Throughout our growing years, several factors were taken into account to determine how healthy we were. One of the determinants was height which helps calculate our body mass index. But most of us often wonder why some people are short and others a taller. The answer is multifaceted. Several studies point out that the reason for this is dependent on genetics, environmental factors, and the kind of nutrition we adopt in the developing years.
A study titled “Adult Height, Nutrition, and Population Health,” published in the Nutrition Reviews Journal, elaborated on the factors affecting our height. The most significant external factor influencing height is nutrition. Growth retardation frequently results from inadequate cellular nourishment, which causes resources to be diverted in order to maintain essential metabolic processes. A variety of dietary elements received both during the prenatal stage and after birth are related to adult height. For instance, intrauterine growth retardation, preterm birth, and low birth weight are linked to dietary variables throughout pregnancy. These effects, in turn, are connected to adult height. The study added that protein is the most essential nutrient, followed by minerals and vitamins A and D.
The study added that another factor connected with malnutrition is disease. In turn, illness can limit nutrient uptake, absorption, and transport to tissues, resulting in direct nutrient loss, raise metabolic demands, or alter bone density or growth. This, in turn, affects linear growth.
The experts cited several genome-wide association studies that have generally demonstrated that height is a polygenetic characteristic regulated by numerous genes, each with little effect. They inferred that while genetics may help to explain the variance in height between individuals, it is doubtful that genetics will play a significant role in explaining the mean differences in height among groups or changes in height over time.
Lastly, parental social class, poor socioeconomic conditions (as measured by income, education, and occupation, for example), and maternal education are all significant predictors of adult height, as they can reflect the mother’s access to health resources, exposure to risk factors, and medical awareness.
A study aimed to examine genetic and environmental influences on human height from infancy through adulthood at different levels of parental education was published in the Scientific Reports journal, which has a different view on this. This study cited previous studies that have linked the child’s height to the parent’s education level. However, the researchers found that the relationship between lower parental education and increased environmental variance in offspring height from infancy through adulthood is not well supported by the data. Thus, despite variations in mean height, our results show that the heritability estimates of height are very consistent across parental education levels.
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