Study finds vibration increases height

I’ve been getting slow but steady results with the massage gun on my hand on bone length(I haven’t ruled out trying to use two or more massage guns simultaneously) so I did some more research on vibration.

Body height change from motor vehicle vibration

“Seventeen (17) subjects were exposed to tri-axial vehicle whole-body vibration for approximately 3 h, and measured hourly for body height. The control was the same environment, but no vibration. A broad band predominantly z-axis acceleration (1.6—10 Hz), with a mean level of 0.885 m/s2 at the seat, was generated by a semi-truck tractor driven on secondary roads. The dominant one-third octave band of the vibration at the seat was 2 Hz with an acceleration magnitude of 0.521 m/s2. At the end of the first hour, the results indicated a subject growth by 1.14 mm when exposed to vibration and a shrinkage of nearly equal amount without vibration. In the second and third hours, subjects followed the natural tendency to shrink under both conditions. At the end of the third hour, the subject height with vibration was 2.23 mm higher than that without vibration.”

<-interesting that the subjects kept growing. There a couple of possibilities vibration may increase the amount of hydration by the intervertebral discs thus reducing height loss by diurnal variation and/or vibration could stimulate anabolic effects within the bone/cartilage thus resulting in permanent height gain. It’s interesting that the height keep increasing at the third hour. We’d want to know the point at which the height increase stops.

“The spine, specifically the intervertebral disc, has been shown to be a non-rigid system and indeed exhibits a slow deformation or creep response over time when loaded”<-this suggests that just rehydration of the discs occurs but actually deformation of the discs. Which is exciting as it means torso height increase would be possible.

“This creep effect can reduce the overall body height (stature) of an average individual by 1%, approximately 17.5 mm, over the course of the day. The creep
response arises from the gravitational force loading the spine. Once the gravity is removed from loading, the cellular osmotic action within the soft tissues of the intervertebral disc causes the disc to swell, bringing about height recovery in a daily cycle.”<-this alludes to disc hydration. The question is can the discs be positively deformed in such a way as to increase height.

“the upper-body loading during short-term shock events repeated enough could possibly be responsible for generating microfractures in the spine”<-for those who subscribe to microfracture theory.

“With seat inclination of 90°, body height was seen to grow (increase stature) at 4 Hz (1.86 mm), and to shrink at 6 Hz (0.04 mm) and 8 Hz (0.14 mm) for 1 m/s2 after 1 h exposure. Absence of vibration on the same seat produced about 1.1 mm shrinkage for 1 h. Overall, with a 90° seat back, 1.27 mm of shrinkage was seen, while an inclined 110° backrest produced 0.81 mm growth in the subjects.”<-so looks vibration is biphasic with there being an equilibrium range where you get the most height growth

Figure 4. Vibration increased height up to 1 hour and otherwise reduced height loss.

“This study provides evidence that there can be an active mechanism for changing intervertebral disc height and the associated pressure change that occurs with it.”<-the question is, is if any of this is permanent and can it be applied to other joints or the growth plate or other cartilagenous regions.

Studies such as Possible mechanisms of low back pain due to whole-body vibration also state that vibration increased spinal height and that may be responsible for lower back pain. Other studies suggest that vibration increases height loss. This could be again because vibration is biphasic with there being an optimal vibration stimulus for stimulating the IVDs.

There’d have to be a longitudinal study done to see if there’s anyway for vibration to induce permanent beneficial increases in height. There have been studies done on people in construction/etc and they show height loss however since vibration is biphasic(either too much or too little is suboptimal) it is likely that they were overdoing the vibration stimulus and this was the cause for the height loss.

From Exposure to whole-body vibration and hospitalization due to lumbar disc herniation, moderate to high exposure to vibration had slightly less height.

Table 1. This could be correlational though. It’s not a true longitudinal study. White-color workers could be taller due to “tall privilege” getting them better jobs.

So we still need either longitudinal studies on vibration or self testing to see if vibration can positively impact either bone length or the cartilage.