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Posted on Sep 25, 2020, 5:06 am
#1

I'm curious, how slow can one lengthen femurs (using Stryde) without risk of pre-consolidation. I know everyone has different rates of bone growth, but I'm just looking for an estimate. Can you go as slow as 0.5 mm/day?

The reason I ask is because I've read soft tissue adaptation is best the slower you go. At 1mm/day you theoretically risk scarring or permanent damage if the muscle/other soft tissues cannot keep up with the rate of lengthening.

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Posted on Sep 25, 2020, 7:49 pm
#2

Huh, so the lower limit for femur is around .75mm?

Is there any way to slow down bone consolidation, to allow you to lengthen even slower. Goal is to give soft tissues as much time as possible to adapt to minimize permanent scarring/fibrosis

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Posted on Sep 27, 2020, 3:32 am
#3

There was a study done in lambs (I think) that showed a distraction rate of over 1.0 mm/day resulted in lot more soft tissue damage. Nerve damage, blood vessel damage, muscle damage etc.

Our soft tissues aren't made to stretch that fast. The fastest they grow is like 0.2 mm/day during puberty during a growth spurt, far from the 1.0 mm/day we do in femurs.

I think if we could find a way to prevent pre-consolidation by slowing down bone growth, we could lengthen much slower, closer to puberty levels, and that would result in much better athletic outcome long term due to minimal soft tissue damage.

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Posted on Sep 28, 2020, 3:43 am
#4

Lambs and humans aren't so different physiology wise
Both mammals, both have same sets of soft tissues. You can argue whose soft tissues are better at adapting but I imagine there isn't much difference.

The question is why would you willingly give up athleticism to lengthen faster? Is an extra 3 months of distraction not worth it to make sure you don't have permanent loss of athleticism and/or complications?

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Posted on Sep 28, 2020, 8:34 am
#5

It's literally a few extra months to guarantee you a better life for the next 60 years

Don't really get this logic, why not sacrifice a few months to maximize the rest of your life. Not saying that lengthening 1mm/day automatically means you're screwed cuz most people recover fine, but lengthening slower likely maximizes your chances of recovering as close to 100% as possible.

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Posted on Sep 29, 2020, 5:12 am
#6

I think a possible breakthrough in the field would be if we found a way to make bone to grow more slowly. A lot of people are talking about making bone grow faster, but I think the focus is misguided.

Like I said before the soft tissues are the limiting factor in lengthening, not the bone. If you can go slow enough that the soft tissues can keep up, not only will your recovery be much better, but you'll also likely be able to lengthen more, because now soft tissue is not just stretching but growing accordingly with the bone.

The reason why the upper limits for femur is 8 cm and 6 cm for tibias is because 8 cm of distraction in a period of a few months is way too much for the soft tissues to keep up. Obviously the bone can keep going, if you were only lengthening bone you could lengthen way past 8 cm theoretically.

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