Long Bone Tensile Strength, Loading Capacity, Compression Strength

I did not take enough biology or physiology in school so I will do some research and then come back to explain in detail how the long bones functions. I wanted to focus on the tensile strength, leading capacity, density, and composition of long bones. For use to be able to manipulate or change something, we must learn and study it as much and as deeply as possible.

One of the major things I wanted to learn was this….

“How much force or load can the long bone, specifically the human femur withstand, in terms of a compressive load, a tensile load, and a lateral load?”

From the article “DIFFERENCES IN THE TENSILE STRENGTH OF BONE OF DIFFERENT HISTOLOGICAL TYPES”, We learn that “…bone containing Haversian systems has less tensile strength than that with no Haversian systems in it .”

THE STRENGTH OF BONE

“When an object is acted on by an external force there will be an intermolecular resistance inside the object which will tend to prevent the object deforming. The magnitude of this resistance is called the STRESS. The stress will, however, only tend to prevent the object deforming. The amount that the object is actually deformed is called the STRAIN. There are three ways in which forces can act upon objects to produce strain.They can produce compression,tension or shear. In compression the molecules of the object come closer together:in tension they separate from each other,and in shear they slide over one another. From the biological point of view it is nearly always the tension strength of bone that is important. Most accidental fractures of bone are tension fractures, even the spiral fractures associated with torsion(Evans, Pedersen & Lissner, 1951). Compressive and shearing fractures are usually the result of impact, which is relatively uncommon in nature, ….”

The reason for tension fractures being more common than compression fractures is the that bone, like most brittle substances, is stronger in compression than in tension (Evans,1957,chap.4). 

The human femur is nearly twice as strong in compression as it is in tension; the ultimate strength is of the order of 12,000 lb./sq.in. in tension and 20,000 lb./ sq.in. in compression, and more or less the same relationship holds for oxen (Evans, 1957,chap.14). 

Me: I really hope you got that part. That shows just how much force/sq. in our upper leg bone can withstand before it can deform and stretch.

“…it is well known that dry bone is stronger than wet bone.”

“…Some authors have pointed out that where as dry bone behaves as an almost perfectly elastic substance, wet bone creeps. In a perfectly elastic substance strain is always proportional to stress. A substance that is imperfectly elastic will behave more or less like an elastic substance up to a certain stress, called its elastic limit, but after that point the amount of strain caused by a given increase of stress is larger…”

“…the energy absorbing capacity of bone is more or less proportional to the total strain.”

” There are in fact two reasons for supposing that it is the Haversian systems themselves that make the bone weaker: first,they reduce the actual amount of bone present, and secondly, they reduce the total amount of calcium in the bone. “

From source 2, I find the answer to the question, “What substance in bone contributes to tensile strength?” The answer is Collagen fibrils arranged in lamellae results in the tensile strength of bone. 🙂

From the Wikipedia article on human bone HERE, I paste the section about the Mechanical properties of bones…

The primary tissue of bone, osseous tissue, is a relatively hard and lightweight composite material, formed mostly of calcium phosphate in the chemical arrangement termed calcium hydroxylapatite (this is the osseous tissue that gives bones their rigidity). It has relatively high compressive strength, of about 170 MPa (1800 kgf/cm²)[4] but poor tensile strength of 104–121 MPa and very low shear stress strength (51.6 MPa),[5] meaning it resists pushing forces well, but not pulling or torsional forces. While bone is essentially brittle, it does have a significant degree of elasticity, contributed chiefly by collagen. All bones consist of living and dead cells embedded in the mineralized organic matrix that makes up the osseous tissue.

Me: So if we did stretch the human bones using a tensile force, it would require around 100-120 MPa of Newton/m^2. It is supposed to be mostly brittle but there is s slight bit of elasticity. 

There are two types of bone, explained below…

Compact (cortical) bone

The hard outer layer of bones is composed of compact bonetissue, so-called due to its minimal gaps and spaces. Its porosity is 5–30%.[6] This tissue gives bones their smooth, white, and solid appearance, and accounts for 80% of the total bone mass of an adult skeleton. Compact bone may also be referred to as dense bone.

Trabecular (cancellous) bone

Filling the interior of the bone is the trabecular bone tissue (an open cell porous network also called cancellous or spongy bone), which is composed of a network of rod- and plate-like elements that make the overall organ lighter and allow room for blood vessels and marrow. Trabecular bone accounts for the remaining 20% of total bone mass but has nearly ten times the surface area of compact bone. Its porosity is 30–90%.[6] If, for any reason, there is an alteration in the strain the cancellous is subjected to, there is a rearrangement of the trabeculae. The microscopic difference between compact and cancellous bone is that compact bone consists of haversian sites and osteons, while cancellous bones do not. Also, bone surrounds blood in the compact bone, while blood surrounds bone in the cancellous bone.

From source 4 we learn more about the mechanical properties of the long bones.

Besides the metabolically active cellular portion of bone tissue, bone is also made up of a matrix (a bonding of multiple fibers and chemicals) of different materials, including primarily collagen fibers and crystalline salts. The crystalline salts deposited in the matrix of bone are composed principally of calcium and phosphate, which are combined to form hydroxyapatite crystals. As you can see, the chemical formula for hydroxyapatite crystals includes molecules of calcium (Ca), phosphate (PO4), and hydroxide (OH):

Ca10[PO4]6[0H]2
In particular, it is the collagen fibers and the calcium salts that help to strengthen bone. In fact, the collagen fibers of bone have great tensile strength (the strength to endure stretching forces), while the calcium salts, which are similar in physical properties to marble, have great compressional strength (the strength to endure squeezing forces). These combined properties, plus the degree of bondage between the collagen fibers and the crystals, provide a bony structure that has both extreme tensile and compressional strength

However, the compressional strength of bone is greater than that of even the best reinforced concrete, and the tensile strength approaches that of reinforced concrete. But, even with their great compressional and tensile strengths, neither bone nor concrete has a very high level of torsional strength (the strength to endure twisting). In fact, bone fractures often occur as a result of torsional forces that are exerted on an arm or a leg.

Except for the articular cartilage that covers the very ends of each epiphysis, the bone is completely enclosed by a tough covering called the periosteum. Within the periosteum lies a bony layer called compact bone, which is solid, strong, and resistant to bending. The epiphyses are composed largely of spongy (cancellous) bone, which provides the greatest amount of elastic strength since the epiphyses are subjected to the greatest forces of compression.

Me: So we know that in terms of compression forces and tensile forces, the epiphysis are super durable. 

In humans, different bones stop lengthening at different ages, but ossification is fully complete by about age 25. During this lengthening period, the stresses of physical activity result in the strengthening of bone tissue.

From source 4 we learn some more critical elements

Collagen has a low Youngs Modulus (stress/strain) aka (F/A)/(delL/L) , good tensile strength, and poor compressive strength.

