Any Real Way To Increase Height?
Name: Saola
Comments: I'm five feet flat and I really want to be at least four inches more. Is there any real way to increase height that isn't a gimmick?
There are a number of surgical limb lengthening procedures available; a Google search for "limb lengthening" will turn up a surprisingly large number of resources. Personally, I'm always wary of anyone advertising a surgical procedure on the internet.
The procedures generally involve a surgery to the legs (often the lower legs) which allows the attachment of an external device to the leg. The device has bolts which penetrate the leg into the bone above and below the point at which the lengthening will occur. The distance between the bolts is adjustable. The surgeries also may include the breaking or cutting of the bone at the point where the lengthening will occur.
Over a period of months, the external device is adjusted (usually daily) to increase the distance between the bolts, pulling the leg bones apart. Because this is done gradually, the body attempts to heal this damage by generating new bone tissue in the gap created. Eventually, the external device is removed.
The amount by which such surgeries can increase one's height is variable, dependent upon the subject's proportions prior to the surgery.
It is considered somewhat extreme, and is generally not a pleasant process to go through. At this time, I believe it is the only way to actually increase one's body height.
Hope this helps!
I saw a documentary about the procedure scottcorum wrote about. The guy was about 4'6" and lived in Russia. They were able to increase his height to around 5' I think and you may feel that isn't much but it was a big boost for him.