Major Announcement: Shift In Website Focus, Part II (Important)

I was gone for 11 days in China very recently and I only came back 2 days ago. During the time I was staying there, I did not write many articles or posts. When I was writing the posts, there was always a feeling that for me personally, I was sort of spinning the wheels like a hamster. I have currently 396 published posts and very little of it is really worth of great value.

When I copy and paste long articles I thought people were reading these things and I realized that few people who come to the website do what I thought. So here is the plan. I am going to show all of you want my plans are for the next 365 days, because I realize that the endeavor of height increase feels like it is moving too slowly.

For me, I realized that after a certain point in doing all of these articles and writings, I was getting almost nowhere. This is where it is going to change. For us to solve this problem, we have to really focus our attention on this subject and tackle it.

Here are the avenues that I think are the most promising.

1. Stem Cells and Implants

2. Growth Plate implants

3. Bone Morphogenetic Proteins

4. Mesenchymal Stem Cells

5. Transdifferentiation

6. Gene therapy

Here are the topics or article I was supposed to write on but I will not write about…

1. The Implications Of The BMP-7 AND OP-1 Research On Intervertebral Disk Height

2. The Connection Between Noggin Glycoprotein And Height

3. The Connection Between The Parathyroid Hormone-Related Protein (PTHrP) And Height

4. A Study Of The Insulin Growth Factor Receptor, IGF1R

5. Increase Height And Grow Taller Using Hypothalamic Growth Hormone Releasing Hormone

6. The AKT Signaling Pathway

7. Supplement Formulas To Increase Height And Grow Taller

8. Theories On Delaying Puberty To Extend The Growth Period

9. Increase Height And Grow Taller Using Nitric Oxide

10. Increase Height And Grow Taller Using Ghrelin

It is time to get real. it is time to become honest. It is time to get serious.

NOTE: One major thing I will be doing is finding a real medical school textbook on endocrinology and also orthopedics and studying those things to really understand what the hell I am talking about. I want to admit right now that I only understand up to 50% of everything that I have been talking about.

I. Here are the topics that my coworker Nicki has suggested we research into…

I feel that MScs are key to re-opening the growth plates.
androgens (youve touched upon estrogen) need to cover T
indian hedgehog
glucocorticoids 
Fgfs ( i sent you a post on that)
thyroid hormone
i see youve touched upon igf-1 and gh but i feel it needs further understanding
collagen II deff deserves an in depth post on its own
VEGF
wnt pathway
tgf
phtrp
mesechymal condensation
sox9
seperate posts on key processes for growth? chondrogenesis, osteogenesis etc youknow its better organization as well
i see you mention upon controlling stem cells to determine their fate, needs further research
SOCS
II. Here are the topics that I still have to get through on my blog list of subjects to cover

jagmonan sachdeva – accupresure scam

dit binaural beats article- add theory of how it could possibly work

http://www.giantscientific.com/height_gain_forum/viewtopic.php?t=702

http://www.begellhouse.com/journals/6dbf508d3b17c437,6dab6d585a096602,5690b6556e9a1a61.html

http://www.growtallerforum.com/index.php?/topic/45-mens-routine-revamped/

http://www.cellsignal.com/reference/pathway/MAPK_ERK_Growth.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15380808

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16614378

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21865751

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18174286

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20974641

http://www.heightquest.com/2011/03/i-have-now-grown-to-full-510.html

http://iwantestatura.webs.com/wolffslaw.htm

http://www.halfsigma.com/2008/10/how-to-make-your-children-grow-taller.html

III. Here are the topics or scientific papers I wanted to review and talk about 

http://bloodjournal.hematologylibrary.org/content/103/5/1662.full

http://www.ergo-log.com/herbal-supplement-ht042-makes-bones-longer.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12594619

http://endo.endojournals.org/content/144/6/2514.abstract

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2837556

IV. From Harald of the Biomedical Growth Research Initiative, I was given a list of scientific articles to look through for ideas which I can’t share on here, yet. 

Me: The truth is that I kind of wanted to start over, and make this site get back to the roots.

Major Change 1: I am going to write only 1 or 2 posts a day but the information in those posts will be of only high quality, the type that you would want to write a comment on and have a heated dissuasion on. I will be challenging the readers to test their intellectual and cognitive ability

Major Change 2: There will be one main page that focuses on the endocrinology of the growth process. There will be another page that focuses on orthopedics.