Calcium appatite is a stiff, brittle material with good compressive strength
The mineral content is the main determinant of the E of cortical bone
Cancellous bone is 25% as dense, 10% as stiff and 500% as ductile as cortical bone
Cortical bone is excellent in resisting torque
Cancellous bone is good in resisting comression and shear 
The cortical part of the long bone is actually stronger than most metals
In uniaxial, monotonic tension and compression loading :

  • Longitudinal loading
  • Tensile strength ~130 MPa
  • Compressive strength ~190 MPa
  • Transverse loading
  • Tensile strength ~50 MPa
  • Compressive strength ~130 MPa

Cortical bone has adapted to a situation where compression loading is greater than tensile loading
Tensile and compressive yield strengths are close to the respective ultimate strength
Bone loaded above its yield stress deforms by a relatively large amount compared to its elastic behaviour
Prior to fracture, cortical bone has undergone relatively large deformations
Ultimate tensile strength is slightly more sensitive to strain rate than Young’s modulus

Bone will continue to deform if submitted to a constant stress for an extended period of time
Strain plotted with time for adult human cortical bone under tension
If cortical bone is loaded at a certain level for enough time, it will break, although the stress level is well below yield and ultimate strengths
If creep occurs without fracture, a permanent deformation results : viscoplastic behavior
If the applied stress is above a threshold level (70 MPa or 55% of its ultimate strength for human cortical bone in tension), the rate at which creep deformation occurs and the magnitude of permanent deformation after unloading both increase sharply 
As for Cancellous Bone, these are the results….

The tensile behavior of trabecular bone is much different from its compressive behavior after yielding : failure occurs by fracture of the individual trabeculae => the specimen can take less and less load until final fracture occurs

Me: Overall, if we really wanted to, we can theoretically create a machine that can apply in the range of 60-120 MPa of tensile force/area at a very steady rate and get the human long bones to elongate, and hoping that the bone is not brittle from age or fracture, the bone will slowly elongate However, the numbers are clearly showing that applying a force from the side or by twisting the bone will lead to the bone more easily fracturing and deforming.

A Quick Guide On Scams And Internet Marketing

After some long thinking, I decided to write this post to help people who are searching for a solution to their height problems to not be cheated, tricked, or scammed by the countless number of Internet sharks out there.

I know a lot about these internet scams because I have been searching for a way to earn some passive income recently because I move a lot and wanted to see if I could find a way to earn money online. Well, here is the dirt that I have found which you can use if you want. I promise that if I ever sell anything on this website or promote any product, it will be of the highest quality and worth actually buying.

How most people online make money. – Here is a few sad truths.

I. Most people make money online by teaching other people how to make money online.

The sad truth is that even the most honest people in the Internet who tells you specifically that they are NOT using that form of business model is in some way using that business model. It doesn’t mean that they are doing it intentionally, but it does show that there are some very successful internet business models and it is hard to make good money consistently without using some form or version of the models. I list 4 good guys who actually do this but do it cleanly. Their stuff is worth reading about so you learn this stuff for yourself.

(Note: I am absolutely not affiliated or work in any way with these guys. I get nothing for saying that these guys are worth checking out. I would actually probably prefer you didn’t know too much about this type of stuff. It is  a very deep rabbit hole and if you choose to go down it, you may never be able to get back out.)

  • 1. Smart Passive Income
  • 2. Viperchill
  • 3. Problogger
  • 4. Income Diary

II. Most people who run successful online businesses teach other people how to start, build, and run successful online businesses. However, they rarely show you how to get your first customer, or how to sell your first product. They are mainly advice, information, and consultant driven. All the advice or information they provide can be found somewhere else on the internet, but are you willing to trade your time to find all the information or pay a little money to save your time? These are the few sites and companies worth looking into.

  • Andrew Warner – Mixergy 
  • Sterling & Jay – Internet Business Mastery
  • Chris Ducker – Virtual Business Lifestyle
  • Matt & John – Lifestyle Business Design

III. There is a special group of people who popped up in the last few years who live the mobile, great life by teaching you how to create the type of life and income streams they have.

  • 1. Corbett Barr – Lifestyle Design – (If you want to download his book that shows how he created a 6 figure business in 18 months  from 2 blogs and working from Mexico click HERE to get his free E-Book.)
  • 2. Tim Ferriss – Four Hour Work Week
  • 3. Chris Guillebeau – Art of Non-Comformity
  • 4. Mike – Road Warrior

IV. Almost everyone on the internet who sells or runs an E-Commerce website is a middle man. They almost never create or build anything that they sell. They are not the true creators of value, but the distributors, the salesman, the transmitters. They probably don’t have an actual business office. They probably stock up their products (better known as Inventory) in some big closet in their house or apartment they live in.

What these really good internet marketing guys do is figure out what exactly you really want, and then teach you how to get it.

Key Point I: What People Want – What most people really want when they fill out a survey is 5 main things. – All 5 are to make themselves feel good about themselves.

1. Money – How do I make money online, automatically, easily, and quickly ?

2. Own Business– How do I start my own company that I can run and operate remotely so that I can be anywhere in the world and still have money flowing directly into my bank account?

3. Sex (This one is mainly for men) – What is the easiest, quickly, most sure fire way to meet a really hot girl I can have sex with?

4. Relationships –  I want to know the easiest most full proof way to attract that girl/guy that I have been interested in for the last 4 months. OR I want to attract the best girl/ boy that I can so that I can be in a relationship and get love – basically I want someone good looking, kind, and smart to love me. 

5. Health – I want to get healthy and lose my excess weight and fat the easiest simpliest way possible. 

Well, the internet marketers know that deep inside of you that you pretty much really want those things. If you look at the biggest internet companies that focus primarily on marketing that is what they advertise and sell. They are selling you either money, sex, or something related to one of those two things.

One of the best known Internet Marketing Gurus Eben Pagan (who made his money selling information products on Dating Advice for men) once stated that if you want to get people to come to your website and buy your product, they must already have an irrational need or desperate desire within themselves to pull out their credit card and put in the right numbers and then click that send button. (Note: If you want some of his Online Business Building Seminar DVDs or programs (Like Get Altitude) for free, email me. I bought it and it is quite useful. I can’t put it on this site because I will be sued for that)

Key Point II : Mailing List & Newsletter – The email is the primary way that most people make their money online. The primary objective is to build that email list up more and more. Do you ever notice that every site these days seem to have a pop up that asks you to enter your name and email information? Well they are trying to get you to put in your information. That way, maybe 2 weeks later, the person who runs the website sends a newsletter to you through their mailing list provider. They write a nice sales letter by using a good copyrighter. At the end of the newsletter is always a link, either to something they want you to eventually hopefully buy or someone’s else site, who they are probably affiliated with or in partnership with.

The two most commonly used mailing list providers are MailChimp and AWeber. MailChimp is free to use while AWeber costs some money.

Now, you might be wondering, will I eventually put a popup or opt in page and ask for your email address one of these days? I don’t think so. If I did, I will tell you. If I plan to sell you anything, I will make it very plain and clear my intentions.

Key Point III: Affiliate Marketing – This is another way many people make money is buy promoting, endorsing, and selling other people’s products who also have companies is in the same or similar niche. You would  be amazed at how large the percentage is that affiliate marketing plays on an internet marketer’s total income.

