that the cambium layer of periosteum has the precursor to chondrogenic type cells. These pregenitor cells are what form the cartilage in limb development in growth. They are also what caused the callus formation from fracture healing. Apparently the scientists have already been using this type of cell for tissue transplants for at least articular cartilage repair since it satisfies all three requirement, being a source of cells acting also as a scaffold and also hace local growth factors. It seems that the ability for transplanted and implanted periosteal tissue is determined by the culture, the donor conditions, and technical factors. However, we note that all of these factors can be manipulated in the laboratory until the optimum conditions for the three factors are found. The researchers in turn understand very well which factors are critical and which factors will need to be tested to see they are at the optimum conditions. The ending of the abstract shows that the technology for using periosteum derived pre-cursor chondrocytes is under way. they state “The current challenge is to clarify the process of periosteal chondrogenesis and its regulation at the cellular and molecular levels, so that it can be controlled intelligently and optimized for the purpose of cartilage repair and regeneration.”

The role of periosteum in cartilage repair. 

Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2001 Oct;(391 Suppl):S190-207.

The role of periosteum in cartilage repair.

O’Driscoll SW, Fitzsimmons JS.

Source

Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation, Rochester, MN 55905, USA.

Abstract

Periosteum, which can be grown in cell and whole tissue cultures, may meet one or more of the three prerequisites for tissue engineered cartilage repair. Periosteum contains pluripotential mesenchymal stem cells with the potential to form either cartilage or bone. Because it can be transplanted as a whole tissue, it can serve as its own scaffold or a matrix onto which other cells and/or growth factors can be adhered. Finally, it produces bioactive factors that are known to be chondrogenic. The chondrocyte precursor cells reside in the cambium layer. These vary in total density and volume with age and in different donor sites. The advantages of whole tissue periosteal transplants for cartilage repair include the fact that this tissue meets the three primary requirements for tissue engineering: a source of cells, a scaffold for delivering and retaining them, and a source of local growth factors. Many growth factors that regulate chondrocytes and cartilage development are synthesized by periosteum in conditions conducive to chondrogenesis. These include transforming growth factor-beta 1, insulinlike growth factor-1, growth and differentiation factor-5, bone morphogenetic protein-2, integrins, and the receptors for these molecules. By additional study of the molecular events in periosteal chondrogenesis, it may be possible to optimize its capacity for articular cartilage repair.

Analysis and Interpretation: This abstract is a sort of review of the technology to use periosteum in cartilage repair. It has one or more of the three primary factors to make tissue engineered cartilage repait possible. It has the pluripotent mesenchymal stem cells, it has the scaffold or matrix which the cells and growth factors can adhere to. It also produces within itself (locally) the type of growth factors need to lead the MSCs to cartilage cells. The growth factor the periosteum can manufacturer and release for cartilage formation are TGF-beta 1, IGF-1, GDF-4, BMP-2, integrins, and the receptor for the growth factors. While the writers of this article are imagining and thinking abut how to use this pool of amazing resource for articular cartilage repair, we are thinking about how to use the periosteum in epiphyseal cartilage regeneration.

PMID: 11603704 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

What Is The Most Height Gain One Can Achieve Through Exercises And Stretching After Puberty And Growth Plate Closure?

So I am going to take some time today to answer this question so that it will go in the Frequently Asked Questions section.

What I am finding is that even though I have created a FAQs Section to the website, I still get around half a dozen emails everyday asking me the same questions.

The two most common variations of questions are (and I have already wrote about it 3 times already).

  • Hi. I am 16-30 years old (in some age in that range). I am this tall. Can I still grow taller?
  • I want to be 4-7 inches Taller. I am 5′ 1″-5’5″ male and I want to be 5′ 10″-6′ 2″. What supplements/ pills can I take to grow taller?

In each of these questions, you realize that both of them are loaded questions.

In the first question, they just are hoping that I will say yes to this question. The truth is that the chances are low and that they probably won’t gain even half a centimeter of height increase if they don’t start taking some form of action immediately, in the form of exercising and stretching.

In the second question, they are hoping that I will tell them some secret, unknown chemical compound supplement which no one has heard before yet which will be essentially a “Magic Pill” which I have already talked about. The truth is that the real answer to this question is that there is no single pill that will no everything.

