Is yoga height increasing just a floating cloud?

● Orthopedic experts say that there is no scientific basis for direct height increase through yoga, but can only be used as a form of exercise to promote the height development of teenagers.

● Children who practice yoga to increase their weight can be easily injured and increase the risk of bone hyperplasia in the future

Height increase is the dream of many people, but various height increase health products, stretching equipment, special insoles, etc. have been proven to be ineffective. The truly effective "broken bone increase" surgery can cause serious complications, resulting in many people being disabled and being banned by the state. Therefore, today, when yoga is prevalent, some people are waving the banner of "yoga increases" to recruit disciples and accumulate wealth. Some orthopedic experts in Guangzhou say that yoga, which is mainly based on static stretching, lacks scientific basis for direct height increase, but can only be used as a form of exercise to promote the height development of teenagers, which is the same as other sports. However, when young people whose bones and soft tissues are in the developing stage practice yoga, they are at a high risk of injury and increase the possibility of bone hyperplasia in the future.

Increased broken bones lead to level eight disability

Human height is essentially determined by factors such as congenital inheritance, acquired exercise, and diet and nutrition. The period of height growth mainly has two stages: 7 to 8 years old and puberty. After that, the epiphyses at both ends of the long bones close, and people no longer grow. Some people close their epiphyses later and can grow taller in their twenties.

There are many names of height-increasing products on the market, but the State Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved drugs or medical devices solely for height-increasing. Currently, no height-increasing product has been confirmed to effectively increase height. As for the method of using physical therapy such as electric current to stimulate the epiphyses of teenagers to increase their height, Wang Wen said that there is still no scientific basis.

There are two ways to make it clear that you can increase your height. The first method is a broken bone lengthening operation, which means that traction is performed after sawing the thigh or calf bones to artificially cause the fracture to not heal, thereby inducing the leg bones to grow long. Using this method, the weight can be increased by more than ten centimeters, and the weight can be increased by up to 20 centimeters. After the bones are lengthened, soft tissues such as nerves, blood vessels, and muscles must also lengthen accordingly. However, the degree of elongation of nerves and other nerves is limited. Such an increase can cause nerve damage, which may lead to rigidity of tendons and joints, or paralysis of muscles in severe cases. This newspaper once reported that a female worker spent more than 50,000 yuan on this kind of "rapid height increase" operation at a beauty salon in Guangzhou. After that, her legs were in constant pain and she was unable to walk normally. It was later confirmed that the broken bone increase operation caused her leg bones to have a serious defect of 6 to 9 centimeters, which may not heal for life. The judicial appraisal was a level eight disability. After many similar medical accidents, the Ministry of Health banned the high-risk "broken bone augmentation surgery" in 2007. Currently, this type of surgery is limited to the treatment of congenital, pathological and traumatic unequal leg lengths. The second method is to inject growth hormone to increase. Experts do not advocate this, believing that this may increase the risk of cancer and other risks and violates medical ethics.

Practicing yoga since childhood is prone to bone hyperplasia

When yoga became popular in China two years ago, people who were injured by practicing came to see doctors every day. Most of them were women aged 30 to 40. They felt sore hip and knee joints and shoulder back pain, which was related to the cross-legged posture of yoga-excessive abduction and flexion of the hip pulled the medial muscles, affecting the hip and knee joints. Generally, they would recover after stopping practicing and taking a break. "Nowadays, practitioners pay more attention. It is rare for people to be injured by practicing yoga." Huang Huayang said.

He further pointed out that some yoga movements cause excessive bending of joints and spine, easily strain muscles and ligaments, and even damage joint cartilage. After people reach the age of 30, the elasticity of muscles, ligaments, and joint capsules is declining, and problems can easily occur when practicing yoga halfway through the way. Even for people who have started practicing yoga since childhood, ligaments, joint capsules, etc. will be loosened and become elastic. However, actions like splitting can easily damage cartilage and even hard bones under the cartilage, stimulating osteogenesis; At a certain age, the body will still degrade, and these people are equally prone to injury by continuing to practice yoga. Generally speaking, he does not recommend children to practice yoga.

Wang Wen also said that practicing yoga and stretching can enhance the flexibility of waist bones and joints, which has certain benefits. However, children's bones are developing and the joints are not very tight. They are more likely to be injured than adults, and should not practice too much.

Tai Chi is more suitable for postmenopausal women

Adults 'epiphyses are closed and their height tends to stabilize. Wang Wen introduced that the precise height of the human body can differ by one or two centimeters in the morning and evening, which is related to the differences in water content and elasticity of the spinal discs at different times. In old age, some people become shorter, which is related to the flattening of the vertebrae caused by osteoporosis. In severe cases, compression fractures of the vertebrae cause humpback. In the elderly, the water in the intervertebral discs decreases and the elasticity decreases. Various factors can reduce their height by several centimeters or even up to 10 centimeters, which is especially common in women with accelerated osteoporosis after menopause.

Experts suggest that exercise can increase bone mass, resist disc water loss, and help maintain height. However, yoga exercises are large, and there are many movements that women cannot do after reaching the age of menopause. It would be more appropriate to practice Tai Chi instead.

Experts refute

There is no scientific basis for practicing yoga to increase your weight

A yoga height-increasing website: "We carefully selected the postures with targeted height-increasing focus from nearly 100,000 yoga postures, and after practical testing, they have been organized into a systematic height-increasing yoga tutorial."

The yoga movements are mainly static stretching and cannot be increased.

A yoga height-increasing website: "In fact, everyone's spine, including trunk and pelvis, has a certain degree of abnormal curvature. If you can adopt the correct height-increasing yoga posture, you can stretch the bent deformed bones, thus playing a certain role in height-increasing... The 3 - 6 cm increase range we calculated is for normal adults, while younger people with humpback deformity and other phenomena can actually obtain a larger increase range."

If the abnormal curvature of the spine, such as scoliosis and kyphosis, is caused by unbalanced muscle strength, it can be slightly increased by 1 to 3 centimeters through muscle strength exercise. In essence, it is not an "increase", but just a return to the original height. It is nonsense to increase more than 3 to 6 centimeters. If structural changes have occurred to the spine and other bones, no matter how much exercise it will increase the height, and can only be solved through surgery.

A yoga height-increasing website: "Relying on magical exercises like yoga, you can strengthen cartilage, tendons, ligaments, etc. while stretching, so that the increase you have achieved will not rebound."

This statement has no scientific basis at all. After a person grows tall, he is in the process of degeneration, and cartilage, etc. cannot be strengthened but will only wear out. Yoga pursues joint flexibility too much, which will instead increase the wear and tear of cartilage.

A yoga height-increasing website: "Elevation yoga is a precise action of the body's own strength. In theory, it can promote the slow growth of the bones itself. It may not be obvious and requires long-term practice."

This can be divided into two situations. No matter how hard you practice after the bones are shaped, you cannot promote the growth of bones and increase their height. For teenagers whose bones are still developing, yoga, like various exercises, can increase muscle strength and promote height, but yoga itself has no unique effect on increasing the height. (Internship Editor: Li Jianhong)