Key Point III.2: Combining the power of affiliate marketing + Information Products +SEO – they go to a site like Clickbank, find out which Information product has the highest gravity (I am not going to go into what is gravity on here), get the embbeded code, set up a 1 page sales site, and place a bunch of ads by embedding that code. If they are good enough at SEO and writing some decent content, they can get 1000s of people to click and go to their site. Assuming the internet average of .1-1% conversion rate which they can check on Google Analytics (which is free), they get a high commission as an affiliate to an E-product (usually a pdf, mp3, or mpeg). That can amount to a good $40-50 per day per site if they are good at writing sales letter.

Key Point IV: Google Keywords – The internet marketer in the beginning is probably using some form of Software to analyze the types of keywords that people are typing into search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. They look at what are known as “keyword longtails” to figure out what exactly people are typing into the internet. They compare the number of times people type a certain word or phrase and see whether there is large competition in that niche. A really popular software people use these days is Market Samurai, which basically shows you how to hack the internet and google to find what other people are looking for.

Key Point V: SEO – SEO stands for search engine optimization. Search Enginee Optimization is just a fancy umbrella term to refer to any strategy a “guru” might use to rank their desired website to be higher and higher on any of the search engine’s ranking page. Google is almost primarily talked about when one talks about Search Engines in the US. SEO tactics is something I haven’t studied or know about. All I did for this website is download two plugins (WordPress SEO and All in One SEO Pack) and add some meta information. You can’t click on a few links these days without running into a “SEO/ Internet Marketing consultant these days”

Key Point V.2 Pay Per Click – Google has this program called Adsense which allows people to make money when someone else clicks on the ads they put on their website. People have been making money through Adsense for at least a decade now. I remember using Adsense and realized that the Ads did not agree with the purpose of the websites I have created before. Overall, the amount of money a person can make through PPC or anything similar has drastically been decreasing over the years as people become smarter and smarter over the internet.

Key Point VI: Social Media – Everyone is talking about Facebook these days and trying to figure out what is the most effective way to market their products on this platform. LinkedIn is also doing it. A lot of companies think that by spending money to buy ads on these well known platforms they will increase their revenue. However, FB and LinkedIn are failing spectacularly at it because people these days are just getting smarter and smarter. No one is clicking on those ads anymore. Instead use Pinterest and Tumblr.

Key Point VII: Traffic – Traffic is the life blood of all companies and websites. If you have no traffic, you are essentially dead. No one is coming to your website and reading your information. You can’t sell your products and all the money you put into marketing your product was wasted. There are pages like Alexa which tell you how well a website is ranked. Almost everyone who does any internet marketing has Google Analytics installed on it. They know how many people are going to their websites and how well they people coming to the site are actually buying their product, clicking on the links they want, and where the people are coming from.

Key Point VIII – Twitter – Twitter is a tool that many people these days are using to promote their products or programs, as well as their affiliates. Just don’t fall for it. Ever see a weird url? Well that is the marketer using a program to squeeze a long url into a shorter one and wanting you to click on it. Filled with a lot of spammers who want you to use the Cialdini Influence idea of Reciprocity who first follow you hoping then you will follow then. Then later they over whelm you with spam trying to get you to check out their website or their affiliate partner’s site.

Key Point IX: Information Products – If you want to know what is the easiest and simpliest way to make money, it is to start your own website. You spend about $60 first to get a host, and pay only $12 per year to register for a domain name. If you want to get creative, add a nice wordpress template on there for another $50 and your website looks completely professional. Then you just start writing and trying to create the best content and value as you can and learn about SEO to get the people to come to your website. Then you write a 60 page E-Book mostly filled with fluff, put a price tage on it that ends in $x9.99 and link it with your paypal account and you wait for the sales to come through. Of course it is never as easy as it sounds but in this case, you probably can get the entire process done in less than 3 hours if you really sat down with someone who already knows the trick of internet marketing. In less than 3 hours, you can theoretically be getting money pumped into your bank account by selling immaterial products. No overhead, no fees, no stress.

The scam really comes in when the people who do the internet marketing tries every single trick they know to get you to come to their website and buy their information product while cost absolutely no $ to create except some time. Hell, some people don’t even create or write their own material but pay writers and copyrighters to write everything, form the sales page to the information product, to even the testimonials. Just look at the practices of Dan Kennedy or Frank Kern. They make millions a year doing very little, learning how to leverage the system, and profitting wildly from it.

My point is, most of the pages you see selling some form of product that is said to help you grow another 2 inches in 4 months are written by internet marketers trying to trick you to buy a basic multivitamin. Don’t believe in them.

Key Point X: Blogging – There is probably over 100,000,000 blogs out there right now with people writing about all sorts of things, stuff that interest them. How many of those blogs are actually worth reading? I am not sure but I am positive that we can all tell the difference between a good blog with high quality writing and amazing content to blogs that are not worth reading. I think it is the personal dream of millions of people who desire to just write and blog for a living.

I mean , just imagine this type of scenario and reaslize how damn seductive it sounds. It would be like the perfect lifetstyle. And millions of people every day get sucked into the whole Internet Marketing matrix believing that they have found the secret key, the perfect magic bullet or hack that would allow them to be financially free”

“You wake up in the morning at 11 am on a tiny secluded island in the middle of the Caribbean, and do your routine of morning ablutions. You then go to the nearby coffee shop and buy a super expensive cup of coffee and italian sandwich. You come back home at 1 pm and sit down. You spend 1 hour in front of your Macbook Air typing out a 3000 word blog post, send another 20 minutes editing, and hit the Send button. You go to Google Analytics to check the traffic on your website and go to your Paypal Account, or Clickbank account, or Bank account to see how much you made recently. You see that your information product or that recent program launch you did had raked in $1500 last night while you were asleep doing absolutely no work. You go around and make a few money transfers, give a call to your accountant to make everything is in order, give another call to a guy you are doing business with remotely to get them to join you in your affiliate marketing program. You then finish by answering the hundred of emails that appeared in your inbox asking you for coaching which you have been charging $300 /hr for with only a phone call. So after basically 2 -3 hours of work , you are done for the day and made over $1000.”

You made more money than some people make in a week by doing almost no work. That is probably the ideal lifestyle that many people who go into blogging for profit or money is really hoping for. They do it for year and years hoping to built enough of a traffic or mailing list to be able to finally sell some product or launch some program, wether it is a seminar, coaching program, or another information product.

Key Point XI: Advertising –Ever see those banners either on the side or the top or bottom of articles you read online? They are ads which someone paid someone else to promote. When you click on that ad, the person who was doing the endorsing gets a small bit of money becasue they managed to send “traffic” which is you to the ad payer’s webpage. In this model, supposedly every one wins. That is in theory but in reality, only the person who is posting the ads win, since they are in a situation where there is no possible way to lose. The person who paid to post that ad can lose from getting no conversions to buy their product. The person who clicked on the ad loses when they realize that they have been tricked to go something which they didn’t intend for.

Key Point XII: Consulting or Coaching – It seems like everyone these days is a coach. People are calling themselves Life Coaches, Business Coaches, Success Coaches, Body Transformation Coaches, Dating Coaches, SEO Marketing Consultants, – if you see someone  who has the title consultant or coach by their name on a resume or business card, be very suspicious. It is not that hard these days to slap on a label or title.

