Is there any hope left? Original posted by Vin, Moved here by Nick. Admin

[shortstuff]

Vin


Mar 13, 07 - 6:43 PM Is there any hope left?

I suppose most people here are adults and that the growth plates have made their job. But is there no more hope for us?
Firstly, new growth plates can be created. But this i by limb lengthening. But such a procedure isn't an option for me and probably many more out there. There is also a lot going on with tissue engineering and stuff like that. I don't see why it shouldn't be possible to by simply getting an injection with something such that it reopens all the (or specific) growth plates again. Together with injections of growth hormones (which hopefully will be cheaper (i.e. not more than what it is worth which is the case today) which might be much better than the ones today, there might be a chance that we can get a normal growing period in the future again! Does anyone know of such a research is ongoing right now?

Also, there is this thing with genes. Can a person grow taller than what his/her genes a preprogrammed to? I'm not an expert but my answer would be yes. As an example I would take Leonid Stadnyk. When he was a kid (~13) when he did a brain surgery and something went wrong. His body started to produce alot of growth hormones. He is today somewhere around 8ft4. Did he grow this tall because his genes says so or because something went wrong with the surgery? Clearly the answer is the latter. I don't think genes are changed by a surgery like that. This is why I think of genes just as a road a person would take if the conditions are the right ones. It doesn't stop the person from taking other roads which could lead to a shorter length or by engineering getting taller than the person should.

I would like to think this is not the ends, but don't want to think about the future too much (one might get upset...). So if anyone has anymore information feel free to post!
where are you from: Up North


lisa



Mar 14th, 2007 - 5:27 AM Re: Is there any hope left?

I've examined some of these possibilities online. There is nothing safe at the moment, and there are a lot of "snake oil" sellers out there". The leg lengthening thing is risky and can result in terrible infections - I know of someone it happened to and she almost lost her legs. I'd rather have healthy legs and be short than risk that. Besides, there is nothing wrong with us. People have to just stop being stupid and realize that we're just a few inches shorter than they are, not defective!
where are you from: HK


Vin



Mar 14th, 2007 - 8:45 AM Re: Is there any hope left?

I agree with in your saying that there is nothing wrong with us. But it is annoying when you as a boy are shorter than your systerS(all of them) and get comments all the time. I would never do a risky procedure but hope that sometime in the near future there will be a completely natural way to reopen the growth plates. And I also assume that the growth hormones will be more effective and cheaper by that time. If all of this is natural and all the parts grow and remain proportional to each other I would probably reopen my growth plates in order to gain these few inches.
where are you from: Up North


Lisa


Mar 14th, 2007 - 1:39 PM Re: Is there any hope left?

I hear you. If there were a safe procedure I would seriously consider it. Does reopening your growth plates mean breaking your legs and going through the lengthening procedure? I won't do that because it's too risky and leaves awful scarring. I guess you have to assess the risks, weigh it all in the balance and decide if it's worth it to you. It's not to me. Increasingly I'm content to just look at people who comment on my size like they are a rude dumb ###, and ignore them.
where are you from: HK


Eqin



Mar 20th, 2007 - 6:44 PM Re: Is there any hope left?

It is impossible to re-open the growth plates. The ends of the long bones actually fuse together. Like growing a cap of bone over the growing part. You can't just scrape it off. What they do is break the bone more near the middle. Then they stick something in there to keep the two parts of bone from fitting together as they did before. Spacers, if you will. While both parts of the bone try to heal, they both grow a small (read: minute) amount. By the time the entire procedure (breaking and healing into a longer bone) is finished, you have only gained a maximum of 2 inches in height.

The thing with the growth hormone is a little trickier. I don't remember everything, so if my explanation is incoherent, I apologize. The hormones are not all that is needed. There must be a working receptor to catch and use the hormones appropriately. If your receptors are programmed to only use a certain amount of hormones, then that's all they'll use, and the rest will go to waste. It's incredibly difficult to change enough of the body that it will naturally grow beyond its genetic inheritance. Sometimes it happens without medical intervention, think Shaq. But even with guys like Shaq, there's a risk involved. More than the usual amount of heart problems are common for people who grow to 8 ft or more. Also more than the usual amount of heart problems are common for children who were put on growth hormones because they were likely to be short adults. Many doctors believe there is a link between the two. (In other words, an excess of growth hormones may cause heart problems.)

