Tag Archives: Limb lengthening surgery

Using CRISPR technology to upregulate Chondromodulin could be a possibility in the future

The implication of this study I think is that CRISPR or other gene therapy technology could potentially be used to elevate Chondromodulin levels to either quicken limb lengthening surgery or maybe induce ectopic cartilage formation?

Chondromodulin is necessary for cartilage callus distraction in mice

“Chondromodulin (Cnmd) is a glycoprotein known to stimulate chondrocyte growth. We examined in this study the expression and functional role of Cnmd during distraction osteogenesis that is modulated by mechanical forces. The right tibiae of the mice were separated by osteotomy and subjected to slow progressive distraction using an external fixator. In situ hybridization and immunohistochemical analyses of the lengthened segment revealed that Cnmd mRNA and its protein in wild-type mice were localized in the cartilage callus, which was initially generated in the lag phase and was lengthened gradually during the distraction phase. In Cnmd null (Cnmd−/−) mice, less cartilage callus was observed, and the distraction gap was filled by fibrous tissues. Additionally, radiological and histological investigations demonstrated delayed bone consolidation and remodeling of the lengthened segment in Cnmd−/− mice. Eventually, Cnmd deficiency caused a one-week delay in the peak expression of VEGF, MMP2, and MMP9 genes and the subsequent angiogenesis and osteoclastogenesis. We conclude that Cnmd is necessary for cartilage callus distraction.“

So CNMD gene therapy could potentially be used to treat non-unions in limb lengthening surgery too.

“Cnmd−/− mice did not show abnormalities in cartilage development or endochondral bone formation during embryogenesis or normal growth, and further did not affect natural articular cartilage development. Thus, Cnmd functions as a chondrocyte modulator in specific conditions, causing osteogenesis such as cartilage or bone injury, but not in normal cartilage development and growth.”

“the relationship between mechanical stress and Cnmd in the process of cartilage callus formation during bone repair/regeneration.”<-Perhaps we could induce Cnmd via other mechanical stress mechanisms?

“We focused on distraction osteogenesis, which involves an osteotomy followed by a slow progressive distraction to lengthen congenitally or traumatically shortened extremities”

“Cnmd could directly stimulate chondrocyte proliferation and proteoglycan synthesis in vitro“

“Cnmd is required for cartilage callus formation due to tensile stress on the periosteum and is less involved in it due to hydrostatic pressure between the gaps”<-we can induce hydrostatic pressure and tensile stress via other mechanisms.

” the gap tissue is subject to approximately 15% deformation (compression and tension) during walking in a rabbit tibial lengthening model, indicating that compression as well as tensile forces act on the gap tissue during the distraction phase”

” the fibula spontaneously fractured during the distraction phase and lengthened in the same manner as the tibia.”

“increased expression of Tnmd mRNA in Cnmd−/− mice at the distraction phase. Tnmd is a type II transmembrane protein that shares a cysteine-rich domain with Cnmd at the C-terminus”<-we actually want Tnmd to increase as Tendons are one of the limiting factors in the amount of growth you can get in limb lengthening surgery.

“Tnmd mRNA expression was strongly upregulated by 5% axial cyclic strain in tendon stem/progenitor cells”

“elongation of cartilage callus during distraction osteogenesis was suppressed in Cnmd−/− mice and subsequent bone formation and remodeling slowed and partially failed. The study results indicate that Cnmd-mediated cartilage callus elongation is necessary for distraction osteogenesis and Cnmd could be a mechanical response chondrogenic factor. New insights into the function of Cnmd may establish this molecule as a candidate therapeutic agent for successful bone healing.”

Tiffanie Didonato grew 14 inches with distraction osteogenesis

Tiffanie Didonato grew 14 inches with distraction osteogenesis but the limit for a normal person is about six inches. Why?

Looking at her instagram she seems to be doing fine.

According to Paley’s FAQ on limb lengthening surgery, “The total height gain with two lengthenings is up to 13cm (8cm in the femurs and 5 cm in the tibias. (8cm is not well tolerated in the lower leg (tibia) and
exceeding 5cm can lead to more serious complications such as equinus contracture [ballerina foot]). Most
patients will not tolerate more than 5cm in the tibias. Of course the cost of two lengthenings is nearly twice that of one lengthening. Although the Precice can lengthen up to 8cm, not every patient can safely achieve this much even in the femurs. We will only allow lengthening to the tolerance of the patient’s bone and soft tissues. SAFETY first. We will not risk a loss of function to gain one more cm. To get the full 8cm from both femurs and both tibias requires three lengthening surgeries (see option 5 below).”