I started my own company which is a life coaching company because of a very horrible personal life experience which I went through in the beginning of this year (2012) and I wanted to find a way to make sure that what happened to me will never ever have to happen to another guy. I focus on a very small niche group of people and I don’t intend for that company to ever grow too large.

Last Key Point: All of the scammers and internet marketing guys should realize that their business model is unsustainable. They may be making 6 figure for 2-3 years but eventually their traffic and the people who go to their website will dry up. Their content will get stale and they won’t last. If they are not completely transparent with their business or practices, they will eventually be found out, exposed, and will be forced to shut down their website/business or restructure it to look liek something else or go into another niche. At last but defnitely not least, this website/ forum is the best or worst kept secret in all of the internet space when it comes to hucksters who learn new techniques and ways to get you to open your wallet. : The Warrior Forum – Be careful out there and don’t be cheated.

Sean Stephenson – 3 Foot Giant In A Wheelchair

I remember seeing Sean speak for the first time from a Seminar program I was watching and I was astounded at the level of authenticity and pure love that was radiating from him. I don’t remember ever seeing anyone be so charasmatic but also be so physically stunted (I know I am not being completely politically correct here). All I can say is that Sean is amazing, and one of the best speakers I have ever heard. He goes into detail to describe his own life and the crazy challenges he has to suffer through compared to some of us.

By his own admission, Sean is only 3 feet tall and in a wheelchair. When he shows you his chest or his arms ,they are also slightly deformed. He suffers from a rare form of medical condition called Osteogenesis Imperfecta.

My point is, I don’t think any of you who are reading this blog is anything near as short as Sean in the video. For the person who is 5′ 6″, there is another person just like them that have to be only 5′ 0″ and have to live with that. Of course for the 5 foot tall person, they have to realize that people who are 4 ‘6 ” do also exist in the world and they have to live in their body.  Sean here may be the most extreme case of physical handicaps one can ever meet, at least from first glance. However, Sean has been able to search deep inside of himself, find the courage to move forward and push on, and somehow also just give more value and happiness to the world than most of us who are average size.

Just realize that no matter how short or bad you think you have it, there is someone else out there who has it worst in terms of physical attributes but they have learned how to deal with it and live life as the best as they could, without complaining or believing that the world wronged them in some way.

Note: What I posted is only the first part of a 6 parts series on Youtube which appears to be a documentary on Sean’s life. If you want to see the 2nd to 5th parts of of the entire documentary, just follow the links which appear after the video is over. Enjoy.

Grow Taller Using Stem Cells , Part I

Of all of the possible techniques and strategies that can lead us as a species to find a way to increase our size, the advent of stem cells is one of the most promising ideas. In this post, I wanted to give a very general and brief introduction to our journey into the subject of stem cells to search for a solution to our height increase endeavor. This first post will definitely won’t be the last post on this subject since there is so much research currently being done in this subject to look for solutions to some of our biggest medical and cosmetic problems we face in our modern era.

If we remember from our high school or college biology classes, we might remember that we all came from the zygotic formation brought by the male gamete the sperm coming into fusion with the female gamete the egg. From this initial single organism zygote we are slowly developed into something resembling a human baby in our mother’s uterus. The curous person would be asking the question “Just how exactly does the zygote figure out how to grow and develop into the product of a human baby? That comes from the instructions in the cell called DNA. DNA stand for deoxyribonucleic acid, which is a double helix structure which has at its most basic level only 4 types of nucleotides bases being repeated and sorted in a certain order. From the way the nucleotide bases are set up, we get our codons, which organize themselves to form genes. the genes are really just segments of biological instruction ,or information. The information is what really tells the cells what to do. That is where almost all of genetics and the study of stem cells begins.

The stem cell is a type of cell which can differentiate itself and transform into another type of cell which has a specialized function as well as self generate more of itself. The ability of the stem cell to turn into so many different types of cells allows its application into the medical sciences to be nearly endless. If we can get certain stem cells to regrow into the tyep fo tissues and even organs that we wnat, we can essentially treat our body like a car, where if a specific part is damaged or not functioning, we can go into out body and replace the damaged tissue from the stem cell derived results.

If we look at the diagram to our left we can see just what types of diseases and pathologies stem cells therapy can potentially treat. Some of the possibilities can seem to come from science fiction.

Stroke, Baldness, Blindness, Learning Defects, Deafness Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s Disease, Missing Teeth, Teeth cavitations, Wond healing, Brain Injuries, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Myocardial Infarction, Muscular Dystrophy, Diabetes, Bone marrow transplantation, Spinal cord injury, Multiple types of cancer, Osteoarthiritis, Crohn’s Disease.

It would seem from this list that our desire to use stem cells to increase our height seems almost insignificant when we consider what other applications stem cell therapies can be used for. It is a real shame the the US government and scientific community has been slow or even against the research of stem cell therapy. What often has to happen is that if a person suffering from a specific pathology wanted to use stem cell therapy as treatment, they have to leave the US and get it somewhere else.
I don’t have a Ph. D so I don’t feel like I am qualified to explain to you all the most important aspects of stem cells so I will leave most of the instructioning to Wikiepdia.

From the Wikipedia Article on Stem Cells found HERE, I wanted to post a few of the main points about the unique cells.

Stem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide (through mitosis) and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells. In mammals, there are two broad types of stem cells: embryonic stem cells, which are isolated from the inner cell mass ofblastocysts, and adult stem cells, which are found in various tissues. In adult organisms, stem cells and progenitor cells act as a repair system for the body, replenishing adult tissues. In a developing embryo, stem cells can differentiate into all the specialized cells (these are called pluripotent cells), but also maintain the normal turnover of regenerative organs, such as blood, skin, or intestinal tissues.

There are three accessible sources of autologous adult stem cells in humans:

  1. Bone marrow, which requires extraction by harvesting, that is, drilling into bone (typically the femur or iliac crest),
  2. Adipose tissue (lipid cells), which requires extraction by liposuction, and
  3. Blood, which requires extraction through pheresis, wherein blood is drawn from the donor (similar to a blood donation), passed through a machine that extracts the stem cells and returns other portions of the blood to the donor.

Stem cells can also be taken from umbilical cord blood just after birth. Of all stem cell types, autologous harvesting involves the least risk. By definition, autologous cells are obtained from one’s own body, just as one may bank his or her own blood for elective surgical procedures.

Highly plastic adult stem cells are routinely used in medical therapies, for example in bone marrow transplantation. Stem cells can now be artificially grown and transformed (differentiated) into specialized cell types with characteristics consistent with cells of various tissues such as muscles or nerves through cell culture. Embryonic cell lines and autologous embryonic stem cells generated through therapeutic cloning have also been proposed as promising candidates for future therapies.

Properties

The classical definition of a stem cell requires that it possess two properties:

  • Self-renewal: the ability to go through numerous cycles of cell division while maintaining the undifferentiated state.
  • Potency: the capacity to differentiate into specialized cell types. In the strictest sense, this requires stem cells to be either totipotent or pluripotent—to be able to give rise to any mature cell type, althoughmultipotent or unipotent progenitor cells are sometimes referred to as stem cells. Apart from this it is said that stem cell function is regulated in a feed back mechanism.