A common variation to the supplement/pill question is to ask is there a type of pill that the person can take which will have all of the essential, suggested active ingredients. And my answer is a quick no. Again what the question is looking for is a “Magic Pill“, that has all of the height increase benefits, at least one which really does work. Throughout the internet space there are few website which do claim that they have all of the essential ingredients needed to stimulate increased height growth rate in them, but all of them are fake, at least all of the supplements I have looked at. Not one of them have been able to give a theory on why the pills they are selling could possibly work and resolve the issues dealing with the chondrogenesis process and how to get over the hard, strong cortical bone extracellular matrix.

I am going to be completely honest with the questioner right now. Everything I know I have already revealed to the reader at some point in the website. What you know from reading the website is what I know, and that is the limit and extend of my knowledge.

So if the answers to the two most common asked questions to the email are…

Answer to question #1: “Probably not, but you can try by  reading the Exercise Guide Section and buy the supplements in the Supplement Guide Section”

Answer to question #2: “There is no pills that will guarantee height increase but you can try out the supplements I suggested in the Supplement Guide Section.”

Since these two most commonly asked question are finally completely and fully answered, I will answer what I think is a third and maybe the real question many questioners are really asking to me, but don’t realize is their real intention…

“What Is The Most Height Gain One Can Achieve Through Exercises And Stretching After Puberty And Growth Plate Closure?”

This question is assuming that the supplements i suggested the questioner and reader try to buy and take is either not used or is being used and having no noticeable effects. The answer is that for most people, the maximum height increase they can get, both temporary and permanent would be around the 1.5″ or 4 cm range. That is what in my professional research opinion is possible for height increase for 99.99% of all people in a large group. 4 cm or 1.5 inches is both lage enough to be noticeable and small enough to not be that dramatic. For most people, they will never go beyond 2 cm of potential height increase due to their posture and vertebrate curvature already inherent in their skeletal structure.

However,we must not remember that extremely tall people can have an even greater amount of height increase, by upwards of 5 cms. A person like Paul Gasol who has been measured at a little over 7 feet tall can have his height show a variation as large as 1.50-2 inches of height difference between the time of him first getting out of bed and right before he goes to bed to decompress his vertebrate. We see from Tyson Chandler’s predraft measurements that he was actually 6′ 11.50″ in height without shoes, 7′ 0.5″ with shoes on, a 7′ 3″ length in wingspan, and a 9′ 2″ reach.  (source) However, we know that he is listed as 7′ 1″ on most of the basketball and NBA website directories. This could also be right which would suggest that a human male that is over 5 standard deviations away from the average height can have a high variation in his height, and at some points of the day really be 7′ 1″ and at other times 1.5″ less. For these super tall humans, the amount of height increase they can get through exercises and stretching can be up to 5 cm in height increase, but however by the time there are already around 7 feet tall, it would really make little sense for them to desire to be any taller for any good practical reasons.

So if you are going to go through with some form of exercise routine or stretching program, the most that almost everyone should expect is about 1.5 inches of height increase.

As a sort of example, let me show my own process. As for myself, I focused on swimming at least 2 hours a day, sleeping without a pillow, doing decompressive stretching while lying after waking up which involved lunges. I also bought an inversion table and used that with twisting of the torso for maybe 10 minutes everyday until my head got dizzy from the blood flow down to my head. I also used yoga posed that focused on bending and stretching my back. I was very consistent in when I would measure my height and even shaved my head to make sure my hair would not cause any height measurement eror. This went on for about 4 months. In the end I gained 0.25 of an inch.

Sometimes Estrogen Is A Good Thing And Letrozole And Aromatase Inhibitors Are A Bad Thing

While I was going through compiling The Library I came across a study which made me stop for a good hour to understand what it is really implying and I finally realized why the results from it was so contrarian to everything I’ve learned about so far.

From PubMed study entitled “Locally produced estrogen promotes fetal rat metatarsal bone growth; an effect mediated through increased chondrocyte proliferation and decreased apoptosis.“…

J Endocrinol. 2006 Feb;188(2):193-203.