A. There will be almost no more product reviews since none of the E-products or herbal and amino acid supplements sold on the internet will increase the height of people who are already physically mature. They just don’t work. 

B. There will be almost no more body hacks since since I realize that there are already many websites on the internet that talk about that kind of stuff. This site was created to find a solution to height increase, and that should be what this website should focus on. 

C. Since I do believe that increasing one’s intelligence is important, a few mind hacks for learning how increase one’s intelligence will still be posted. 

D. There will be no more long posts, fewer but in better quality material, and nearly everything that I write will be from my interpretation. Sometimes I will quote small passages from scientific articles or papers but they will be in the italics font with quotations marks around them. My writing will be in normal “times new roman” font.

E. All facts or statement I will try to validate through links, sources, references, and citations. If I make a claim on a scientific principle or idea, I will show you where I got the idea from. 

F. Some old posts will be revised, edited upon, and added upon for future people who manage to find the website to learn and be more informed.
G. The Resources, Useless, Useful, and Complete List of Posts Pages will be always edited and added upon.

That will be all for now. I promise to make this website really worth the time you use to come here and read my material. The late Steve Jobs stated in his most famous delivered 2005 Stanford Commencement Address (found HERE) …

“If you live each day as if it is your last, someday you will most certainty be right…It made an impression on me. Since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked into the mirror every morning and have asked myself ‘If today was the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’…and whenever the answer has been ‘no’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something! …Remembering that I will be dead soon is the most important tool I have ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life, because almost everything, all the external expectations, all pride, all fears of embarrassment or failure, these just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important….”

and finally

“Remembering you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking that you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart…”

Me: I remember just 3 weeks when I was sitting at the cafe where I am sitting right, now, only 3 feet from where I am sitting right now typing away on my Macbook Air laptop, and I found myself miserable. I have proclaimed that I would create a website that would help find a solution on height increase and I was not really doing what my original intentions were. I found myself miserable. I dreaded opening up the laptop and trying to grind out another post on the link between height and some chemical compound. I felt like I was running in circles and making no headway. When I asked myself the Steve Jobs question of whether I would do what I wanted to do if that day was the last day of my life, I said no, at least 10 times in a row. I knew something had to change. I had to change. My environment had to change. So I bought ticket to Shanghai and flew there, for rest and to think. I wanted to refocus my energy and gather my thoughts to see what I was doing.

I realized today after coming back to Seoul that I was not being completely honest, not with you the readers or with myself. I wasn’t really making a true contribution to the world. I was only repeating knowledge and information that thousands, if not millions of people before me have already known and repeat as well. How am I expected to make any real contribution and progress in this endeavor if I don’t raise my own standards and o what I said I would. I needed to  raise my own level of thinking, of problem solving. I have to be better.

When I got on that plane to fly out of Seoul nearly two weeks ago, I found myself feeling the same type of uncomfortable dread in the pit of my stomach which I have always felt a little of before fit takes off. I have been afraid of death, and one of the main reasons was that I haven’t made any real contribution to the world. What have I done or given to the world to make it better? What if I die without ever giving my gifts and talent to this world to leave it a better place than when I arrived? I truly believe that if I can make a big contribution in this endeavors, my heart will be a lot lighter the next time I get on the place. I will be less afraid to die.

I’m sure most of you have already seen part or all of the entire video with Jobs before but I think it is worth your time to watch it at least one more time. I believe it is really worth your time.

Product Review XIII: Height Gain HighTole-XL Capsule

From HashmiHealthcare.Com, this is what the product sellers claim on the front page. Also found from PXXL.in…

Height increase supplement

  • Boosts natural process of Growth and development of the body.
  • Builds and tones Muscular mass by promoting new cell and tissue growth.
  • Improves Metabolism which further leads to lean body.
  • Strengthens Nervous System.
  • Maintains Cholesterol levels and is a good tonic for Heart.
  • Helps in patients of Insomnia.
  • Slower down’s aging process.
  • Reduces extra fat.
  • Increases memory power.
  • Produces Amino acids that work as a food supplement for Pituitary.
 Hight Gain

HighTole-XL Capsule is a no 1 Capsule for height increase, grow taller with the most potent height increase formula on the market today worldwide with results that are guaranteed.This Capsule supplement is 100% natural and safe with no harmful side effects. HighTole-XL Capsule is a height growth supplement.HighTole-XL Capsule is a powerful safe and effective to grow taller formula to help you.HighTole-XL Capsule is a height growth and grow taller supplement which helps people to gain extra inches in their height growth.The product is very much effective and result oriented.

