From Yao Ming to Mini Me, the impact of feet and inches has been
channeled into comedic and effective marketing.
Besides its use in clever commercials, height can also affect
the way an individual is perceived and accepted in society.
“There’s definitely a lot of evidence that taller
people have an advantage,” said David Rimoin, professor of
pediatrics medicine and human genetics at the UCLA David Geffen
School of Medicine.
In the last century, the results of the presidential elections,
with the exception of two, have favored the taller candidate.
Additionally, people who were 5 feet 11 inches to 6 feet 3
inches have been shown to receive a higher income than people
shorter than them, Rimoin said.
Studies have been conducted where subjects demonstrated an
inaccurate correlation between perceived height and profession. For
example, an individual who was a doctor or a lawyer would be judged
to be taller than a painter or a housekeeper.
Joanna Chan, a second-year pre-business economics student is 5
feet, but doesn’t feel that her slightly less-than-average
height has limited her.
“Ever since I was little I’ve always wished to be
taller ““ just as tall as everyone else ““ but I
don’t think (my height) has influenced me confidence-wise and
my goals or what I want to do.”
Standing two feet over Chan at a towering height of 7 feet is
Michael Fey, first-year undeclared student and center for the UCLA
men’s basketball team.
“Everybody looks at me everywhere I go,” Fey
said.
“(My height) helps a lot as far as basketball. It makes
playing a lot easier.”
However, Fey also mentioned some disadvantages to being so
tall.
“You can’t find clothes ““ especially dress
clothes ““ that fit. Or sometimes I forget to duck through
doorways and I hit my head,” he said.
Whether its 5 or 7 feet, Chan and Fey have their heights
pre-determined and written in their chromosomes.
Evidence for the dominant genetic basis of height lies in the
fact that a child’s height can be predicted with amazing
accuracy from the height of the parents.
“People who are normally short will have normally shorter
children,” Rimoin said. “Great danes have great danes,
and dachshunds have dachshunds.”
People’s genes hold the potential final height that
someone can grow to in their lifetime. Whether or not they reach
the maximum height within the potential range, however, can be
affected by lifestyle and their environment.
For example, chronic disease and poor nutrition can impede
someone from reaching the height that was genetically possible.
“If you’re in an environment where there’s not
enough to eat, you will not grow accurately,” said Stanley
Korenman, a professor in the departments of medicine and
endocrinology in the UCLA School of Medicine.
“It takes a lot of energy to grow and deposit muscle and
bone. If you don’t have enough energy, you’re not going
to do that.”
According to Korenman, the average height of people in Japan has
increased 5 inches since World War II, as a direct result of the
higher food consumption and availability.
Height also varies widely across the spectrum of ethnicities.
This variation is due to the natural selection of certain heights
to be more advantageous for a specific environment. People in
Sweden are taller and people in countries in Southeast Asia are
generally shorter.
Rimoin has studied African tribes of Pygmies, ranging in height
between 4 and 5 feet, who lived in an environment in which short
stature was beneficial.
“They were able to get through the rainforest more readily
and they could be more agile,” Rimoin said.
Many pygmy varieties of animals have also been found in
rainforest habitats. Their small size, ensuring a better chance for
survival, has been favored by evolution.
Pygmies have shown a decreased response to human growth hormone,
which is released by the pituitary and indirectly influences
height.
Growth hormone stimulates the secretion of another hormone,
which then causes cell division and the lengthening of bones and
muscles.
The characteristic growth spurts during puberty are caused by an
increased growth hormone production which eventually peaks in the
20s and decreases with age.
A burst of growth hormone levels occurs after meals, while 70
percent of the hormone production is stimulated during the
beginning of deep sleep at night.
“A corollary event which has not been proven is whether or
not people in an environment where they can’t sleep well may
grow up to their full potential,” Korenman said.
Certain types of height disorders can be treated with skin
injections of growth hormone.
“I had one patient who was a childhood dwarf who ended up
6 feet 11 inches. He was treated too long,” Korenman
said.
Daniel Cohn, UCLA professor of pediatric hematology and
oncology, studies the over 100 different forms of short stature
which are caused by mutations in genes that control development of
cartilage.
One in 5,000 people have a skeletal disorder resulting in short
stature.
“There certainly is some social stigma associated with
being a little person, and society is not really set up toward
addressing the specific needs of little people,” Cohn
said.
“We would all be better off if society did,” he
added.
A short stature condition caused by growth hormone deficiency
can become visible around 2 years of age due to stunted growth.
Final height can be estimated by doubling an individual’s
height at age 2, Korenman said.
Cohn’s clinic at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center provides
genetic and emotional counseling for families with inherited short
stature.
A height disorder can also manifest itself in a completely
opposite fashion. Gigantism, a condition resulting in a height of 7
or 8 feet, can be caused by a tumor in the pituitary gland which
causes an excess production of growth hormone. The condition can
also result in considerable disability.
It has also been suspected that Abraham Lincoln suffered from a
height disorder which gave him his abnormally long limbs and
appendages.
“Goliath was probably at the second phase of a pituitary
hormone where it was weakening him,” Korenman said.