Locally produced estrogen promotes fetal rat metatarsal bone growth; an effect mediated through increased chondrocyte proliferation and decreased apoptosis.

Chagin AS, Chrysis D, Takigawa M, Ritzen EM, Sävendahl L.

Source

Pediatric Endocrinology Unit, Department of Woman and Child Health, Karolinska Institute, Karolinska University Hospital, SE-171 76 Stockholm, Sweden. andrei.chagin@ki.se

Abstract

The importance of estrogens for the regulation of longitudinal bone growth is unequivocal. However, any local effect of estrogens in growth plate cartilage has been debated. Recently, several enzymes essential for estrogen synthesis were shown to be expressed in rat growth plate chondrocytes. Local production of 17beta-estradiol (E2) has also been demonstrated in rat costal chondrocytes. We aimed to determine the functional role of locally produced estrogen in growth plate cartilage. The human chondrocyte-like cell line HCS-2/8 was used to study estrogen effects on cell proliferation (3H-labeled thymidine uptake) and apoptosis (cell death detection ELISA kit). Chondrocyte production of E2 was measured by RIA and organ cultures of fetal rat metatarsal bones were used to study the effects of estrogen on longitudinal growth rate. We found that significant amounts of E2 were produced by HCS-2/8 chondrocytes (64.1 +/- 5.3 fmol/3 days/10(6) cells). The aromatase inhibitor letrozole (1 microM) and the pure estrogen receptor antagonist ICI 182,780 (10 microM) inhibited proliferation of HCS-2/8 chondrocytes by 20% (P < 0.01) and almost 50% (P < 0.001), respectively. Treatment with ICI 182,780 (10 microM) increased apoptosis by 228% (P < 0.05). Co-treatment with either caspase-3 or pan-caspase inhibitors completely blocked ICI 182,780-induced apoptosis (P < 0.001 vs ICI 182,780 only). Moreover, both ICI 182,780 (10 microM) and letrozole (1 microM) decreased longitudinal growth of fetal rat metatarsal bones after 7 days of culture (P < 0.01). In conclusion, our data clearly show that chondrocytes endogenously produce E2 and that locally produced estrogen stimulates chondrocyte proliferation and protects from spontaneous apoptosis. In addition, longitudinal growth is promoted by estrogens locally produced within the epiphyseal growth plate.

PMID: 16461546 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]   Free full text

Analysis: What we have been learning about and sort of concluded from the months of research was that overall, estrogen was a bad thing and that to delay the final growth plate closure we have to take aromatase inhibitors to prevent estrogen from completely using up the last bit of chondrocytes left. This study actually seems to have the reverse conclusion, which is that estrogen is good for chondrocyte proliferation and thus longitudinal growth and that Letrozole and other estrogen receptor antagonists like ICI were not a good thing since they lead to more spontaneous chondrocyte apoptosis in the growth plate of young lab rats. However we are not talking about femurs and tibias, but digits, feet metatarsals. The growth plates themselves seem to create estrogen, specifically beta-estradiol (E2). The researchers conclude with “In conclusion, our data clearly show that chondrocytes endogenously produce E2 and that locally produced estrogen stimulates chondrocyte proliferation and protects from spontaneous apoptosis. In addition, longitudinal growth is promoted by estrogens locally produced within the epiphyseal growth plate.” If I was to try to guess at why this study has results that go directly in conflict with our main axiom on how growth works, I’d say this phenomena is similar to what you see when the onset of puberty starts. The increase in estrogen release rate happens in two stages in bone development, when the puberty stage first get started, and when the puberty is about to end. Since we are talking about rats that are very young still with functional growth plates, we could say that the experiment is similar to when they are going through the initial puberty stage. Remember that girls go through puberty earlier than boys so during the 4-6 grade years range, some girls actually become taller than boys. This is from the excess estrogen they got in the earlier years compared to boys  so they start puberty earlier. However we know from other studies that it seems that first (and 2nd) estrogen increased rate of release actually is what depletes the number of available chondrocytes in the resting zone that is ultimately able to proliferate and hypertrophy. This means that the height increase you get in the that stage is what will hurt you down the line when your resting zone runs out of proliferating material and ultimately will close faster. So, sometimes estrogen is a good thing and aromatase inhibitors are a bad thing in leading to longitudinal growth. However I caution that the initial good results you see could be the cause for bad results later on. I think this study never took the studies further to see if the experimental to the control groups still had the same ultimate metatarsal lengthening ratio or did the metatarsal length ratios of control to experimental reverse due to the excess estrogen in the beginning.