How Hormones help our body to grow taller: As we all know that growth hormone plays key role in any ones height growth. In normal course an Individual’s pituitary gland releases, about 7/10th of a milligram of growth hormone in 24 hour. Where as half of this amount is released within the first hour of sleep and rest of the hormone is released. Sleep is the major stimulator of growth hormone, physical exercise is next in the line. In fact the intensity of Growth hormones peaks higher during exercise as compared to sleep. Several things influence the magnitude and intensity of growth hormone released during exercise.

The intake of HighTole-XL Capsules help body and mind to undergo sound sleep which is a must for repair of cells and production of new cells and harmones. As mentioned above this herbal supplement promotes nervours system, improves Metabolism, help body to enhance making of tissues and also helps in the process of Bone growth.

As this height growth system is based on supplement + Exercise, We recommend some specific type of workouts along with supplement intake. These specific workouts promotes growth by following above mentioned principles of growth.

Grow taller program and Height growth supplement ” HighTole-XL Capsules “

For the last Six years this grow taller program + height growth supplement “HighTole-XL Capsule ” has been considered the best source of safe growth and supplementing worldwide, and provides you with the fastest growing results. HighTole-XL Capsules – A High quality, 100% risk free increase height herbal formulation to help you grow taller and faster by regenerating your bones and cartilages.

Out of the many grow taller programs and height growth supplement out there, why is Grow taller program and height increase supplement HighTole-XL Capsules the safest and ultimate choice? – Because it thoroughly researched grow taller system and it is based on modern and ancient techniques of Yoga and Ayurveda, this herbal formulation comes from natural sources! The revolutionary most potent formula HighTole-XL Capsules not only can increase height, but will help one’s bones recover and grow faster by boosting natural height growth.

Me: You can buy a 1 month supply of the HighTole XL capsule for $73.50 and apparently you can pay for this product buy using your credit card or using Paypal. How convenient. I am really tired today and I don’t want to get into the long scientific discussion on its effectiveness or feasibility. Just read the conclusion.

Conclusion: It is a scam. It will not work for people who are physically mature.

The Link Between Laron Syndrome And Increased Longevity And Cancer Decrease

While I was doing research on Larons Syndrome, I found out about the startling fact that people who have Laron Syndrome which is a lack of the growth hormone receptors to work, seem to have extremely low rates of cancer and diabetes, as well as increase in their lifespan. I don’t want to talk too much about the subject but will let the writers who wrote articles about this phenomena speak.

From the New York Times (source HERE)…

Ecuadorean Villagers May Hold Secret to Longevity

By NICHOLAS WADE
Published: February 16, 2011
  • People living in remote villages in Ecuador have a mutation that some biologists say may throw light on human longevity and ways to increase it.
A 32-year-old community leader and artist who has the rare dwarfism condition, with his bride, 17.

The villagers are very small, generally less than three and a half feet tall, and have a rare condition known as Laron syndrome or Laron-type dwarfism. They are probably the descendants of conversos, Sephardic Jews from Spain and Portugal who were forced to convert to Christianity in the 1490s but were nonetheless persecuted in the Inquisition. They are also almost completely free of two age-related diseases, cancer and diabetes.

A group of 99 villagers with Laron syndrome has been studied for 24 years by Dr. Jaime Guevara-Aguirre, an Ecuadorean physician and diabetes specialist. He discovered them when traveling on horseback to a roadless mountain village. Most such villages are inhabited by Indians, but these were Europeans, with Spanish surnames typical of conversos.

As Dr. Guevara-Aguirre accumulated health data on his patients, he noticed a remarkable pattern: though cancer was frequent among people who did not have the Laron mutation, those who did have it almost never got cancer. And they never developed diabetes, even though many were obese, which often brings on the condition.

“I discovered the population in 1987,” Dr. Guevara-Aguirre said in an interview from Ecuador. “In 1994, I noticed these patients were not having cancer, compared with their relatives. People told me they are too few people to make any assumption. People said, ‘You have to wait 10 years,’ so I waited. No one believed me until I got to Valter Longo in 2005.”

Valter D. Longo, a researcher on aging at the University of Southern California, saw the patients as providing an opportunity to explore in people the genetic mutations that researchers had found could make laboratory animals live much longer than usual.

