Don't laugh, I saw a show last weekend on the Discovery Channel (or one of those science-esque channels in the 270-280 section of DirecTV) that showed these people in China having surgery that made them taller. It was like a bad car wreck, I had to keep watching.
They go through a surgery where an incision is made in their legs below their knee, and the bone is cut twice (once up high, once low). Then they have these rods placed in their legs into the bone right above and below the cut in the bone and a connecting rod connects the two inserted rods and stays on the leg. They go around for MONTHS with these rods in and on their legs (and mind you, they are in AGONY) and after whatever amount of time it takes, they go through another excruciating procedure to have the rods removed. Apparently, this actually stretches out the muscle, and the bone does regenerate in the stretched out area. Anyway, they showed a guy and a girl who each gained 4-5".
Apparently it is done because the more westernized the society has become in China, the more "in" it is to be tall. The story these two gave was that they didn't fit in and were outcasts in the new urban society.
It was gross, but interesting, and sad, to see the lengths :) people will go to for vanity.
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