Reviewing A Height Increase Success Story By SkinTightFlash From Youtube, A Lance Ward Supporter

Yesterday I got an email from a reader of the website who wanted me to check out the videos on YouTube of a guy names SkinTightFlash who was showing his face and talking about his height increase success story. From only looking at 4 of the 7 videos he has uploaded to date, I would guess that he is a real honest person who is not trying to scam or con people out of money and pushing them to buy a product that doesn’t work. It seems that Lance Ward has featured him and his videos on the GTG (Grow Taller Guru) youtube channel to show that his programs do work in helping people grow taller. That is fair enough. So far he has become rather popular and even though he has 7 videos uploaded as of this current date, he has over 2000 video views, as he states. In each video, you can see that he gets dozens of comments asking for his routine and stretching patterns of who give his a congratulatory note. He seems like a really nice and likeable guy.

You can get to his YouTube video Channel by clicking the his profile at TightSkinFLash.

Click Here–>TightSkinFlash <– Click Here.

I will not be uploading, embedding, or posting any of his videos on this post since there is too many and the information I have below I had to watch all the videos and combine all the information he has given are all scattered through out the videos. There is no central video he has which would give all of the information below.

So far these are the facts we know about him.

Obviously he is an African American male

Age: over 25 years old, as he reports

Old claimed height: 5′ 7.25″ He says that from the age of 18 and high school, he remembers that he was always at 5′ 7″ and he is not sure where the quarter of inch came from after that. From his early 20s, he was always at 5′ 7″, not any taller.

Height found on his Driver’s License: 5 ‘7″ based in Texas. Note: The issue I have with that drivers license shot was that he did not show his face. That makes me slightly suspicious. There is really nothing to cover or hide from revealing his face on the drivers license. At least that would be a way to 

Claimed new height #1: 5′ 8.125″ , this is for his morning height, after he gets out of bed

Claimed new height #2 after more stretching: 5′ 8.25″ (for sometime later after September, maybe November-Decembet time range.)

Measured height late at night at the gym: 170.9 cm which is 67.2835 inches or 5′ 7.25″

Dad’s Height: 6′ 2″

Real Goal: 6′ 4″

Would settle for: 6′ 1.5″- 6′ 2″

Won’t really start to give advice or talk about his methods, routines, or ideas until he reaches: 5′ 11″

Won’t be sure if his height increase is real until he reaches: 5′ 9″

Others things to consider: The possibility of his measuring error is reduced because of his shaved head. Hair plays a large part in height measuring error. In one videos he explicitly shows a shot of his head before and after getting it shaved since he realizes that he had to be more accurate in his measurements and wanted to make sure the height increase he was measuring was real. Good for him. That shows he is really dedicated.

Measuring Technique: From one video he states that all though he has gotten people and commenters who suggest him getting a stadiometer, he has not gone that path since those things cost hundreds of dollars. His method is to measure and mark horizontal lines on a wall and use a book that pushes down until it reaches his head to measure himself. I would say that is still reasonable although it would lead to more measurement error than I would have desired.

Schedule of Measurement: He measures himself every morning. He did the very first measurement “late, late, late at night on the 13th of September…or maybe even the 14th of September since it might have crossed midnight…“(his quote) He was also dehydrated that date. Every other measurement after that first measurement was done in the morning. That is what he has chosen to measure himself.

This guy is on a 90 days height increase challenge. His routine he states is that he stretches 2 hours a day, which I found really impressive. He says in one of his videos that he tries to stretch 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes in the evening, and have the other 2 hours somewhere in the middle.

He does try some hanging on a bar chin-up style like Michael Jordan but he says in one of his replied comments that he can’t do it for more than 10 seconds.