Self-renewal

Two mechanisms to ensure that a stem cell population is maintained exist:

  1. Obligatory asymmetric replication: a stem cell divides into one father cell that is identical to the original stem cell, and another daughter cell that is differentiated
  2. Stochastic differentiation: when one stem cell develops into two differentiated daughter cells, another stem cell undergoes mitosis and produces two stem cells identical to the original.

Potency definitions

Pluripotent, embryonic stem cells originate as inner cell mass (ICM) cells within a blastocyst. These stem cells can become any tissue in the body, excluding a placenta. Only cells from an earlier stage of the embryo, known as the morula, are totipotent, able to become all tissues in the body and the extraembryonic placenta.

Human embryonic stem cells
A: Cell colonies that are not yet differentiated.
B: Nerve cell

Main article: Cell potency

Potency specifies the differentiation potential (the potential to differentiate into different cell types) of the stem cell.

  • Totipotent (a.k.a. omnipotent) stem cells can differentiate into embryonic and extraembryonic cell types. Such cells can construct a complete, viable organism. These cells are produced from the fusion of an egg and sperm cell. Cells produced by the first few divisions of the fertilized egg are also totipotent.
  • Pluripotent stem cells are the descendants of totipotent cells and can differentiate into nearly all cells, i.e. cells derived from any of the three germ layers.
  • Multipotent stem cells can differentiate into a number of cells, but only those of a closely related family of cells.
  • Oligopotent stem cells can differentiate into only a few cells, such as lymphoid or myeloid stem cells.
  • Unipotent cells can produce only one cell type, their own, but have the property of self-renewal, which distinguishes them from non-stem cells (e.g., muscle stem cells).

Identification

The practical definition of a stem cell is the functional definition—a cell that has the potential to regenerate tissue over a lifetime. For example, the defining test for a bone marrow or hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) is the ability to transplant one cell and save an individual without HSCs. In this case, a stem cell must be able to produce new blood cells and immune cells over a long term, demonstrating potency. It should also be possible to isolate stem cells from the transplanted individual, which can themselves be transplanted into another individual without HSCs, demonstrating that the stem cell was able to self-renew.

Properties of stem cells can be illustrated in vitro, using methods such as clonogenic assays, in which single cells are assessed for their ability to differentiate and self-renew. Stem cells can also be isolated by their possession of a distinctive set of cell surface markers. However, in vitro culture conditions can alter the behavior of cells, making it unclear whether the cells will behave in a similar manner in vivo. There is considerable debate as to whether some proposed adult cell populations are truly stem cells.

Embryonic

Embryonic stem (ES) cell lines are cultures of cells derived from the epiblast tissue of the inner cell mass (ICM) of a blastocyst or earlier morula stage embryos.[9] A blastocyst is an early stage embryo—approximately four to five days old in humans and consisting of 50–150 cells. ES cells are pluripotent and give rise during development to all derivatives of the three primary germ layers: ectoderm, endoderm and mesoderm. In other words, they can develop into each of the more than 200 cell types of the adult body when given sufficient and necessary stimulation for a specific cell type. They do not contribute to the extra-embryonic membranes or the placenta. The endoderm is composed of the entire gut tube and the lungs, the ectoderm gives rise to the nervous system and skin, and the mesoderm gives rise to muscle, bone, blood—in essence, everything else that connects the endoderm to the ectoderm.

Adult

Stem cell division and differentiation. A: stem cell; B: progenitor cell; C: differentiated cell; 1: symmetric stem cell division; 2: asymmetric stem cell division; 3: progenitor division; 4: terminal differentiation

Also known as somatic (from Greek Σωματικóς, “of the body”) stem cells and germline (giving rise to gametes) stem cells, they can be found in children, as well as adults.

Pluripotent adult stem cells are rare and generally small in number but can be found in a number of tissues including umbilical cord blood. A great deal of adult stem cell research to date has had the aim of characterizing the capacity of the cells to divide or self-renew indefinitely and their differentiation potential. In mice, pluripotent stem cells are directly generated from adult fibroblast cultures. Unfortunately, many mice do not live long with stem cell organs.

Most adult stem cells are lineage-restricted (multipotent) and are generally referred to by their tissue origin (mesenchymal stem cell, adipose-derived stem cell, endothelial stem cell, dental pulp stem cell, etc.).

Adult stem cell treatments have been successfully used for many years to treat leukemia and related bone/blood cancers through bone marrow transplants.

Amniotic

Multipotent stem cells are also found in amniotic fluid. These stem cells are very active, expand extensively without feeders and are not tumorigenic. Amniotic stem cells are multipotent and can differentiate in cells of adipogenic, osteogenic, myogenic, endothelial, hepatic and also neuronal lines.[29] All over the world, universities and research institutes are studying amniotic fluid to discover all the qualities of amniotic stem cells…

Induced pluripotent

These are not adult stem cells, but rather adult cells (e.g. epithelial cells) reprogrammed to give rise to pluripotent capabilities. Using genetic reprogramming with protein transcription factors, pluripotent stem cells equivalent to embryonic stem cells have been derived from human adult skin tissue

Lineage

To ensure self-renewal, stem cells undergo two types of cell division (see Stem cell division and differentiation diagram). Symmetric division gives rise to two identical daughter cells both endowed with stem cell properties. Asymmetric division, on the other hand, produces only one stem cell and a progenitor cell with limited self-renewal potential. Progenitors can go through several rounds of cell division before terminally differentiating into a mature cell. It is possible that the molecular distinction between symmetric and asymmetric divisions lies in differential segregation of cell membrane proteins (such as receptors) between the daughter cells.

Stem cell treatments

Stem cell treatments are a type of intervention strategy that introduces new adult stem cells into damaged tissue in order to treat disease or injury. Many medical researchers believe that stem cell treatments have the potential to change the face of human disease and alleviate suffering. The ability of stem cells to self-renew and give rise to subsequent generations with variable degrees of differentiation capacities, offers significant potential for generation of tissues that can potentially replace diseased and damaged areas in the body, with minimal risk of rejection and side effects

Me: I wanted to add for this last part that the list of pathologies that stem cell therapy can be used to treat for is really long and amazing. If you wanted to read up on all the types of things stem cells can be use to be treated for, click on the Wikipedia article on Stem Cell Treatments located HERE.

Grow Taller Using Acupuncture

What seems to be a common method or idea floating around for height increase is the application of acupuncture. I don’t know much about acupuncture and I would guess that I would know as much about acupuncture as most other Americans who has not been exposed to its real practices. I know that the main theory of acupuncture is use to needles placed in specific areas in on the human body to often unblock or rechannel the human internal energy called “chi’. The idea of “chi” is not a unique idea since the Japanese mystical and martial marts also incorporate the idea of “ki” while in India, the name of the universal energy is “prana”.

Acupuncture is a believe to be a creation from ancient China but it has been said to have been used since the dawn of human civilization with some archeological finding s showing humans sticking sharp things into their bodies to relieve pain or heal injuries. The practice is supposed to help cure or alleviate many different types of ailments, usually chronic.