Option five as mentioned is “Combined tibia (up to 4cm) and femur (up to 4cm) lengthening three
weeks apart: total 8cm followed by re-breaking femur and tibia with same nail in place and repeating up to 4cm femur and up to 4cm tibia lengthening one year or more later (up to total 16cm; 6.3 in.)”

So normal person can gain 6.3 inches but someone with achondroplasia can gain 14 inches. The answer may involve the ligaments.

According to the chandler project, “When we stretch the bones were also stretching the muscles, and the ligaments and the nerves in the blood vessels around it and some of those get tight, and when they get tight there can be other problems that come up” But for dwarfism, “[dwarves have] all the skin in the ligaments and everything like that to be average height, but her bones are shorter, and they just don’t get the signals to grow,” Lisa explained.”

So the reason that people with achondroplasia can grow taller with Limb Lengthening Surgery than people without it is because they have the ligaments etc of an average height person thus their muscles etc don’t stretch.

But why is the soft tissue such as problem in the first place with limb lengthening surgery?

Well the ligaments normally attach at the enthesis, and the enthesis is attached near the growth plate. It’s very likely that ligament and bone growth are connected in this way so that the ligaments can grow as needed to support longitudinal bone growth. ““Entheses are fibrocartilaginous organs that bridge ligament with bone at their interface” More info about the enthesis here.

So it’s likely that a superior option to limb lengthening surgery will develop that involves stimulating enthesis development as well.

How Orthopedic Surgeons Perfoming Limb Lengthening Surgery Are Making Over 8 Figures A Year In Salary

How Orthopedic Surgeons Performing Limb Lengthening Surgery Are Making Over 8 Figures A Year In Salary

Limb Lengthening SurgeryAfter this recent podcast posting I did with Andrew on his experience with going through with cosmetic surgery to gain almost 4 inches in extra height, I started to become interested in wondering “just how much money do this doctors make on average, annually?”

I decided to do some “back of the envelope” calculations and if my values are accurate, then orthopedic surgeons who perform the limb lengthening surgery may be the highest paid medical specialty in the world.

About a month ago, I was trying to find information on which medical specialties make the most out of all the medical professions. It turns out that from all the sources I’ve found online, orthopedic surgery is consistently ranked the highest paid specialty. The average values that are usually raised are about $430,000-$450,000/ year in earning for guys who work with the spine specifically. (source 1, source 2, source 3)

There was one resource (here) , which a different value, putting the average earnings much higher, at $710,000/ year.

Orthopedic Surgeon Salary

We find that orthopedic surgeons who perform specifically on the spine makes even more than neurological surgeons and cardiovascular surgeons. I guess the old image of brain surgeons and heart surgeons was not as financially beneficial as we are made to believe. They may be within the top 3, but are not at the top. That goes to spine surgeons.

If we are to assume that the average non-spinal orthopedic surgeon (hip & joint) was making about $600,000, then having a ranking of being an excellent surgeons would increase that salary upwards by 30%, making their earnings to be around $1,000,000/year.

Now these guys are reaching the level of earnings only seen in Investment Banking ($1-$3 Mil/year), Senior Partners at Mckinsey ($2-$4 Mil/year), and Senior Partners at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz ($4-$8/year). Only Hedge Fund Managers and Major Movie Stars (and directors) have a higher earning potential per year, and those entertainment guys don’t have the same level of stability has guys in consulting & finance. However, there is a few unique breeds of physicians whose earnings rival even the guys in finance, consulting, and law practice. That is what we are talking about here.

I was recently watching the TV Show House MD, in the 2nd season in the episode “The Mistake“, A surgeon that house tries to bribe (and then blackmail) mentions his salary at the hospital. It turns out that even one of the worst surgeons in the hospital who performs liver transplants makes around $600,000 on average. Obviously the show is not based on reality, but the producers and writers of the show try to be accurate on those types of figures when they do their research, especially for a medicine based tv show. So let’s assume that the value the actor playing the doctor speaks of is reasonable, at $600,000. Of course this was back in 2005, so we would have to take into account the 3-5% increase annually of physician salary to keep up with inflation over the years, even accounting for the factor of the major economic depression of 2008-2009. This is the first indicator that the salaries of surgeons in general are very high. So we can already assume that really good physicians at major hospitals are bringing in already almost 7 figures a year. I remember an anecdote about the highest paid physician in Canada, and his/her earnings per year was around $4-5 Mil/Year.

Something that doctors don’t tell their patients is their salaries, but one well known fact is that doctors who do their own private practices, instead of working in hospitals, clinics, and teach make the most money, but only if their private practice is doing very well with a good marketing department. So let’s increase that factor by another 30% for surgeons.