There is definately research to make people taller. Not much of it is promising. Personally, I'm somewhat offended that so much research is going on but so little is being done to accept short people. Yes, I would like to be taller. But my shortness is not an illness to be fixed. Rather, these mutated giants that surround me ought to recognize that I am not inferior. I am strong, not for my size, but genuinely strong. I am intelligent. I am a good leader. But tall people who do not know me refuse to believe that. I must be weaker than they because I only weigh 140 pounds. I can't be a good leader because who would follow me? Of course I'm smart, because I need to depend on my brain to survive. Bull$#!t! Yes, I want to be taller, but not for any real advantage. I only want to be taller so that others would see me for who I am instead of what I'm not. Just as I would be a white-anglo-straight-protostant male and stay forever young. Forget fixing me, let's fix society.
where are you from: California, USA


debs


Apr 2nd, 2007 - 11:52 AM Re: Is there any hope left?

Just accept who you are.I was the shortest in my family of 6 kids.I was also the second oldest i always thought i was gonna be one of the tallest but no luck.My sisters were between 5'4 and 5'9.With my brother being the tallest 5'11 which i expected. What i didnt expect was to be picked on all the time by my sisters due to this. I on the other hand would never go to such extremes to change this.Leg lengthening is not 100% to suceed. So i wouldnt bother as you can end up in a wheelchair.

Vin



Apr 17th, 2007 - 4:20 PM Re: Is there any hope left?

Hello Eqin! I appreciate your response. I would first like to say that I am no expert but this is only my beliefs on the subject.

I'm not sure what you mean by impossible. If you mean that it today is impossible I can agree with you. But if you say that it is absolutely impossible, well then I'm not sure. I honestly think that in thousand years from now, the superior homo sapiens sapiens with their superior technology will be able to do such a task without great effort.

We are entering the era of gene manipulation/therapy and tissue engineering. The solution might be in one (or both) of these areas. Ofcourse there is this ethical problem related to gene therapy. But if we take the extreme thousand years from now case again, then such a therapy will be not much more dangerous from many ordinary treatments we have today. Also, if tissue engineering (like adding some growing tissue in the bone or something like that) would be an option, we would not have to focus on genes.

Regarding the growth hormone problems. A solution would again be gene therapy. I know for sure that they have been able to alter the genes of a fish so that it produces allot more growth hormones. After one year such a fish was about six times larger than an ordinary fish with the same age. You are most likely right that much must work for growth hormones to work properly but isn't this only the case when the person is subjected to external hormones? We could give someone unlimited of growth hormones but he she would probably not turn into a giant(?). But the cases where the persons own body started to produce alot of growth hormones, for some reason like after a brain surgery, they do turn into these 7ft+ giants. So I get the feeling that when the body itself produces pure gh the body will be able to handle it in a better way.
So now assume that making the body produce much more growth hormones would be an option. And also assume that turning of this mass production of hormones would be as simple as turning on. Then this would be an ultimate way to treat children (of course this is in the future when it's completely safe) with ghd. One other thing is that this would be much more cheap than giving someone injection every day for seven years.

Now if my feelings are correct these two would be the option I am hoping for. But then again, is this 10 years from now? 20? 100? or 1000? I do not go and wish for this to happen every day, but occasionally I will browse the web to see how far they have come.

One important thing to note is that science is not progressing linearly but rather exponentially. The technology we have created the last hundred years is far more than the prior 2000 years. So things are developing much more rapidly for each day.
where are you from: up under


Mantrashak


Apr 17th, 2007 - 11:29 PM Re: Is there any hope left?

My feelings are that the human race benefits from diversity. I'd hate to live in a world where every person was the same height and little less than clones. I also think it's a mistake to think it's necessarily a good thing to be tall.