First, I wanted to copy and paste an article that Tyler linked to in his post which you can find on his blog by clicking HERE (Resource 1)

Traditional Chinese Medicine Schools

Acupuncture Schools

There are many different traditional Chinese medicine schools, but all of them are based on the same principles. Acupuncture is a subjective science in that it is, in the deepest sense of the word, an art. Like any other art, its effective expression is dependent upon the cultivation of an inner creative genius ever growing from a firm foundation – the basic principles of this ancient science.

Acupuncture is as much a medical science as it is an art; but it is not the type of science that is simply studied and mechanically applied using, as an example, the same prescription for the common cold for every person with a common cold. Acupuncture can justifiably be called a marriage between science and art in that its time-tested, prescribed therapies, while based on firmly established scientific principles, are not rigidly applied; each can and – in many cases -must be modified in the light of your inner creativity and awareness of the distinctively individual needs of each person.

What is Acupuncture?

Acupuncture is a therapy used for the prevention of disease or for the maintenance of health. The practice consists of either stimulating or dispersing the flow of energy within the body by the insertion of needles into specific points on the surface of the skin, by applying heat (thermal therapy), by pressing, by massage, or by a combination of these. Acupuncture was developed by the Chinese, and its origins date back almost 6000 years.

Application of Heat Moxibustion (The Burning Of Moxa)

Moxibustion is a thermal therapy in which an herb called moxa (Artemisia vulgaris, Artemisia argyi L’evl et Vant) is placed upon a chosen point on the skin’s surface and ignited; it is left to burn all the way down to the skin, is frequently painful and produces a blister. Some people, however, report that the burning will actually cause a pleasant sensation, in all probability due to the increase of circulation around the point being treated. A very thin slice of ginger placed between the moxa and the skin will diminish the intensity of the pain and also the severity of the blister. Moxa can be purchased in the forms of pyramids (cones), long sticks, and most recently, moxa-rolls.

Acupressing (Yah-Hsueh)

The thumbs and palms are used to apply pressure to specific points on the surface of the skin. Before applying acupressure or massage it is advised that the hands be briskly rubbed together until a definite sensation of warmth is felt in the palms. The pulsating warmth resulting from the friction of rubbing the hands together indicates an increase of energy that should be willfully directed into the acupuncture points in the vicinity of affected areas of the body.

The beneficial effects of laying-on-of-hands, a spiritual healing technique utilized by innumerable religions throughout the ages, are readily explainable in that the energy flowing throughout the body is “reversed” in the hands and fingers, and therefore the hands are saturated with magnetic charges that can be directed into affected body areas by a trained will. Recent Kirlian photography techniques have demonstrated the mind’s ability to affect the energy that emanate from within the body.

Massage (Tui-Nah)

Meridian Digital Pressure is actually the correct name for this form of massage which is very different from occidental massage in that it focuses primarily upon stimulating the flow of basic energy within the body rather than simply relieving muscular tension.

This is basicaly what acupuncturists are tought when graduating an acupuncture school.

Traditional Acupuncture Schools – Why Acupuncture Works?

Here are some theories that are being studied in all major and well known acupuncture schools of the world. Please take some time and enlighten yourself as you are going to find some really quality information here.

THE INHERENCY THEORY

The human body has a miraculous power to regenerate and repair itself. For instance: scraped skin will grow back in a few days without any conscious effort on the part of an individual; if a morsel of food or some water accidentally goes into the trachea, the person will automatically cough to expel the foreign substance; if a small particle of dirt or dust gets in the eye, tears immediately begin to wash the particle away. These are only a few of the many ways in which the body works to restore the equilibrium once it has been disturbed. Inherent within the life force is the tendency to sustain itself and maintain a perfect balance within the body under all circumstances.

Chinese medicine encourages people to become aware of the miraculous powers inherent within their bodies and to take advantage of these powers before they rely on outside aid. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, said that nature is medicine and that medicine is the servant of nature. The people who coined the proverb, “Nature cures the illness, but the doctor gets the fee,” were thinking along the same lines.

Acupuncture is a therapy that has been used by the Chinese people to stimulate or awaken the natural power within the body. In the course of time people have lost confidence in, and even the awareness of, their self-healing powers. As their awareness of their own healing potentials has become dimmed, they have become dependent upon chemical drugs and injections.

THE ENERGY THEORY

According to the Chinese hypothesis, the body is endowed with a definite energy quotient at birth. While this energy is being dissipated through the vicissitudes of daily living, it is simultaneously being replenished by energy obtained from food and air (included within air is the all-pervading electro-magnetic energy). Energy imbalance—either an excess or an insufficiency—is the root of all illness; total absence of energy is death. Energy is believed to circulate throughout the body in well defined cycles; moving in a prescribed sequence from organ to bowel via the meridians, it flows partly at the periphery and partly in the interior of the body. Energy within the body is considered to be a dynamic force in constant flux; this is a leading principle in Chinese medicine, an important hypothesis within the framework of which the empirical theory of acupuncture was developed. The energy theory as being the basis for the effective application of acupuncture is explained in greater detail in Chapter 4.

THE BLOOD THEORY

After conducting an extensive series of experiments in which rats and rabbits were used as subjects, the following phenomenon was revealed:

Vasodilatation. After sedating a rabbit, an incision was made in the abdomen and a portion of the large intestine was firmly fixed under a microscope. Needles were inserted into specific points on the dorsal side of the neck and into the chest. Vasodilation immediately occurred and continued for as long as the needles remained intact. This led to the conclusion that acupuncture could promote an increased blood circulation among the organs, especially those of the digestive system.

Vasoconstriction. A series of experiments were conducted in which rats were used. Needles were inserted into specific points on the back and especially along the spinal column. Vaso-constriction within the brain immediately occurred and continued as long as the needles remained intact. This led to the conclusion that acupuncture could help relieve apoplexy and could also be applied to regulate the blood pressure.

Blood Increase. Regardless of the prevailing state of health, after inserting needles into specific points on the body, blood tests revealed that the white corpuscles and neutrophil juvenile had markedly increased. Coagulase, fibrin, hemolysin and serum also increased. The increase in the percentage of white corpuscles led to the conclusion that acupuncture could enable the body to effectively combat strains of infectious disease that had developed immunity to antibiotics such as penicillin.

THE NERVE THEORY

Thousands of years ago Chinese physicians began to meticulously observe the nervous system within the body. Eventually they discovered that the nerves provided a pathway for nerve impulses generated in response to both internal and external environmental changes. They also discovered that the meridians were pathways that provided for the circulation of energy throughout the body. Later it was found that both systems were interrelated. Figure 6 illustrates the acupuncture points on the posterior side of the body that exist along the spinal column. A needle inserted into these points will affect the corresponding spinal nerve that stems from the spinal column and travels to a visceral organ. Acupuncture is highly recommended as an alternative to any OCD medication treatment out there.

In coping with pain, acupuncture has been utilized in the following ways: First, pain can be alleviated by inserting needles into points that will affect an afferent nerve (a nerve that stems from internal viscera that conveys pain, sensations of hunger, sex, etc.) and block the impulse from reaching the brain. Second, by inserting needles into points that will affect an afferent nerve an impulse can be generated that will preoccupy the nerve center in the brain. The nerve center being preoccupied with the surrogate impulse fails to attend to the original pain that has become secondary and which will eventually subside. The primary purpose of generating a surrogate impulse is to enable the energy within the body to cope with the original pain rather than being dissipated in the anguish resulting from the pain.