My own dentist back in Bellevue, WA (one of the richest regions of the USA because of Microsoft, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos who both live in Medina) was making half a million a year herself from good marketing which she paid for years ago after finding a firm to advertise her services. She was the only dentist with a medical staff of half a dozen dental hygienists, which doesn’t include the front desk people who do all the accounts and billing.

Something that most people who never went to Med School know about is this test called Step 1, which is the first version of the USMLE. It is based on the score you get in this one grade which determines which specialties you can apply and/or get into. The cut off point for passing is around 190 currently but to be considered for the best, highest paid specialities you need to have a score of around 240 usually, with the highest almost always being Plastic Surgery in recent years. What happens is that this three digit number is the best indicator of which residency programs that you would be even matched with. Matching is one of the most interesting processes medical school grads will ever half to go through. You fly around the country, or even other countries to interview with perspective residency programs so that you get to interview the programs/clinics/other physicians and they get to interview you. It really is very much like dating, but only there is no chance that you will end up naked in a hotel room at the end of the interview with the other people (unless it went really, REALLY well).

It might be interesting to ask oneself why is it that plastic surgery matching requires such a high step 1 score. (Read Successfully Matching Into Surgical Specialties: An Analysis of National Resident Matching Program Data). At this point, I guess cosmetic surgery is one of the most lucrative specialties with extremely high payoffs. We know that almost all types of cosmetic surgeries requires that the patient completely pay out of their own pocket. I don’t know any medical insurance plans which cover it. The only medical situation where I would guess is if one decides to use the medical excuse of a deviated septum causing sleep apnea to get a rhinoplasty but even that requires that a person use a medical reason first to justify their desire to get it just for cosmetic reasons.

I’ve been living in the Gangnam area of Seoul for almost a year and a half and I know personally very well just how lucrative plastic surgery can be. A 2 Hour surgery can be a total of $50,000 (and upwards) out of pocket. The BK Hospital based in Nonhyeon-Dong in Gangnam-Gu of Seoul is probably is the most famous and has surgical clients fly in from every corner of the world to go there for their excellent service and high quality of surgeons. There is no insurance, no discounts, just you and your bank account.

If we then combine the specialty of orthopedic surgeons and plastic surgery surgeons together, we create the most lucrative medical specialty there probably has ever existed, cosmetic orthopedic surgeons. Cosmetic Orthopedic Surgeons focus mainly on limb lengthening surgery and helping their clients to become taller. That fact is that even in Seoul, Gangnam there is still only maybe a dozen surgeons who are focusing on this micro-niche of surgical speciality.

Andrew has said that the combined total of his surgery with rehabilitation, room and board, etc. was about 70,000-80,000 Euros. That amounts to around $100,000-$110,000 USD. If Andrew wasn’t from Singapore, which is probably the richest country in the world (maybe Monaco is slightly more), then there is probably no way he would have been able to afford this type of surgery.

That was where I started to do actually do my back of the envelope calculations. The average american worker has an hourly rate, and we take that hourly rate and multiply it by a factor of 2000 to figure out how much their yearly income is. If we just took the $50,000 someone like Dr. Betz makes per surgery, and multiple that by 2000, that comes out to $10,000,000 income per year.

If instead we assumed that Dr. Betz himself did all of the real surgery, then he probably can only perform 1-2 surgeries every working day. If we then multiple the cost of each surgery, at $50,000 with the number of surgeries performed each day, at about 1.5, and then multiple that value by the number of days a person in either the USA or Germany works, around 200 days per year, that comes out to be $50,000*1.5*200 = $15 mil / year.

If we consider the fact that the most well known limb lengthening doctors like Paley, Betz, and Ilizarov have their own clinics and medical centers named after them, then it is not that unreasonable to assume that the best cosmetic orthopedic surgeons are bringing in 8 figures a year consistently. Of course that type of income would only come if one chose the right specialty in the beginning and they went into private practice for themselves, and they would need to chose cosmetic surgery since that would mean that there would be less hassle with the medical insurance people. Forget Insurance, Forget HMOs, Forget PPOs. The people who go to these medical also have to sign NDAs and medical legal forms which completely take away the possibility that the patient can fill lawsuits against the doctor if something goes wrong.

Cosmetic Surgery is notorious for the fact that unlike most other medical practices, there is very little blame on the surgeon, so any problems and complications would not affect them. The medical staff require that the patient understands all of the types of complications that they are likely to experience and makes the patient sign off the chance that the limb lengthening clinics would be legally responsible for surgeon/human error in the operating room.

