Humans come in various heights, and genetics play a key role in determining whether a person will be tall or short. There is much more than genetic to consider before assuming that a person will be the same height as parents. A person’s growth can depend on medical conditions, deficiency in hormones, and many other factors.
Genetics are the prominent factors that contribute to how tall a person is. A person’s height can be predicted depending upon how tall parents are. A person’s height is said to end up somewhere based on the average height between father and mother. Genetics alone cannot predict height. A child can be either much taller or shorter than parents. Other factors outside genetics can explain such differences.
Getting adequate nutrition during growing years is critical in human development, including height. A diet based on whole, nutritious foods will help a person grow up to the height that genes might dictate. A poor diet can lead to a shorter height.
Boys grow slower than girls at 1st because of differences in puberty milestones. Adult males tend to be an average of 5.5 inches taller compared to adult females. Hormones are essential for body growth during puberty. These include sex, growth, thyroid hormones. Growth could be altered if any abnormalities are there in these hormones. Children who develop low thyroid or pituitary gland disorders will have shorter height. Hormonal disorders can cause an increase in height sometimes but this is rare.
Certain conditions can dictate a person’s height at birth. For example, achondroplasia is a rare bone growth disorder that runs in families. Turner Syndrome is a congenital disorder that is the cause of short height. It causes delays in puberty and doesn’t run in families. The other congenital conditions that lead to taller than normal height are Marfan and Klinefelter syndromes.
More insight about height –
Many factors contribute to the overall height of a person. Genetic factors contribute a final, personal height of 60-80%. Certain environmental factors contribute to the remaining height. These factors include nutrition and exercise. Between age one and puberty, most people gain about two inches in height each year. Once puberty hits a people grow at a rate of 4 inches per year. But everyone grows in a different space. For girls, the increase in growth can be seen in the early teens, and boys may not see such growth increase till the late teens. After a person goes through puberty, they stop growing. This indicates that as adults, people’s height will not increase.
During the period of adolescence, a person must eat a balanced diet. In the growing years, all the essential nutrients a person should get. There are only a few cases where supplements would be required to increase height. If a child is affected by the growth hormone condition, doctors can recommend a supplement containing synthetic HGH.
Getting the right amount of sleep is also essential. During adolescence, if a person doesn’t get adequate sleep, it may lead to complications. This is because growth hormones are released while a person is sleeping. Production of this and other hormones may go down if adequate sleep is not there. Regular exercise helps in the production of growth hormones.