These findings are the basis upon which the principles of acupuncture anaesthesia have been developed. At present the use of acupuncture anaesthesia has been confined mainly to Oriental countries, but since Richard Nixon’s trip to China it has also been used in the United States. Its ever-growing popularity is due to the fact that it is highly successful in surgical procedures and has absolutely none of the negative side effects of the orthodox anaesthetics.

Me: So who says that acupuncture can be used to increase height and grow taller?

I did more google research to see what other people are saying over the internet. The really weird thing is that the people who are stating that they can increase one’s height through acupuncture are not Chinese, but Indian and Thai. I don’t really care which nationality or ethnicity manages to find a method or way to increase height, but I am slightly suspicious of the fact that if the Chinese who were the originators of this entire field of study could not find a way to increase their height using acupuncture, how is it possible that a modern doctor or new age healer from India or Thailand or Malaysia find a solution?

The first resource I wanted to bring into this post is one made by Tyler from HeightQuest.Com in late April 2010 where he talks about the use of acupuncture in height increase. His original thoughts were that all that acupuncture did was to help relax some muscles in the body  leading to better posture so one’s height can be temporarily increased by 1-2 cms. His thinking is that acupuncture acts in the same way as sleeping does. The body muscles relaxes  and the back decompresses so the height increase is immediately seen. He did find a specific quote which I also wanted to paste here

“Acupuncturists and Refloxologists don’t have to show an increase in height, they just have to show a long term increase in IGF-1 level’s following treatment.”

He finished his post with…

“The blood theory seems the most promising in terms of height increase.  If you increase blood flow to the top of the skull then you will be taller(only temporary height though).  Also, if you increase blood flow to the intervertebral discs then it will be easier for those intervertebral discs to repair thus increasing height in that way.  A nerve theory is also listed but that would only have a benefit if you changed the nervous system to say inhibit myostatin or produce more IGF-1.
So, reflexologists and acupuncturalists, I have a challenge for you.  Prove that the various forms of Chinese Traditional Medicine increase the level of Insulin like Growth Factor One at a systemic level or at least in a location that could possibly increase height.”

Me: I highly doubt that there will be anyone who would want to take up on this experiment, even though it sounds likes a rather simple test.

From the website from India that claims they can increase your height through acupuncture found HERE

Note: The author of this article is Professor/Dr Prakash Verekar – Friday, March 5, 2010

How to be taller, grow height in India, HOW ACUPUNCTURE CAN MAKE SOMEONE TALLER

There is no function or structure of the body, which stops completely after certain years or certain biological stage. Whatever is remaining can be increased, repaired, accentuated, made to work faster, better, and to full capacity.
Whatever is Abnormal or subnormal can be made normal with Acupuncture. Whatever is subnormal according to patient’s wish is really sub normal whether other parameters say otherwise. Acupuncture is not just doctoring science like modern medicine it is a science of holistic healing. It heals people. If some patient thinks he is lacking something acupuncture will fulfill it to make him healed completely
.
For instance when women stops menstruating and have menopause they cannot produce children. Proper acupuncture will make her menstruate again to have a child. If someone is paralyzed an acupuncturist can make the person stand in 3 days, walk with assistance in 6 days and walk with walking stick in a months time. The patient will be near normal in 6 weeks.
Acupuncture expert can increase capacity of lung for opera singers and athletes. Can increase capacity of kidneys in kidney failure patients, can increase capacity of mind power in mentally retarded children, reverse the aging signs, make someone younger in body mind thinking vigor and looks. We can achieve any thing and every thing. We can even make a dead person come to life and live again if we arrive in 3 minutes time. If an acupuncturist is stationed in ICU and ICCU of modern hospitals, the death rate will drop to 10% for sure. The acupuncturist can keep the patients alive forever. Only exception is accident cases with severe damage and poisoning cases where we cannot do anything worthwhile.
Similarly in case of height increase we can do wonder. Even after closer of the growth centers in the tips of he bones, a certain lowest possibility of further growth remains. If we can stimulate certain controlling points then we can make a person grow taller for sure. Even if the bone grows 1 mm each and there are more than 350 bones, then a person will grow three centimeters.
There is again a principle  which says if a life event or development does not happen at the time it should have happened, medicine can make it happen at later stage with modern medicine. In case of no menses at puberty, no ovulation, no physical growth, hypogonadism, proper modern medicines hormones can make that happen at later stage.
We acupuncture experts can do much more extra. The acupuncture points can stimulate endocrine system to secret hormones, which cause growth. Most of these hormones may be known to modern medical science but there may be some, which are not known or studied. Because nobody till now did experimental research in acupuncture height increase.
One more thing a person should know about height increase. Boys and girls below puberty age should do a lot of exercises that should result in thumping movement on the joints. The growth centers are at tips of the bones and the growth centers are stimulated only when they are thumped. Thus jumping, spot running, skipping, cycling, will help a person grow before age of puberty.
All these are contra indicated after the age of puberty as the growth capacity diminishes with the advancing years. And the very movements and exercises will cause the joints to hold on to the immature soft shock absorber growth centers to act as buffer for the thumping shocks. The post puberty persons should relax more and should not do any exercises that will contract the muscles, as this will prevent any further growth in length. The muscles are for movements. They are situated along the long bones if they contract and reduce in length, then they will squeeze bones lengthwise and prevent them from growing in fact they will make the bones minutely shorter.
Can you do split? Spread both legs sideways at 180 degrees like a gymnast? If not, then you have already caused the muscles to become shorter.
Do not hang by hands in later years. The hanging causes al the muscles in the body to contract due to strain. You can experience it if you touch and judge he muscle contractions of a person who is hanging on horizontal poll. It is beneficial if you hang by your feet, upside down.
Exercises at a slow pace and with double the time allowed for relaxation is good for height growth.
Acupuncture for height gives immediate result at the first time only. After that it is much slower but definite. We also use some herb which has HGH kind of natural ingredients. These are natural safe and useful.
Me: Apparently the author Prof/Dr Prakash Verekar links two youtube videos along with this article with one of them claiming that one can increase their height within 3 minutes (But by HOW MUCH??) and the other shows a type of acupuncture called Aqua Acupuncture, mentioned in Tyler’s blog post. 
The method/ technique was developed by a Prof/Dr Anton Jayasuriya and will be performed/ administered by two doctors, the author Prof/Dr Prakash Verekar and a Dr Manaswini Verakar. I personally don’t want to sound too racist but I do realize that many Indians aspire to be doctors but I don’t think it is ethical for these Indians to call themselves doctors if they really have a doctorate degree (Ph. D), not a Medical Degree (M.D.) I would claim that these two people, who are probably a married couple are calling themselves doctors when they are not to make themselves and their method sound more legitimate than what it really is. The context and profession of these people makes the quality of the video hard to believe. 
I just personally find it hard to believe that one Indian doctor found a solution to height increase from studying a field that is considered a pseudoscience by Western Medicine standard and created a completely new way to solve the problem.
The last main resource on the internet that is linking the use of acupuncture to height increase and growing taller is from a Thai website found HERE. The website actually looks very legitimate and may actually be the website for a group of Hospitals in Thailand (I don’t know, it may or may not be). This is what they are claiming on the section where they talk about suing acupuncture.
Acupuncture to increase height is a treatment that attempts to enhance and balance the organs’ function in our bodies. It aims to boost the function of the spleen, kidneys and liver. As a result these organs will function more efficiently. The spleen will work better, increase the chi energy and the nutrients required for our bodies. The kidney will be able to retain essential substance required for the growth of bone marrow. The liver will stimulate the proliferation of ligament which in turn raises the blood flow to the bones and joints to stimulate bone growth. This treatment in combination with proper exercise, nutritious food from the five food groups and adequate sleep, will effectively stimulate height growth in the most natural way.In a clinical trial, several osteoporosis patients were treated using acupuncture technique. The result is highly pleasing. It showed that the therapeutic effect of acupuncture treatment stimulated the hormone and cells that were responsible for bone marrow growth. Hence the test clearly demonstrated that acupuncture can be used to stimulate bone growth in the reproductive age.