For course I would guess that the medical doctors don’t pocket the full 8 figures. Half of that probably goes to paying their medical staff, the rent on the land for the clinic, the medical equipment, the annual licensing. At the end, His 8 Figure Salary gets reduced to about $3-5 Mil/year. Nice enough to get two summer homes. Dr. Betz may not be a Michael Bloomberg or Rupert Murdoch who can own their own private jets but he would be earning as much as most CEOs of major Fortune 500 Companies, minus the ridiculous stock options and yearly end bonuses. For limb lengthening surgery, the niche is still sort of like the Old Wild West.

So is there any other type of medical speciality that would be comparable to what these guys do?

I thought about the possibilty of transplants, specifically liver, pancreas, heart, bone marrow transplants. On the website National Foundation for Transplants, we find out that the cost of getting these are in the millions.

Liver Transplant Cost

I am reminded on what happened with Steve Jobs during the 2007-2009 time period after he found out that he had pancreatic cancer. He eventually got the Liver transplant. His name probably got bumped up the list because of his superstar status, his name, and his financial resources. For him, a $2 Million Liver Transplant doesn’t mean too much since Job’s Net Worth was around $5 Billion at the time, when the Iphone and Smart Phone market was still growing at a geometric rate.

So would a cardiac surgeon who regularly performs heart transplants make as much as a limb lengthening orthopedic surgeon? I would say no.

I remember volunteering for a professor who was doing research on plastic surgery after my Junior year in my undergraduate degree. I worked with three other research interns, who were both in the Pre-Med route. One of them had already gotten accepted to Duke Medical School and the UVA School of Medicine. The other was already in Medical School. The one already in medical school expressed to me about how he was one of 6 kids to a Gyno/Obstretrician who had his own private practice. His father who had been a OB/GYN for 30 years had over the last couple of decades been squeezed by the medical insurance companies making his practice and his life a living hell.

Now imagine that situation and multiple it by 3X to understand the malpractice insurance hazards of those physicians who perform heart transplants and liver transplants. With a limb lengthening surgery, it takes you about 4-5 hours to perform one. With a Heart transplant, because you are going to have to literally crack open the sternum, and rip open the chest, it would take usually 10-12 hours of surgical time. Add in the fact that you probably have 3 surgeons performing the surgery, 3 anesthesiologists, and a few nurses on call, and the idea of making slightly more than the low 7 figures goes out the door.

As a cardiac or neurological surgeon, you will make 7 figures, but you are restrained by the rules created by the medical insurance companies forcing you to pay for malpractice and liabilities. If you go with cosmetic orthopedic surgery, you can potentially reach in the 8 figures range.

Natural Height Growth Podcast, Episode 12 – Andrew Tells His Story On Getting Limb Lengthening Surgery

Natural Height Growth Podcast, Episode 12 – Andrew Tells His Story On Getting Limb Lengthening Surgery

Logo1It has been so long since I’ve uploaded a podcast episode that I sort of actually forgot the process on how it was done. It took me about 2 days and 5 hours to remember all the steps and there might be a few things I left out so this post will probably be corrected and edited over time.

Episode #12: Andrew Comes On To Tell His Story of Getting Limb Lengthening Surgery and Answers Questions

Andrew is a currently a young man in his early 20s who went through with the Limb Lengthening Surgery to gain almost 4 inches in height. He went from 1.69 Meters tall (about 5′ 6″) to 1.78 meters tall (about 5′ 10″), gaining a full 9 cms in extra height. In the podcast, he explains how he was able to get up to 9 cm in extra height, the complications he went through, and the type of changes from other people he noticed after he got the surgery.

We actually had to redo the first interview because I found out after the first talk with him that his voice had not been recorded, only mine. (Here is a PDF of the notes on the answers, question and outline of the 1st interview I did with Andrew.)  Some questions were omitted and others were added on for this 2nd interview, which ended up much smoother and of better quality.

Internal Limb LengtheningTo can also get in contact with andrew through his website. His official website is at LegLengthening.Blogspot.Com. It is a free, image based blog similar to Tumblr. We clipped a few of the pictures he uploaded to the website and got the X-rays where the internal nails were still inside his inter-medullary cavity. The picture to the right is of him with the legs shown before the surgery. To see the after pictures, go to the website.

The X-Rays shows how much his femurs have been lengthened after 78 days after the surgery from clicking the internal nail.

X-Rays

After seeing how thin the rods are from the picture to the left, we sort of understand why the rods for him snapped in half cleanly. They do seem to be quite thin.