The Laron patients have a mutation in the gene that makes the receptor for growth hormone. The receptor is a protein embedded in the membrane of cells. Its outside region is recognized by growth hormone circulating through the body; the inside region sends signals through the cell when growth hormone triggers the receptor.

The Laron patients’ mutation means that their growth hormone receptor lacks the last eight units of its exterior region, so it cannot react to growth hormone. In normal children, growth hormone makes the cells of the liver churn out another hormone, called insulinlike growth factor, or IGF-1, and this hormone makes the children grow. If the Laron patients are given doses of IGF-1 before puberty, they can grow to fairly normal height.

This is where the physiology of the Laron patients links up with the longevity studies that researchers have been pursuing with laboratory animals. IGF-1 is part of an ancient signaling pathway that exists in the laboratory roundworm as well as in people. The gene that makes the receptor for IGF-1 in the roundworm is called DAF-2. And worms in which this gene is knocked out live twice as long as normal.

The Laron patients have the equivalent defect — their cells make very little IGF-1, so very little IGF-1 signaling takes place, just as in the DAF-2-ablated worms. So the Laron patients might be expected to live much longer.

Because of their striking freedom from cancer and diabetes, they probably could live much longer if they did not have a much higher than usual death rate from causes unrelated to age, like alcoholism and accidents.

Dr. Longo said he believed that having very low levels of IGF-1 was the critical feature of the Laron patients’ freedom from age-related diseases. In collaboration with Dr. Guevara-Aguirre, he exposed human cells growing in a laboratory dish to serum from the Laron patients. The cells were then damaged with a chemical that disrupts their DNA. The Laron serum had two significant effects, the two physicians reported on Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine.

First, the serum protected the cells from genetic damage. Second, it spurred the cells that were damaged to destroy themselves, a mechanism the body uses to prevent damaged cells from becoming cancerous. Both these effects were reversed when small amounts of IGF-1 were added to the serum.

Dr. Longo said that some level of IGF-1 was necessary to protect against heart disease, but that lowering the level might be beneficial. A drug that does this is already on the market for treatment of acromegaly, a thickening of the bones caused by excessive growth hormone. “Our underlying hypothesis is that this drug would prolong life span,” Dr. Longo said. He said he was not taking the drug, called pegvisomant or Somavert, which is very hard to obtain.

A strain of mice bred by John Kopchick of Ohio University has a defect in the growth hormone receptor gene, just as do the Laron patients, and lives 40 percent longer than usual.

Dr. Longo said that his report had first been submitted to Science, a better-known journal, which turned down the paper because of an adverse report from one reviewer.

Andrzej Bartke, a gerontology expert at Southern Illinois University, said that the new result was “very important” and that the authors had done a fine job in following the patients and generating high-quality data. “This fits in with what we are learning from studies in animals about the relationship of growth hormone to aging, because both cancer and diabetes are related to aging,” Dr. Bartke said.

The longest-lived mouse on record is one studied by Dr. Bartke. It had a defect in its growth hormone receptor gene, just as do the Laron patients. “It missed its fifth birthday by a week,” he said. The mouse lived twice as long as usual and won Dr. Bartke a prize presented by the Methuselah Foundation (which rewards developments in life-extension therapies) in 2003.

Dr. Guevara-Aguirre said he had been struggling to get sufficient IGF-1 to treat 30 of his patients before they reached puberty, at which point it will be too late. He said his group of Laron patients, the largest in the world, had provided essential data for drug companies making IGF-1, and he chided the companies for not reciprocating by providing the drug for his patients.

Dr. Arlan Rosenbloom, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of Florida who has worked with Dr. Guevara-Aguirre, took a similar position. “Considering that the drug companies needed the initial studies to determine dosage and efficacy, it seems ironic that we should have so much difficulty getting the drug,” he said.

Ownership of the drug has passed through several companies’ hands, so any initial obligation may have been weakened. Dr. Guevara-Aguirre also said he believed that the government of Ecuador should do more to help get the drug for his patients.

Dr. Harry Ostrer, a geneticist at New York University who is exploring the Laron patients’ degree of Sephardic ancestry, said that he had seen several of Dr. Guevara-Aguirre’s patients in Quito, Ecuador’s capital, and that they were “remarkably youthful in appearance.”

A version of this article appeared in print on February 17, 2011, on page A6 of the New York edition.

