Wolff’s Law States That Stretching Bone Tissue Using Tensile Stress Makes It Thicker And Stronger

Here were three points I have made before which were proven in posts I wrote maybe a year ago…

Point #1: With a rough calculation I did by extrapolating the number values given by a recent study done on the tensile ultimate yield testing of young rabbits’s femurs, along with epiphyseal cartilage along with values given by an orthopedic surgeon from the 19th century, we both eventually reached a similar conclusion that it would take around 25,000-30,000 lbs of force (I realize that I am using the UK/US system and not the international metric system, but I made sure to do the US–>Metric conversions correctly. I am not off by say a full magnitude or something) to slowly stretch out the femur of the average american male (assuming 6 ft tall and 200 lbs)

Point #2: The tensile strength of bones is about the same as stainless steel, and the compressive strength of long bones is around 20-40% even stronger than stainless steel. This is not a joke. Our bones are indeed that strong, at least when tested on the axial in the exact angle.

Point #3: When we talk about a long bone, like a tibia or ulna breaking, and we need say a splint or cast, the cause is almost always due to a lateral loading of the bones. We break our bones when they fall on their sides against a strong enough object which has no elasticity aka hard surface.

It turns out that I sort of forgot something even more compelling based on a forgotten point. This point I will make is probably going to give even more validation to that thesis that trying to stretch out the bones through say pulling on the end will be a unreasonable and unsuccessful way for bone lengthening.

Not only will the bones NOT lengthen it, but the result is that the sides of the long bones will in fact start to become thicker and the middle area will become even stronger, as a result. This is based on the principles of Wolff’s Law. {Wolf’s law basically just states that bone adapts to the loads and demands that are applied to it.  Basically, bone adapts.  This does not refute this argument but it does mean that according to the basic application of Wolf’s law bone could adapt by becoming thicker or it could adapt by becoming longer. -Tyler}

So if you trying just stretching the bones, and never come even close to the 25,000 lbs that is required of it (unless you did a sudden jerk of the bones, which might instead cause it to fracture or break, which no one would want) then the sides will get thicker, and you will have a thicker, wider bone.

If we were to be extremely futuristic and just think of it from the most hypothetical scenario, and we did have some type of machine that could just stretch out the bones very slow but consistently, then maybe, just MAYBE, the idea of increasing our height by stretching bone tissue might be feasible, but that is too theoretical for me to believe. There is no machine in the world that can do that type of thing.

If there was a machine that could be that precise and give that type of load, it probably would not be used on the average person for a few thousand dollars just so that they can be a guinea pig and put themselves through slow and gradual pain just to maybe increase the length of their bone, hoping that a fracture doesn’t develop.