We note the diagram to the right where Andrew gives us a clue on how the surgical procedure is performed, based on his understanding. Something that I did not ask him in the 2nd version of the interview as whether the surgeons used a hammer and chisel to make the first incision or used a thin saw. It seems that for Betz, he used an electric saw to cut through the bones.

We see that the initial holes to insert the titanium rods are made to the back in the buttocks area.

Guide To Femur

Here is the video we found on him from his Youtube Channel TheAndrewshizzles showing how much his femur bones have healed and the types of movements that he can now perform.

Some major websites, people, and places mentioned include….

andrewshizzlesYou can find his limb lengthening diary on the MMT Forums from the thread “Andrewshizzles – Internal Femurs – Dr Betz – 2011 – Blitzkrieg For 9 CM“. This was one of the most extensive threads and well written dairies on the entire forum. There was a lot of great support from all the admins there.

Dr. Betz for this particular surgery used his own design, which is often called the Betz Bone Method, which is an extension or derivative on the Albizzia Nail. For the internal methods, there are three variations/versions…

  1. Albizzia
  2. Fit Bone
  3. ISDK (Intramedullary Skeletal Kinetic Distractor)

You can also see more information and reviews on Dr. Betz from the Limb Lengthening Forum website. Click Here for the Thread on Him.

Click Here to Subscribe via iTunes and/or leave a review for the podcast!

Length of Time: 41 Minutes

Review of Orthopedic Surgeon Dr. Dong Hoon Lee For Limb Lengthening Surgery

Review of Orthopedic Surgeon Dr. Dong Hoon Lee For Limb Lengthening Surgery

Dong Hoon LeeBefore we start on this post, I did want to completely admit a few things for the readers of the website.

  1. I am currently living in the country of South Korea. The exact location where I am actually living at is about 5 minute walk from the Gangnam Station in the Gangnam area of Seoul.
  2. One of the reasons I came to Korea besides for a business opportunity was to take a look at the medical tourism opportunities. I went in for a consultation to the famous BK Hospital located in the Nonhyeon-Dong area about over a year ago to get a possible nose reduction and eyelift (I have rather baggy eyes)
  3. In the last 3 months I have taken my Korean girlfriend to the Severance Hospital (associated with Yonsei University) in Gangnam about 10 times or so because of certain medical issues she has had to deal with. We were referred to the Severance Hospital by a neurologist.

What I am trying to state right away is that because of my very unique situation, due to the exact location of where I have lived for almost a year and a half now, from the very beginning of the website, I have had a much more lenient approach and view on cosmetic surgery than most of my friends back in the US or Canada. Remember also that I am an American and a guy. What this means that my viewpoint on the use of cosmetic surgery to “improve” or “remodel” one’s physical appearance is positive.

I have known for a very long time that the Gangnam area, specifically the Apgujeong Dong area is filled with Plastic Surgery clinics by the hundreds. Every single day I am reminded over and over again of people who have gone under the knife, and let surgeons break their bones to make themselves more beautiful. They have chosen to endure maybe a 1 month of excruciating pain for a possible 30 years of benefits for improving their physical appearance ever so slightly. The fact that every single time I turn on the TV or go to the movies and the ads and previews are filled with commercials for cosmetic surgery clinics show just how pervasive it is in this part of the world.

The video below from Simon and Martina of the Eat Your Kimchi blog might be worth checking out to understand the South Korean psyche and thinking process on why they feel that changing one’s appearance through surgery is okay.

 

At this point, due to what I have seen on a daily basis, and based on my own life story, I completely and fully accept the idea of using cosmetic surgery to make a person more beautiful, whether it is to make them taller by breaking their leg bones in half, or to cut the jaw bones to give the face a more V-like shape.

So let’s take a look at what is probably the only well known South Korean physician or surgeon which advertises this controversial cosmetic surgery procedure to the international community.

His name is Dr. Dong Hoon Lee (or Dr. Donghoon Lee)

I first became away of Dr. Dong Hoon Lee from scouring through the old journals written by people on the Make Me Taller discussion forum which were used to document/log their personal journey. When it came to doctors in this country of 50 millions, he was the only one that was really blatantly promoting, marketing, and advertising his services.

