Contents:
- Medical Video: Is Height All In Our Genes?
- Influence of heredity on the child's height
- Environmental factors can strengthen the effects of hereditary factors
- What kind of environment can support height growth?
Medical Video: Is Height All In Our Genes?
There are two things that affect growth and development, namely environmental factors and heredity. Of course, environmental factors are a factor that can be improved. Meanwhile, heredity cannot be modified anymore. One of the things that is often considered to be related to offspring is height. Usually, short parents will have short children, and vice versa. However, how big is the influence of heredity on the child's height?
Influence of heredity on the child's height
Heredity really plays a role in one's height. According to Chao-Qiang Lai of Tufts University, about 60-80% of differences in height between individuals are determined by genetic factors, while 20-40% are influenced by environmental factors, especially nutrition, reported by Scientific American.
This is slightly different from the results of Dubois's research, et al in 2012. The study showed that heredity affected a person's height at birth in low numbers (only around 4.8-7.9% in women). However, with age, the influence of hereditary factors on height will increase, replacing increasingly lower environmental factors.
Conversely, the influence of environmental factors at birth turned out to be very large (around 74.2-87.3% in women). This proves that supporting environmental conditions can help the growth and development of children better. At the beginning of life, heredity only plays a small role in the child's height.
So, good environmental factors can improve bad heredity in the early days of life. Meanwhile, when children are older, heredity is more influential than environmental factors. No wonder the first two years of a child's life are critical times in supporting optimal child growth and development.
Environmental factors can strengthen the effects of hereditary factors
It would be better if the child has a higher height than his parents. However, some children can also have shorter heights than their parents. Well, environmental factors - especially nutrition - have a role here.
Good environmental factors, especially at the beginning of a child's life, can maximize the genetic potential (offspring) of the child. So, children can reach their optimal height according to their genetic potential. Remember, height is accumulated over the years. So, height in childhood can affect adult height.
What kind of environment can support height growth?
In addition to getting adequate nutrition, the best way to maximize height growth is to do regular exercise, get enough sleep, and always maintain health.
Nutritional needs that are well met, especially calcium, can help with bone growth, so that the bones get longer. Good nutrition can also help maintain health, so you don't get sick easily. Often sick, especially in infancy and children, can interfere with growth and development, so it does not work optimally.
Sleep well and regular exercise can also help increase height. How to? During sleep and exercise, the body turns out to release more growth hormones. That way, this can help the growth of height more optimally.