From the Magazine Scientific American website (source HERE)…

Defective Growth Gene in Rare Dwarfism Disorder Stunts Cancer and Diabetes

A long-term study shows that people with Laron syndrome, a genetically based form of dwarfism, almost never succumb to cancer or diabetes

By Nina Bai

For the past 22 years Jaime Guevara-Aguirre has served as the de facto physician for a truly unique community in Ecuador. His patients stand on average 1.2 meters tall, a result of a rare genetic disorder known as Laron syndrome. Of the approximately 300 people in the world known to have the condition, a third reside in the remote mountainside villages of southern Ecuador. Another remarkable fact about Guevara-Aguirre’s patients: virtually none of them suffer from cancer or diabetes.

The same genetic mutation—an error in thegrowth hormone receptor (GHR) gene—that causes unusually small stature in Laron syndrome also confers seeming immunity from two of the most common diseases that plague mankind. Since 1988 no cases of diabetes and only one case of nonlethal cancer have been diagnosed in 99 Laron’s subjects followed by Guevara-Aguirre. In comparison, fellow villagers without the GHR mutation had a diabetes diagnosis rate of 5 percent and a cancer diagnosis rate of 17 percent over the study period.

GHR-deficient individuals are insensitive to growth hormone and also have abnormally low levels of insulinlike growth factor 1 (IGF1), a hormone that promotes cell proliferation and inhibits programmed cell death. More than two decades of clinical observations by Guevara-Aguirre’s team are now supported by molecular studies linking low levels of IGF1 to cellular protection against cancer and other age-related diseases.

“If we can establish that IGF1 is a risk factor for cancer, then you could imagine that doctors could prescribe IGF1-lowering drugs as we are now doing for cholesterolwith statins,” says Valter Longo of the University of Southern California’s Programs in Biomedical and Biological Sciences, who collaborated with Guevara-Aguirre on a study of the Ecuadorian community published February 16 in Science Translational Medicine.

To investigate the cellular responses to IGF1, researchers bathed isolated human cells in blood serum taken from Laron subjects and from relatives without the mutation. When exposed to a toxin, cells bathed in Laron serum suffered fewer DNA breaks, suggesting that the lack of IGF1 protects against oxidative DNA damage. The protection disappeared when IGF1 was artificially added to the Laron serum.

“I can say that we both came to the same conclusion from different routes—Valter from the basic, and I from the clinical sciences”—says Guevara-Aguirre, who is the medical director at the Institute of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Reproduction in Quito, Ecuador.

The two research teams began their collaboration in 2005. “I realized that nobody was working in humans that had a defect in GHR. We were working on all kinds of model systems,” Longo says.

Previous work on model organisms had suggested the role of IGF1 in cancer prevention and aging. Dwarf mice with the same GHR mutation have low cancer rates, increased insulin sensitivity that protects against diabetes, and extended life span. But it was impossible to study IGF1 in humans in the same way due to the extreme rarity of the naturally occurring GHR mutation.

Meanwhile, Guevara-Aguirre had been studying the distorted body composition in the Laron subjects, but was struck by their unusual resistance to common diseases. “In 1988 I noticed that these patients had no diabetes despite being obese. In 1994 I also noticed they had no cancer. A few years later we documented they were insulin sensitive. These facts were fascinating to me,” he says. When Longo heard about Guevara-Aguirre’s work and his close relationship with such a large population of Laron’s subjects, he realized that it could be the “perfect natural experiment.”

The study represents the first time that the GHR-deficiency mutation has been studied in a human population. Unlike dwarf mice, however, people with Laron syndrome do not seem to experience increased longevity. The effect on life span may have been obscured in this study by the unusually high number of accidents and alcohol-related deaths seen in the Laron subjects. “Being three-and-a-half feet tall, accidents just happen,” Longo says.

Despite the extreme rarity of Laron syndrome, the study findings have important implications for the general population. It is already known that IGF1 can be modulated by diet—specifically, that protein restriction lowers IGF1 levels.

“All the data is coming together now,” says Luigi Fontana who studies nutrition and aging at Washington University in Saint Louis School of Medicine and was not involved in the study. “Put together all the pieces of the puzzle and you see that yes, IGF1 is an important determinant of cancer.” According to Fontana, greater protein intake and higher IGF1 levels contribute to the increasing cancer incidence in recent generations; a similar trend is seen in immigrant populations that move from Eastern to Western diets.