Dr. Lee would again be mentioned in the newer Limb Lengthening Forum in a thread entitled “Dr Donghoon Lee (Gyeonggi-do, South Korea) Bundang CHA Hospital”. The pricing listed on the forum thread is…

LON (Lengthening Over Nail) = $40,000
LATN (Lengthening And Then Nailing) = $46,000
PRECICE (Femur) (Intramedullary Lengthening Devices) = $64,000
PRECICE (Tibia) = $65,000
Nail Removal = $5,000

This is his official website Here. It seems that in a post made just a few days ago, on Jan 8th, 2014 Dr. Lee’s Assistant sent an email to one of the board members on the new discussion forum noting to them that Dr. Lee has relocated to become part of the medical staff at Yonsei Severance Hospital. Refer to the thread “Dr. Donghoon Lee Moving to Severance Hospital in Seoul, Korea“

Quoted from him on the forum…

“As I begin my new post as a Limb Lengthening Professor at Severance, I will do my best to make Severance one of the leading hospitals for Limb Lengthening and Deformity correction in the world.
…Above all else, I will be the only one in charge of limb lengthening surgeries at the Severance hospital, so I will certainly have increased responsibilities and a lot of expectations to live up to.”

Contact Information

Email:  assistdong@naver.com & orthopaedee@naver.com
Bundang CHA Hospital Address: 351, Yatap-dong, Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, Korea (Zip Code: 463-712)
Bundang CHA Hospital Central Reservation Number: (+82) 1577-4488

Note: The contact information above is his old clinic address. The Severance Hospital he will be relocating to beginning in the March of 2014 will be in Sinchon- Dong. Click Here for the Wikipedia article on it. The Severance Hospital I’ve been going to is in the Gang-nam area. They are two different hospitals with the same name, but are in two different locations in Seoul.

Our Review

One of the things we look for in a really good surgeon to make us taller is to look for a type of transparency in their practices. From his personal website DrDongHoon.com we feel that Dr. Lee is being very transparent in his practices. When we reviewed Dr. Paley and Dr. Sarin before in posts about a year ago we were not this thorough in our analysis.

What is interesting is that there is no height limit at which he is setting, unlike most North American doctors in the West. Dr. Dror Paley has stated in a few interviews that he almost always rejects males who are already over 1.80 meters in height (or 5′ 11″) from getting the surgery because they are more likely to be suffering from body dysmorphic disorder. Dr. Lee seems to have no objection on doing the surgery on anyone who desires it, as long as they are healthy enough to go through the rehabilitation process.

He states that the surgery is for people to gain some sort of self-satisfaction, not to fix a medical disability.

For a 1st time consultation it would cost about $330. There is no insurance that would cover this type of surgery, since it is cosmetic in nature and not really of a medical concern. So far he has done about 400 or so bilateral leg lengthenings.

Something which Dr. Lee has revealed for an interview on the Make Me Taller forums was to show that while there is no limit to how much length is possible for the bones to grow, there is a limit due to the soft tissue aka muscles around the bones. While you can stretch the bones to be even even a feet longer, the muscles around the bone can only stretched out so long before they snap from having too high of a tensile load.

What we were sort of surprised with was that the interview with Dr. Lee was also posted on the MMT Forums just yesterday (Jan 15th, 2014). It seems that he is finally getting a lot of coverage from all of the major English based websites on the internet.

Personal Background on Dr. Lee

(from his professional website www.BowLegsKnockKneesLegLengthening.com)

  1. Entered Yonsei University Medical School in 1991
  2. Completed training in orthopedics at Severance Hospital
  3. Became a specialist in 2001
  4. Two-year fellowship under the guidance of Professor Chang-Dong Han from Severance Hospital
  5. part of an Iraq dispatch troop that was stationed in Nasiriya (Operation Iraq Freedom) and served at the Korean Armed Forces Capital Hospital – 9th Airborne Brigade Chief of medicine & Iraq Korean Army medical support committee Chief of medicine
  6. Appointed as an Assistant Professor at Bundang CHA Hospital
  7. study under Dr. Paley around 2010
  8. Completed Baltimore Limb Deformity Course (Sinal Hospital, Baltimore, USA) -2009,2010
  9. Completed ISKD training course (Universitatsklinikum Munster, Germany)
  10. Paley Advanced Limb Lengthening Institute – Clinical Fellowship

Side Note: Technically there is also another Dr. Donghoon Lee in the University of Washington’s School of Medicine Radiology Department (click for profile). We are NOT referring to that person.

1st consideration you should be aware of before getting surgery in Seoul

There is a slightly unknown practice among the Korean plastic surgery industry to charge a slightly higher price for surgery to foreigners than to the native Koreans. This is partly due to the fact that most foreigners who specifically come to the country for cheaper cosmetic surgery can’t speak the local language. If they spoke the local language, they would be able to talk to dozens of the local clinics to find the best deals on Cosmetic Surgeons.

