www.local6.com/money/4574140/detail.html
Print This Story Print This S tory Competition For Jobs, Partners Sparks Height Craze In China TV Regularly Promotes 'Stretching Machines,' Surgery Techniques POSTED: 12:49 pm EDT June 6, 2005 UPDATED: 1:46 pm EDT June 6, 2005 Competition for jobs and marriage partners has sparked a national height craze in China that has people lining up to be surgically stretched or t o purchase torture rack-like stretching machines, according to a Local 6 News report.
A senior executive at one of China's largest job-search Internet sites ad mits that it's a commonly-held belief that "taller people will have more opportunity for promotion."
com In recent months, advertisements on Chinese television are regularly prom oting "stretching machines," which look like benches reminiscent of the medieval torture rack. Users are supposed to strap themselves in by head and foot and turn a cra nk to extend the bench beneath them. A voice-over on one of the TV advertisements claims that the "body stretc h and exercise machine" can stretch human cartilage and "boost young peo ple's height." Also, a private hospital in Beijing has become famous for its height-exte nding practice which puts patients out of action for six months or more. If it works, the procedure can extend the length of your bones by more th an "15 percent," according to Dr Xia Hetao, who performs the surgery.
Xia uses an adaptation of a method originally developed in Russia more th an a century ago. Xia breaks his patient's legs, then attaches metal pins to the separated bones, which are held in place by metal frames around the patient's legs . The patient then has to twist a knob daily to drag the ends of broken bon e apart gradually, encouraging new bone to grow to bridge the gap as the fracture heals, resulting in longer bones, and a taller person, accordi ng to the report. He insists that his procedure has a high rate of success. However, Xia sa id that there are other operators in China who botch the job. As leg-lengthening becomes more popular, Xia is calling for official regu lation of the practice.
China's Ministry of Health says it is very concerned about the trend. One of Xia's patients, Wang Junhong, traveled thousands of miles from sou thern China to get her legs lengthened in Beijing. She said she knows of doctors that offer the surgery near where she lives , but she doesn't trust them to get it right. Competition for work and business success in China can pressure job seeke rs to take drastic action to increase their height. Job advertisements often prominently list height requirements for potenti al candidates The average Chinese woman is about 5 feet 2 inches tall and the average m an about 5 feet 6 inches, according to the report.
|
http://csua.com/feed/