So far, I have gone to his YouTube channel and written a message asking him if he would like to join in a discussion with me for one of the podcast episodes so we can record his story and hear everything. Apparently he does try to take the HGH cocktail we found from the Grow Taller 4 Idiots book, which is a mixture of Fava beans, raw cabbage, and tomatoes. He stated he goes with organic ingredients which is fine by me. Whatever makes him feel better. From the video it seems he buys his organic vegetables from Whole Foods and mixes the secret ingredient, organic natural milk with his vegetable “HGH Cocktail”.

When he talks about the secret ingredient, what I am guessing he is referring to is “organic natural milk“. The tallest groups of people in the world are either tribes in africa, the Dutch, or the Croatians/Serbians. Some of them do drink a lot of milk, while the  African tribes drink a lot of goat milk. The thing is that the pure cow milk is actually illegal to be sold in some states due to the fact most people feel the pure stuff may contain harmful compounds inside. Additional compounds are added which is believed to eliminate potential biological parasites or bacterial which could be harmful. In replacement, most places choose to add a chemical additive, which means you replace a potentially dangerous compounds from a biological source to a potentially dangerous compounds from a chemical source. He claims that SIMPLE SUGARS are bad if you want to be skinny or tall. I agree with him about the skinny part since there has been studies which link carbohydrates with increased fat retention, and carbohydrates are just complex sugars. However, I can’t give an opinon about his claim on the link between simple sugars and height since I have seen nothing to back up his claim about that. From the section of video it is shot at, note that he uses the term “a gallon and a half a day” when he types it up. That means the secret stuff is a liquid form measured in volumetric units. Plus, you can see him driving through an area which looks to be rural, so he might be actually at a farm. Of course I kept pausing his video so the last section was actually written before he revealed that the secret compound was organic natural milk in the next 3 seconds of the video.

In another video, you can hear a female voice interject which shows that he has not been doing these program on his own. That woman seems to be doing some of the camera holding on some of the videos. She is revealed to be his wife. He says that she supports his decision and desire to go through with the grow taller program 100% which is very commendable. In the same video, he reveals that his has two beliefs on why his situation is a littler harder than other people’s being slightly older that other people who are trying to grow taller and being overweight. He says that because of him being overweight, he would have to try harder than most others to get the results he wants.

In another video, he shares the story of how his cousin who used to tease him for him being shorter than him was recently compared in height to him to find out he was taller than her, both with shoes off. That would be a good ego boost to anyone, to get back at people.

My Personal Analysis: In many of my previous posts I had talked about this idea I called “Hidden Height” and I will say it again. Most people in society actually are not at their full height potential because they actually have “Hidden Height” which is never realized. What I am claiming to this guy is that he is just finally decideding to change his lifestyle incorporating better diet habits and exercises and stretching to realize that hidden height. I stated in a previous post entitled “What Percentage Of The General Population Can Increase Their Height?” which was written in the beginning of September about the idea of Hidden Height but I have also talked about it occasionally. In general, I have stated that people who have being overweight living unhealthy lifestyles before they start a height increase program are far more likely to see results that the people who are already doing fitness. This is because the person who is not doing fitness has not tried to realize that hidden height.

Since they don’t exercise a lot or try to stand completely straight, their vertebrate through gravity will actually start to curve more and their posture gets worst as a result. Being overwieght and/or obsese is the easiest way for people to have hidden height. The excess weight actually prevents their vertebrate from decompressing completely and letting them to stand completely straight. Further bad posture lead to further vertebrate curvature. My old girlfriend’s father had the the cervical vertebrate region so curved forward that the back of his head would never touch the bed if he lied on his back on the bed and removed the pillow. From older pictures you can see that he in his 20-30s always stood straight and had good posture but the years cause him to loss the good posture excess eating habits, long working hours, excess drinking, and habitual bad posture. If he tried a height increase routine he would have gained at least 1 inch back permanently.

That hidden height is from the fact that there are stretching a person with closed growth plates can do which can help them lead to 2-3 cms, and maybe even sometimes 4 cms of extra height which is mostly permanent. This guy states himself that he is overweight. This makes him the perfect candidate to see dramatic results. If he was a Olympic level gymnastic, no matter how much stretching he did, he would NOT increase even 0.25″ of extra height .It really does suck that the for the people who live healthy lives, the exercise and stretching routines won’t give them much results but can only be seen by people who have not been doing it.

