Genetic factors are the main factors that affect a person's height. Researchers believe that 80% of a person's height comes from their DNA. That is, people who are tall tend to have children who are also tall, and vice versa. However, there are several other factors that can affect a person's height, especially during the growth period.
Maximizing Potential Height During Growth Period
There are several factors that can increase or decrease a person's height growth from childhood to puberty. There are several ways that children to teenagers can do to maximize their adult height later, including:
- Ensure Adequate Good Nutrition Intake
Nutrition has a very important role in the growth and development of children. Children who don’t get adequate nutrition can have a shorter height when compared to children with adequate nutrition. It is recommended for children to eat a variety of foods with balanced nutrition to ensure children get the vitamins and minerals they need.
- Get Enough Sleep
Sleep encourages the process of growth and development in children. While sleeping, the body will release hormones needed for growth. Lack of sleep in the long term can interfere with the growth process and cause various health problems in children. Try to get your child to get enough sleep according to the recommendations per child's age.
- Exercising Regularly
Regular exercise is important to ensure good physical growth. Exercise can have a positive impact on a child's bone and muscle tissue health. The type of exercise that can be done can be adjusted to the age of the child.
Height Gain Rate in Children
Babies and children will grow continuously due to changes in the growth plate. Growth plates are cartilage tissue found at the ends of long bones in children such as the feet and hands. The growth plate will continue to form new bone tissue causing the bones to grow longer and increase the child's height.
At the age of 2-5 years, children will usually grow 6.3 - 8.9 cm per year. After the age of 10, children will usually experience a height increase of 6.3 cm each year which lasts until around the age of 21 years. After this age, the child's growth plates will stop forming new bone tissue so that a person's height will not increase again.
Height Inhibiting Factors
There are several factors that can have a negative impact on the growth process that can cause stunting, including:
- Inadequate nutrition
- Experiencing severe stress can interfere with the work of growth hormones.
- Poor bone health can result in a person's height not being maximized, for example, osteoporosis.
- Exposure to certain pollutants, such as lead, cadmium, or polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) is often associated with decreased height.
- Growth hormone deficiency and some chronic health problems can interfere with a person's growth process.
Paying attention to body posture during activities can also be done to maximize a person's height. When sitting, standing, or walking make sure your back is straight, because if your back is bent it can give the impression of not being tall.
Read more interesting articles only on Fitie!
Sources:
Silver, N. & Sampson, S. (2022). How to Increase Your Height: Is There Anything I Can Do? Healthline. [online]. https://www.healthline.com/health/how-to-increase-height
Barrell, A. & Griffith, M. L. (2021). What factors influence a person's height? Medical News Today. [online]. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/327514