Acupuncture uses the following key principles to increase height:

• The treatment by inserting needles along the energy pathway leading to various organs aims to keep the bodily function in balance. It boosts the spleen function, enhances the qi energy and nourishes the body.
• It boosts the kidney function so that it will be able to retain substance that is essential to build the bone marrow.
• It eases the liver function so that it will stimulate the proliferation of ligament which in turn facilitates height growth
• It stimulates the body’s joints, raises blood flow to the bones and hence stimulates bone growth.
The treatment to increase height basically follows the principals of acupuncture outlined above, by inserting needles along the energy path. In addition, needles will be inserted in the acupuncture points in the back and the abdomen to boost the function of the spleen and the stomach. At the same time, needles will be inserted in the acupuncture points around the joints to stimulate the bone growth in these areas. The procedure is carefully performed and adhered strictly to the Traditional Chinese Acupuncture practice.

The height of the human body is 70 % determined by genetic factors and another 30 % is determined after birth by the following four factors:
1. Exercise.
2. Adequate sleep.
3. Essential nutrients to nourish the body.
4. The effect of Endocrine function in the body.
So we have 30 % opportunity to influence the height of a person. However, the treatment also depends on the age of the patient, usually 10-18 years age range is the ideal age range for this treatment. If the child is too young, it will be difficult to explain the treatment to him so that he could understand and if the child is too old, the result may not be so effective. As the epiphyses plate may have been closed and hence more growth is not possible. On the average, this closure is later in male than female.For the acupuncture treatment to be more effective, the patient must cooperate with the doctor by leading a healthy lifestyle as follows:

1. Maintain a happy, cheerful attitude and avoid stress
2. Exercise regularly. This will increase metabolism rate which in turn stimulate fast absorption of nutrients to nourish the body.
3. Have adequate sleep; get to bed at regular time. Growth hormone is secreted during night time sleep.
4. Have a balance diet, intake food from all the five food groups with adequate calcium intake
The assessment is done every 3 months for each course of treatment. The result for each case depends on the factors mentioned above. The result can be seen in the second month of the treatment.Samitivej, We Care

Terapong Tangaramvong, CM.D.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)
Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture
Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chulalongkorn University, 2003
Certificate of Acupuncture and Moxibustion
(Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine)
Doctor of Chinese Medicine (Huachiew Chalermprakiet University), 2010

For further information, please contact: 

Life Center
Samitivej Sukhumvit Hospital
2nd Floor, Building 1
Tel: 66 (0) 2711-8749-50
Call Center: 66 (0) 2711-8181
E-mail: info@samitivej.co.th
Contact Info
Life Center Samitivej Sukhumvit Hospital 2nd Floor, Building 1 Tel: 66 (0) 2711-8749-50
Me: I really don’t know what to say or judge on this website. Somehow the people are supposed to be able to increase their hieght but the arguements they make in the article really has to true content or scientific backing. The website may be for a Hospital and the services could be legitimate. My conclusions for this website and the services it is supposed to provide is that I am not sure if it could work.

Increase Height And Grow Taller Using Acupressure And Reflexology

Let’s look at certain claims made by people on the internet that acupressure can be used to help increase one’s height. From personal experience, I remember that acupressure is a form of massage that focuses on pressure points on the body which correspond to certain chi points and chi centers.

In theory, it seems that the creation and development of acupressure is based on the same as acupressure. Instead of sticking needles, or cups, or stones on one’s body as done in acupuncture, one;s own hands, fingers, and limbs are used to stimulate the points over one’s body.

One of the oldest product ever sold that claimed to increase height was the YOKO product. A link of it is provided in the Products page.

It is described as in detail on why it works HERE.

Description : Yoko the scientifically developed height-increasing device that is absolutely safe, simple and effective for men and women of all ages who want to grow taller. Research has shown that short individuals have fewer opportunities for romantic relationships, have fewer children, and on average are paid less. finding adult fashion clothes is also difficult. short women report that they are not taken as seriously as their taller peers. short people deserve the same rights and privileges as any other member of society. we hope to help you gain them.

Yoko works by stimulating pituitary action. besides giving you the extra inches you desire, yoko has been proven to increase blood circulation, improve digestion, increase metabolism, reduce tiredness, slow-down aging, smoothen breathing and promote general good health. truly a wonderful way to grow taller and stay healthy at the same time!

According to the human growth medical research findings of dr ichiro kawaguchi of tokyo research laboratory of the national health department and dr a. kawata from the kyoto university, human height is not determined by genetic factor alone but is strongly influenced by the effects of certain hormones on the development of the 26 skeletal bones and the cartilageneous portions of the 62 bones of the lower body. the stimulation of the pituitary gland would increase hormonal production, which would then spur the growth of the cartilageneous portions of the bones of the lower body, ultimately leading to height increase.

Me: I wanted to make this post really quick. I have reviews the YOKO height increase insoles and showed that they don’t work. They can actually hurt a person’s feet from using it too much. There is another type of height increasing insole sold called the KIMI which is the exact same product as the YOKO, only with a different name. So we can conclude that most of the popular products sold that they can help you gain height from the theory of using acupresure, chi, and meridian doesn’t work.

When it comes to the use of reflexology there is just not enough evidence to show that there has ever been any case of height increase involved with consistent use of reflexology.

So does that mean that acupressure and certain types of massaging or touching of body parts will NOT induce growth hormones like IGF-1 or stimulate growth?

No exactly, since the issue is still very difficult to resolve.  I have shown in the past that there is a technique that I am willing to endorse which is the Qigong Method which has caused quite a stir in the internet space because the originator of the method supposed grew form 5′ 0” to 5′ 4″ when she was 22-24. She posted only a few posts through a 5 year span giving really great content and ideas on how she used her method to gain the height she had always wanted. Qigong has a theory based also on the Chinese principles of chi, meditation, and meridian lines. I would suspect that at this time, our Modern Western has not fully tried to incorporate and understand certain types of Eastern medical practices so there might be certain pressure point in the body which if we pressed can help our growth a little.