A tall person always stands out in a crowd. They are easy to spot, people get intimidated by their presence, and they are statistically proven to do well in authoritative positions. For the limited number of blessed people with brilliant DNA, getting tall isn’t necessarily a problem.
Quite frankly, it’s a factor they have no control over. When your genetic inheritance is working toward making you tall, there aren’t many external factors that can slow down the process. But with that being said, even though genetics and good nutrition can work wonders for several people – getting tall isn’t necessarily easy.
Apart from the genetics that account for 80% of your height, there are other factors like hormones, the amount of exercise you do, your prior medical conditions and the nutrition you consume. In usual cases, an individual’s height can continue to increase until they are 18, but several environmental aspects can have a say, too.
Even though getting taller isn’t necessarily as simple as you think it would be, there are a few ways you can get those valuable inches.
Factors That Influence Your Height
To understand what you need to change to grow taller, you first need to understand which factors get to have a say in how tall you are.
Let’s start with the most important one.
Genetics
As we mentioned earlier, this is the most important factor that affects your height. According to scientists, more than 700 genes can decide how tall a person is going to be. Some of the chemical compounds can change how your growth plates work, while some get to decide the number of growth hormones in your body.
Additionally, your ethnic background plays a huge role too. People from different backgrounds can be short or tall according to the average height of the community they belong to. But with that being said, your genetics can backfire too.
Some people are born with diseases like Marfan Syndrome or Down Syndrome. These genetic conditions are incurable and can greatly slow down the process.
Hormones
Our body creates hormones that get to decide if the growth plates will make new bones. These hormones are:
- Growth Hormones: This is the most important hormone for growth, as the name might suggest. There are some medical conditions that can reduce the number of growth hormones in your body, which ultimately results in shorter height. For example, some children have a disease called congenital growth hormone deficiency. Because of this condition, a child might grow a lot slower.
- Thyroid Hormones: The thyroid gland in our body makes hormones that affect how tall we can be, too.
- Sex Hormones: Estrogen and testosterone are important when we’re going through puberty.
Sex
There are no two opinions about the fact that males are generally taller than females. There are several reasons for this difference in height, but the most noticeable one is that males continue to grow for a longer period of time than females.
Apart from this, the puberty phase for every person can slow down the process of height growth. This is also why males tend to be taller than females; males go through puberty a lot later, while girls enter the phase at a younger age.
How You Can Grow Taller
There aren’t many factors you can control that decide how tall you’ll be. This is because your DNA controls most of these factors. But with that being said, there are some factors that can increase your height while you’re still a child and are going through puberty.
Some of the steps you can take to ensure you grow taller are:
Good Nutrition
An abundance of useful vitamins and minerals is essential because nutrition plays an extremely important role in the height you finally reach. According to experts, every person is born with a potential height that they can reach if there aren’t many factors that slow down that growth process. If everything goes right, meaning if a person takes the right nutrients and doesn’t get sick very often, they can reach a good height or their maximum potential height.
Good Posture
Not only can standing straight or sitting with a straight back make you look taller, but it can also help prevent other health-related problems. Proper posture can ensure that you don’t have back pain, and your headaches can reduce, too.
To practice good posture, there are several little things you can do:
- Keep your feet flat on the floor whenever you’re in a resting position
- Adjust the height of your chair, so your thighs are always parallel to the floor
- Support your neck with a towel or a pillow
Conclusion
With the right approach toward the process and knowing all of the important details, you can grow tall, too. But with that being said, make sure you have the appropriate approach to the process!