However, Longo cautions, “people shouldn’t make up their own diets to try to extend their life. If you don’t have a clear disclaimer, you will be amazed at what people do.”

Longo suspects the IGF1 pathway may be involved in the great majority of the diseases of aging, including osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline. He hopes to extend the current study but acknowledges that the lower prevalence of these conditions, compared with that of cancer and diabetes, make them more difficult to study in a population of limited size.

Anabolic Steroids And Growth Hormones May Not Increase Muscle Mass

The article I am posting below found from HERE seems to suggest that the GH that bodybuilders have been taking for so long to increase muscle size may not do that either, let alone increase the length of the long bones to grow taller.

I personally found the article to reveal another layer to this mystery of GH. It could be possible that the GH that the experimenters used to test the subjects with was not pure somatropin but a lower quality  synthetic version which is not as effective but I doubt that is the reason. If growth hormones don’t even increase muscle size but bulking up body builders, then the use of growth hormones for adults is very limited.

Research debunks bodybuilding myth: Growth-promoting hormones don’t stimulate strength

Published: Thursday, June 14, 2012 – 15:34 in Health & Medicine

New research from scientists at McMaster University reveals exercise-related testosterone and growth hormone do not play an influential role in building muscle after weightlifting, despite conventional wisdom suggesting otherwise. The findings indicate that bodybuilders who look to manipulate those hormones through exercise routines are wasting their time.

In two separate studies, published in the Journal of Applied Physiologyand the European Journal of Applied Physiology, researchers found anabolic hormones — long thought to be essential for building a muscular frame — do not influence muscle protein synthesis, the process that leads to bigger muscles.

“A popular mindset for weightlifters is that increased levels of hormones after exercise play a key role in building muscle,” explains Daniel West, lead author of both studies and a graduate student in the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster. “That is simply not the case.”

In the first study, researchers examined the responses of both male and female participants to intense leg exercise. Despite a 45-fold difference in testosterone increase, men and women were able to make new muscle protein at exactly the same rate.

“Since new muscle proteins eventually add up to muscle growth, this is an important finding,” says West.

“While testosterone is definitely anabolic and promotes muscle growth in men and women at high doses, such as those used during steroid abuse, our findings show that naturally occurring levels of testosterone do not influence the rate of muscle protein synthesis.”

In the second study, researchers analyzed the post-exercise hormonal responses of 56 young men, aged 18 to 30, who trained five days a week for 12 weeks in total.

The men experienced gains in muscle mass that ranged from virtually nothing to more than 12 pounds, yet their levels of testosterone and growth hormone after exercise showed no relationship to muscle growth or strength gain.

Surprisingly, the researchers noted that cortisol — considered to have the opposite effect of anabolic hormones because it reduces protein synthesis and breaks down tissue — was related to the gain in muscle mass.

“The idea that you can or should base entire exercise training programs on trying to manipulate testosterone or growth hormone levels is false,” says Stuart Phillips, a professor in the Department of Kinesiology. “There is simply no evidence to support this concept.”

The research was funded in part by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Tiffanie Didonato Suffering From Diastrophic Dysplasia Increases Height 16 Inches From Limb Lengthening Surgery

This is another story I thought was important to be told. The individual is Tiffanie Didonato who had suffered from a type of dwarfism called Diastrophic Dysplasia, which made her only 3 feet 6 inches. Through out my research, this person has gone throughout the most height gain I have ever heard of with over limb lengthening surgery. However, I have known and heard that for people who suffer from type soy dwarfism, limb lengthening surgery gives them the greatest of height increase.

It seems from reading on other forums that people who are only below average in height but is not at the level of dwarf often go to limb lengthening surgery for 3-4 inches in height. Most of the stories I have read about people who suffer from dwarfism who get limb lengthening surgery seem to increase height the most with stories I have heard of being 10 inches, or more. They seem to get the most benefit from this procedure. This story was the most dramatic. The problem with this story is that the numbers don’t really add up.

In there article which was found HERE (ABC News), one of the pictures say that Tiffanie gained 10 inches in height (not shown below). In another section of the article the writer says TIffanie had 14 inches in gained height but they also state that she increased height from 3’6″ to 4’10”, which is not 14, but 16 inches in height difference. This either shows that the writer and journalist was misinformed or really bad in math, forgetting to account for the far that 1 feet is not 10 inches but 12 inches.

