The newest self improving form of torture -

In October, health officials in China again warned citizens against the increasingly popular but seriously painful leg-stretching Ilizarov procedure. The procedure is believed to add as much as a couple of inches to a person’s height and stature.

The patient’s leg is deliberately broken and affixed to a rack, with the leg stretched slightly every day so that the bones fuse together to cover the separated space, lengthening the leg. One 33-year-old, 5-foot-tall woman in 2002, aiming for four more inches said “I’ll have a better job and a better husband. It’s a long-term investment.”

I think I’ve heard of procedures similar to this being used for people who are born with on leg shorter than the other, but never to purely gain inches in height.