Height FX Review

I was a lot more impressed by the heighteffects website than I expected to be as their education area of their website is actually pretty well written and their research tab promises future clinical trials.  That doesn't mean it's not a scam.  Height Increase products or theories have to go through a lot more cynicism than other products but height FX obviously has enough money to use google adwords to market their product why can't they get clinical trials?  Now granted clinical trials are a lot more expensive than google adwords but still any money spent towards google adwords would be a lot better spent on those clinical trials.

This is a product that absolutely needs clinical trials to establish it's validity because it claims to work by extending your growth phase and there's no real way of knowing exactly how tall you would've grown with or without the supplement.  Clinical trials are needed to see if the average height gain is greater with the supplement(I think the whole placebo thing is crap for height increase, you don't need to waste money on a placebo group).

The website does list the ingredients of HeightFX so we can go through the ingredients and see if there's any validity to any claims that those ingredients would result in a height increase.  The ingredients of HeightFX are:

L-Dopa

Grape Seed Extract

Urtica Dioica Extract

Huperzia Serrata Extract

Cordyceps Sinesis Extract

Eurycoma Longifolia Extract

Epimedium Brevicornum Extract

"One of the primary mechanisms behind the revolutionary HeightFX formulation is its ability to suppress estrogen production within the body by inhibiting activity of the P450 cytochrome families aromatase enzyme in a reversible manner. The aromatase enzyme is responsible for converting a portion of testosterone into estrogen within the male body. This same mechanism has had a major impact in shaping the clinical therapies used in the new millenium for treatment of short stature. Ample clinical studies conducted in recent years, as well as novel cases of aromatase enzyme gene mutation in certain individuals, have shown that the suppression of estrogen in the male body by use of aromatase enzyme inhibitors delays growth plate fusion, thereby extending the length of time the patient can continue to grow taller and significantly increasing their final adult height"

There are two claims to analyze: Whether HeightFX suppresses estrogen production and whether delaying growth plate fusion actually increases final adult height rather than say slowing growth rate(which would also delay growth plate fusion).

"The administration of androgens, whether naturally occurring or synthetic, leads to a significant acceleration in the rate of longitudinal height growth with minimal side effects, are well tolerated in the majority of patients, and result in the most significant increases in height growth of any treatments used clinically."

Again acceleration of the rate of longitudinal height growth does not necessarily mean a larger final adult height. 

"HeightFX has a vast spectrum of somatotropic effects within the growth plate, effects that promote a far broader array of synergistic benefits than that experienced from increasing HGH and IGF-1 levels alone. The cornerstone of HeightFX's somatotropic signaling complex is its direct effects regulating the release of HGH and IGF-1 through a cutting edge complex of secretagogues and sensitizing agents. HeightFX's androgen optimizing effects are able to blunt the negative feedback mechanisms controlling the pulsatile release of growth hormone, thereby allowing greater release of growth hormone from the pituitary gland in response to HGH secretagogues utilized in the HeightFX formulation. Research studies also show that androgens increase IGF-1 receptor abundance and gene expression in skeletal chondrocyte tissue, an effect that allows a stronger IGF-1 growth response to occur. Further evidence suggests that increased androgen activity, such as that promoted by HeightFX, modulates HGH and IGF-1 release responsiveness at different points in the somatotropic endocrine cascade."

Woo, at least Height FX got this part right about it being necessary to blut the negative feedback mechanisms controlling growth hormone release. 

Here's one of the studies that Height FX sites:

  

Novel treatment of short stature with aromatase inhibitors

"Estrogens have an essential role in the regulation of bone maturation and importantly in the closure of growth plates in both sexes. This prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled study was undertaken to evaluate whether suppression of estrogen synthesis in pubertal boys delays bone maturation and ultimately results in increased adult height. A total of 23 boys with constitutional delay of puberty (CDP) received a conventional, low-dose testosterone treatment for inducing progression of puberty. Eleven of these 23 boys were randomized to receive a specific and potent P450-aromatase inhibitor, letrozole, for suppression of estrogen action, and 12 boys were randomized to receive placebo. Estradiol concentrations in the letrozole-treated boys remained at the pretreatment level during the administration of letrozole, whereas the concentrations increased during the treatment with testosterone alone and during spontaneous progression of puberty. Testosterone concentrations increased in all groups, but during the letrozole treatment, the increase was more than fivefold higher than in the group treated with testosterone alone. The inhibition of estrogen synthesis delayed bone maturation. The slower bone maturation in the boys treated with testosterone and letrozole, despite higher androgen concentrations, than in the boys treated with testosterone indicate that estrogens are more important than androgens in regulation of bone maturation in pubertal boys. During the 18 months follow-up, an increase of 5.1 cm in predicted adult height was observed in the boys who received testosterone and letrozole, but no change was seen in the boys who received testosterone alone or in the untreated boys. This finding indicates that an increase in adult height can be attained in growing adolescent boys by inhibiting of estrogen action."

This study is actually pretty good showing that the HeightFX guys did some homework but an increase in predicted adult height is just that a prediction and isn't worth much.  This study just states that maybe inhibiting estrogen action can inhibit adult height.

Here's the study that the Height FX guys refer to when talking about getting around the Growth Hormone negative feedback loop:

Testosterone blunts feedback inhibition of growth hormone secretion by experimentally elevated insulin-like growth factor-I concentrations.

"The present study tests the hypothesis that a high dose of testosterone (Te) drives GH and IGF-I production, in part, by blunting autonegative feedback by the end-product peptide. To this end, we infused saline or recombinant human IGF-I (10 microg/kg.h iv for 6 h) in seven healthy men ages 51-72 yr after administration of placebo (Pl) and Te in randomized order. GH release was quantitated fasting before and after injection of GHRH (1 microg/kg). Statistical analyses disclosed that Te vs. Pl: 1) increased the mean concentration of GH from 0.15 +/- 0.045 to 0.48 +/- 0.11 microg/liter (P = 0.007) and IGF-I from 108 +/- 5.0 to 124 +/- 4.1 (P = 0.047) without altering GHRH-induced GH release; 2) elevated the GH nadir from 0.13 +/- 0.03 to 0.23 +/- 0.06 microg/liter (P < 0.05) in the control session and from 0.06 +/- 0.02 to 0.14 +/- 0.04 microg/liter (P = 0.038) during IGF-I infusion; 3) augmented GHRH-stimulated GH release from 3.0 +/- 0.56 (Pl) to 3.7 +/- 0.52 microg/liter (Te) (P < 0.05) during IGF-I infusion; and 4) did not influence estimated IGF-I kinetics. In summary, supplementation of a high dose of Te in middle-aged and older men attenuates IGF-I feedback-dependent inhibition of nadir and peak GH secretion. Both effects of Te differ from those reported recently for estradiol in postmenopausal women. Accordingly, we postulate that Te and estrogen modulate IGF-I negative feedback differentially."

So according to this study yeah high levels of testosterone inhibit negative feedback of growth hormone.

These Height FX guys get an A for homework that's for sure but the effects of Testosterone, Estrogen, IGF-1, and GH are so well studied that it's hard to believe that a method to increase height involving those four chemicals is not mainstream(even given that height increase is discriminated against there is still a large underground IGF-1, GH, and testosterone community).  That's disregarding the fact that the ingredients of Height FX may not even alter the levels of those chemicals(clinical trials could be performed within a short period of time that shows that Height FX elevates the desired chemicals).

So I'm a lot more optimistic about Height FX then a lot of methods and I hope that Height FX raises the money for those clinical trials.