There is a chance for a certain percentage of the population people to get some extra height in adulthood and that is seen in other posts whether you use rolfing, chiropractor, Alexander Method, PIlates, or Yoga. However, again it is really them gaining the hidden height potential they always had in their curved posture and vertebrate.

Conclusion: His 1 inch height increase is real and probably will be permanent. However my claim is that the increase is from hidden height which was already there which he is only now is being fully realized. There will come a point where he will be limited to any more height increase due to the contraints of bone i.e. the intervertebral disks can no longer decompress any more, and I would guess he won’t ever get past the 5′ 9″ limit. The clearest examples was the Monaug case from GiantScientific forums. He gained around 2 inches from a massive real dedicated stretching program  but eventually lost some of that and eventually ended up with about 1 inch of permanent growth. If he does however get beyond, 5′ 9″ to even 5′ 9.5″ then we really have something to look into and checking up on.

Review: Japanese Face Slimming Roller Massager May Actually Cause The Opposite Intended Effects Due To Bone Remodeling

This is not a cosmetics or cosmetics review website. This is a website that investigates, analyzes, and searches for the solution of height increase. However I felt that I probably would be able to give my own personal review on the theory of this product due to previous research in bone remodeling.

Sometimes I see products being sold at the local convenience store I shop at and I get a slight swinge of anger from seeing something which I know would never work but still sells to people due to their insecurities like vanity or fear. This happened to me yesterday.

i39gr9While I was walking through the local supermarket trying to get toiletries I ended up in the aile where female cosmetic products were being sold. Along that long and large section, I saw again what I would only call the “Japanese Face Slimming Roller Massager”. Refer to picture to the right if you are not familiar or know what I am talking about.

I remember back when I was living in the states going to places like the Japanese based store Diaso or the locally Seattle based asian supermarket chain Uwajimaya and seeing this thing which was a Japanese invention. Now that I am living in East Asia I am seeing this product again.

Although I have never bought the roller and used it myself, I wanted to give a thought to the effect of the Japanese face slimming roller massager. I actually think that the extended use of this massager may actually cause the opposite intended effects of face slimming due to how bones remodel.

Note: Picture is taken from EBeautyBlog.com

951745524_fb6ea0e5b0We see from other pictures that the natural state of the roller is not in a V-shape but in a rather tight tweezer shape. If I was to put this thing on my face, would the elasticity be weak enough to only roll my skin or will the elasticity be stronger and actually cause the roller ends to be touching my bone ie. jawline?

If it is just touching my outer layer of epidermis, my skin, then what it does as it rolls along the face is to move around the adipose tissue making it slightly more uniform in distribution thus causing the face to be slightly smoother. Think of the big Zambonis (Ice resurfacer) which you find at ice skating rinks.

In terms of the application for massager, it seems to work well. In quite a few forums like HERE we find out that it is a nice product if you are looking to get a way to massage your cheeks and face. People like its stress lowering, comforting, therapeutic effects. The effects made by the few people who review show it helps in a psychological way which is probably a placebo. They say it relieves tension and maybe also reduces pain.

However, due to how it is touching and at what frequency on the face, there is a chance that repeated application of the hard surface can cause the jawline bones, the side mandibular area to actually thicken, due to the Wolff’s Law. Periosteal and appositional growth of the bone may lead to the bones to grow wider and thus the face wider too. Of course this is assuming the face slimmer is even touching the bone. If it is, it would cause it from continued use, but the effects would be so small it would be mostly unnoticeable, maybe only 1-2 mm of mandibular bone thickening.

In addition, if we remember our basic knowledge on massage theories, one of the biggest things that happens to human skin when you apply a loading motion like massages and acupressure is that it would lead to the blood vessels in that area to dilate leading to better and increased circulation and blood flow. This means the area would actually become slightly engorged. Think about how a person who gets hit by a blunt object will find that area later to be swollen. This would also lead to the opposite intended effect, making the face wider.

If the product does have any face slimming effects, its application on the skin must be very soft and it would cause the adipose tissue unders the skin to move away from the area where it is being rolled and applied at to another area. However it seems this thing is cheap at around $3-5 in most stores so it is worth a try just to see how it feels.