Let's say you could choose a height. What height would you stop at? What would happen if every parent wanted their child to be the tallest? No matter what happens, you're always going to have people who are taller or shorter than average. Then there are health implications. Any treatment carries a risk for a start. And then being too tall can cause its own health problems.

It's far more important (IMO) to accept the body you have, make the most of it and appreciate everything that is right instead of obsessing over things that you think are not right and that you don't have the power to change.

One final thought. Take a look at the cute boy that Michael Jackson used to be before he had surgery to fix everything that he thought was wrong with him...


lisa


Apr 18th, 2007 - 7:51 AM Re: Is there any hope left?

I agree totally with Mantrashak.


Vin

Apr 18th, 2007 - 10:26 PM Re: Is there any hope left?

Well people can get breast and penis enlargements today. But yet many choose not to. Although the options are there we still have penises and breasts in all sizes. Far from everyone would choose the option of getting taller. Clearly most of us are way shorter than average but I seem to be the only one who is pro-lengthening (so to say). So people closer to average should be less willing to get taller.

We should not forget that this would only be restricted to short people. A 6ft guy would have a less chance of getting that therapy than he would have of getting a growth hormone therapy today.

It's not up to science to stop these parents who wish their children to be 7ft+. That's up to the politicians to fix (by restricting it to short people as I said before). And yes, there are risks with treatments. Many of the treatments we take granted today were risky in the beginning. That's just a natural step in the way.

I'm glad (I really am, this is not me being ironic) that you accept your height. But now and then there will be a guy like me who would want things to be different and will take the chance when (and if) it comes. But then again, I'm 20. Ten years from now I might have changed my attitude completely.

Also, you wrote:
"make the most of it and appreciate everything that is right instead of obsessing over things that you think are not right and that you don't have the power to change."
This I am doing But when (and if) I do get the power to change, I might, just might (depends on the risks) cease it!
where are you from: up under


lisa

Apr 19th, 2007 - 7:06 AM Re: Is there any hope left?

I would never criticize someone for choosing surgery. This said, I do think it's important for people of all physical types to accept ourselves. If we don't accept ourselves, and go to health-threatening lengths to change our bodies (no pun intended), then why would others find it necessary to accept us?


vin


May 19th, 2007 - 6:03 PM Re: Is there any hope left?

I thought I should tell you this. I sent a mail to the people at http://www1.wfubmc.edu/ and got this:

"Thank you for your inquiry regarding Dr. Atala’s research on bone and growth plate regeneration using cell and tissue engineering techniques. Although we are actively working in this area, it is still in the experimental stage. We regret that this technology cannot be applied to clinical practice at this time. However, it is our goal to bring this technology to a point of widespread clinical use, and we hope that we could help patients and their families, like you, in the future. We thank you for your interest in our work. We will keep your inquiry on record and contact you if appropriate in the future."

So it looks like it is possible, but we're not there yet. Although, I do not intend to be part of a phase 1 study.

vin


May 28th, 2007 - 5:27 PM Re: Is there any hope left?

Just one question. assuming this could be fixed jada jada jada and a short person tries this out. His body is well proportioned etc. How many inches do you think he/she could gain without the head looking too small(also assuming the growth plates on the upper part of the body is opened)? Maybe a stupid question bu I don't think the head size would be noticed if some gained, say 7 inch.

Now assume only the legs are being opened, the same question here. I've noticed that the largest difference between a tall person and me is in the legs.

[Mantrashak]

Thought for the day:

"The challenge in life is to be yourself in a world that's trying to make you like everyone else"

[iamshort]

Wise words!

[Nick]

Hi I have been doing research for over one year in my computer if i could get any thing that makes us grow taller. But everything is scam. They don't have any scientific facts. But I still have hope when I read this website
http://www.growth-research.org/

Have a look at this website. It does not have anything to sell for us. It's full of information with scientific facts and claims that they are having biomedical and genetic research that will lead to new safe and effective therapies for people with unwanted short stature.

There is one more similar site that is based on scientific study. Have a look at it too.
http://www.giantscientific.com/height_gain...rowth_pill.html