2nd Big consideration

There is rather sneaky tactic done by people who write fake positive testimonials for the surgery clinics on the various online forums, like Purse Forum, etc. The fake positive testimonials often end with a message saying that if the person who went in the surgery mention the referrals name, they will get some type of insider’s discount. Of course what really happens is that the referral is a sales person who gets a percentage/commission for every patient they refer to the surgeon.

This factor has been mentioned on websites like on the forums and blog postings on My Seoul Secret and the Limb Lengthening Forum on the thread “Why We Lost Trust and Left“

From reading the threads on the forum, the main reason why the new LLF forum was created was because the people who opened the LLF believes that the SysOp of the older Make Me Taller forum was secretly Apotheosis, who is accused of getting a commission for all people who go for surgery who mention his website or name. There is supposed to be some type of unknown business deal made with the accused SysOp (who is believed to be Apotheosis) and Dr Sringari and Dr. Sarin, and other surgeons who have been heavily promoting their specific method.

Update July 16th, 2014: In a sort of strange coincidence I received a private email message by someone going under the name John. The following message was written…

“Hi, i have enjoy reading your blog, you clearly are a intelligent person who is looking to provide real information exposing all the snake oil salesman. I saw that one of your link in “Forum” is to MMT Forum, maybe you are not aware that the website is a scam too, but only much more dangerous. You can find information on google by searching make me taller exposed. The details are all there. People have been hurt because of information manipulated by the webmaster Sysop who invested money on a couple of cheap indian doctors and promote them via mmt.  He also invested in other doctors  and delete negative feedback about them.  He claims to be impartial……..The details of all these are very long, so take your time to uncover the why and how of it all.  I suggest you consider put some kind of warning that mmt is potentially a dangerous website as the information there is known to be edited or even faked. “

Our Reply: At this point, we have to be completely objective about all the drama that is sort of occurring right now in the grow taller/ height increase website community on the internet. We have no idea what is really going on. We just report what we find on the other websites and let other people sort out their own interpersonal relationship dynamics. If the SysOp admin from the MMT is really promoting bad surgeons to make commissions then that is their choice. They might be misleading people to put themselves into dangerous situations. We are possible consumers just need to educate ourselves and be more informed.

We understand that money can be a very seductive force. Selling, Advertisements, Commissions, Referrals, that is something that will always exist. We will not say that those are bad things since that is the way millions of people around the world earn a living to feed themselves. Cheating or Lying to someone for profit is morally bad but it will always exist.

As for ourselves at Natural Height Growth

Let me be clear right now and say that here at Natural Height Growth we are NOT affiliated with any surgeons or medical clinics which offer the limb lengthening surgery. We do reviews that are as objective as we can make it. Sure, there might be some slight biases but we are trying out utmost to be completely ethical about what we do.

The only affiliate program we are part of is the one with Amazon. We are a part of the Amazon Associates Affiliate program and make on average about $2 for every bottle of supplement (around $40) that is bought through our links, which is not often. I’ve already posted clippings showing the monthly commissions earned from operating this website in previous posts, which is usually less than $10.

We have managed to find his Youtube Channel which allowed us to upload a few of his videos below. To see the his profile, Click Here. His website is at www.BKLL.org

Should You Tell A Person You Are Dating That You Had Limb Lengthening Surgery?

Should You Tell A Person You Are Dating That You Had Limb Lengthening Surgery?

Limb Lengthening SurgeryI recently found out that a new discussion board was created from former members of the Make Me Taller Community. They are now at LimbLengtheningForum.com

I haven’t given much time to looking over their discussions and threads but there was a sort of interesting little thread started. Apparently someone linked to another thread started on the Reddit website entitled “I (M24) have had cosmetic leg lengthening to make me five inches taller. Is this something I should tell my girlfriend (F24)?” 

The guys’s situation is very interesting and seems to be a very valid issue that people who are considering the surgical method for increased height to consider. He went from an initial height of 5′ 7″ to 6′ 0″. The 12.7 cm of longitudinal increase in the person’s femur and tibia is something that is unheard of even among online community of people who actually pull the trigger and go through with the surgeries.

I took the liberty to upload the picture of his posting from the Reddit website.

Limb Lengthening Surgery

The thread has not been closed but there was over two dozen responses from all different types of people. Most of them did take the time to think over the issue and give them own biased opinions over what this person should do.

My Short Answer

Don’t tell the person you are dating. Who you were back then is no longer who you are now. If you are going to be spending so much money and time dedicated to reshaping your body, especially to change something that should NOT be malleable like height, then you might as well learn to accept your new body. It is absolutely true that due to genetic luck (or lack of it) your growth plates stopped maybe a little too early or you did not get the type of long bone longitudinal growth you might have wanted. That was what nature intended for you.