Little Person No More

By JUJU CHANG (@JujuChangABC) and CINDY SMITH
Oct. 13, 2008

For Tiffanie Didonato, nearly everything in the world was out of reach. Things others may take for granted, like flipping a light switch, revving a gas pedal or tackling bathroom basics, Didonato couldn’t do without aid.

That’s because the 27-year-old was born with diastrophic dysplasia, a type of dwarfism. The condition left her with abnormally short arms and legs. By age 15, Didonato was only three-and-a-half feet tall.

“Kids were growing up a lot quicker. They were taller. It was easier to hold their book bags and walk down the hall, and I was basically the size of my book bag,” she said.

A Life Changing Decision

A confrontation with a teacher when she was 15 led her to make a life-altering decision.

“She pulled me in the middle of the classroom, sat me on egg crates and said, ‘I don’t know what kind of disease you have, but obviously you’re a dwarf. Why don’t you tell me what you can and can’t do?’ I’ve never heard the word dwarf be called to me before in my life,” Didonato said.

The interaction was etched in her brain and, shortly afterward, Didonato decided to adapt to life, since life didn’t adapt to her.

She sought to have a controversial surgery to painfully and painstakingly lengthen her arms and legs, not by the recommended four inches but a whopping 10.

The Little People of America organization doesn’t approve of the surgery because it sends the message that there is something wrong with being a little person.

“Most members of the dwarf community believe that no child should undergo surgery unless it is for a treatable medical condition that will improve her or his health. Limb-lengthing surgery, by contrast, does not address any medical condition,” the group said in a statement to “Good Morning America.”

Didonato’s view, though, is, “I don’t judge you, please don’t judge me.”

“I didn’t go through plastic surgery because I didn’t like my face or something like that. I went through it for independence and that’s the main goal,” she said. “I was thinking ahead into the future. I wanted to get married. I wanted to drive. ”

Didonato turned to orthopedic surgeon Dr. Errol Mortimer for help.

“I did have reluctance, but Tiffanie absolutely wanted to get this done as effectively and quickly as possible,” Mortimer said.

How It Works

The bone-lengthening procedure works by taking advantage of the body’s natural ability to heal itself. During surgery, the bone is broken and then slowly stretched one millimeter per day over several grueling months.”Through very small incisions, we insert the screws — two above and two below — the place where we cut the bone,” Mortimer said. “The bone slowly gets pulled apart and as it gets pulled apart the body fills in the gap that is created and ultimately that gap is filled with normal bone.”

During months of recovery, Didonato took solace in writing and visually the things she’d finally be able to do. After 12 surgeries on shins, thighs and arms, Didonato gained 14 inches.

That took her 3-foot-6-inch frame to 4-feet-10-inches.

Didonato was enthused.

“I remember saying to myself, ‘This is going to be the first day of the rest of my life,'” she said. “I’m going to free. I’m going to be independent.”

Now simple chores that caused her so much hassle are much easier. Things like making coffee and emptying the trash bring her joy.

And when she got married over the weekend, the bride was able to stand tall as she made her way down the aisle to her prince, two-time Iraq War veteran Eric Gabrielse.

“I think what she did goes above and beyond any of the physical or mental stuff I’ve done,” said Gabrielse, who met his future wife three years ago as a pen pal. “She dealt with it her all her life and handled it all so amazingly. I’m so proud of her.”

And now Didonato has her happily ever after.

The Changing Body Form Of The Female Supermodel, Robyn Lawley

I was going through the CNN news site yesterday and I stumbled upon this story about the Australian plus-sized supermodel Robyn Lawley. I really liked her story and wanted to share it on this website.

Apparently she is 23 years old (as of this time), has a size 12 curvy body, and stands 6 feet 2 inches tall. A modern Amazon beauty. She has broken new ground in the fashion and modeling industry by being th first plus sized model to quote …”spearhead a campaign for high end fashion designer Ralph Lauren”. It turns out the average size of the American women is size 12.

She started modeling at 16 and had trouble keeping up with the modeling industries standards for thinness. By 19 she was becoming big and got into a modeling company which I can’t even pronounce. She did indeed have her own issues with eating disorders for a short while but came back to learn to love food again and regained the confidence. It appears even the best of us suffer from some form of body dysmorphia.

Here is her interview on ABC’s Good Morning America below

Now here is Robyn giving her personal inspiring story for an Australian News station.