Of course, since we are very clever creatures which can create tools to make our lives better, we decided to defy nature and choose modern technology to give us something which nature would not give us.

If instead of surgery you somehow went through a dramatic growth spurt to give the same amount of height increase, would you feel any issue over the need to tell the person that you went through that growth spurt? Analogously, it would be the same as people who would rather let their own bodies fight off cancer using holistic herbal methods instead of give their bodies to the surgeons and chemotherapies which will cut into their bodies.

The reason you would ever even go through with Limb-Lengthening Surgery is because you could not accept the idea that you were going to stay at that height for the rest of your life. Your identification as a man who would be permanently below average in height was to you unacceptable so you decided to change that.

You have now gone through with the surgery, and become 5 inches taller, to become slightly above average in height. That is your new identity now. Forget about who you were once before, and live your life as who you are right now.

My Much Longer Answer

The only thing that would cause anyone to ask the question is over the emotion of guilt, and feeling bad over the idea of lying to another person. Of course the lying is not blatant, but through the omission of not telling the person something specific. Some people call it a half-lie. They are not being completely, fully honest to the other person.

Some things need to be kept to themselves. When it comes to the subject of sex and sex related topics people have a right to keep those things to themselves, and do whatever they want to do in the privacy of their own homes. That is what makes them happy. Why should they feel any type of social obligation to share their personal quest and endeavor with other people?

Cosmetic Surgery Considered From A Different Cultural Perspective

As I had said before, I live in the Gangnam area of Seoul. In terms of all the places in the world, this location I have been living in for almost a year and a half now has the highest concentration of people who have willingly gone under the knife for cosmetic surgery than any where else. Per Capita, it is extremely high. I can’t go outside of the street without seeing someone who have had Botox. My landlord who is a 50 years old female has gotten Botox multiple times and had her nose and eyebrow ridge done. Where I live, cosmetic surgery is normal and even promoted.

Of course, based on American standards we could say that the reason any person goes through with cosmetic surgery is because they are not happy with how they look. They have some type of hidden & strong insecurity which they can’t get over. We give them shame, gossip about them, and possibly make them feel worst about themselves when they “supposed” already feel bad about who they are already. Way to go us.

However, based on the modern Korean standard, many young kids who think getting cosmetic surgery is a positive thing think that it is a form of self improvement. In a culture which values on continuously improving oneself, similar to the Japanese concept of Kaizen, it might be argued that getting cosmetic surgery is just another way to improve oneself. In this case, improving one’s appearance.

I know plenty of people who go online to buy Nootropics to improve their cognitive abilities, and try different ways to biohack their bodies. They are trying to improve their bodies. Why is it that some people can accept almost all other forms of self improvement methods except cosmetic surgery? Why do people have something against the idea of using surgery to improve oneself cosmetically/appearance wise?

The Real Question Not Answered

Of course the other big question is “Are we lying to the person we are dating or in a relationship with by not telling them that we have had cosmetic surgery?”

At the most simplest level, if we were to be completely honest about the situation we are lying.

However, as anyone who has some level of awareness of the human creature & is mature through life experience would understand, we as humans with our flaws can not paint the world as black and white, 1s and 0s. There is a lot of gray zones and there have been century long debates about ethics and morality. The wise person would realize that morality is something that is relative. While most cultures might agree that there are big taboos like man-slaughter, rape, incest, and cannibalism (or even maybe homosexuality as recently stated in the Supreme Court of India), even our most sacred taboos and mores can be broken in unique cultures and countries which don’t practice our belief system. What 99 people out of 100 would say something is completely wrong, the other 1 person out of 100 would say it is okay.

We have these unique psychic tools known as Ego Defense Mechanisms, specifically Rationalization & Justification. Ultimately, if we were to be completely objective about it, it doesn’t matter matter if the person doesn’t tell the person they are with. If they do not tell the person, they will find a way to use Rationalization and Justification to make their decisions and actions acceptable to themselves.

We have to find a way to live with ourselves. We are going to be using Rationalization to justify our actions so that we can move on with our lives. The emotion called guilt may exist, and for a long time, but usually that guilt diminishes as we learn to maybe forget our past actions just long enough to make it to the next day. Most people want to believe that they are good people, but have weaknesses and flaws. We believe what we want to believe. We do the best that we can with the limited resources we do have.

As always, I want to here from the readers about what their personal opinions are. Leave a comment below and tell me your opinions