I’m sure it’s a question many tall girls have views on – is my height hereditary?
Often when strangers first meet a tall girl, one of the first things they ask is “Are you parents tall?”. Well, yes my parents are tall – 5ft9 and 6ft2 – but they aren’t exceptionally tall, as I am at 6ft2. What’s also unusual is that my big brother is only 5ft11. Personally, I generally (jokingly!) attribute this to the fact that I grew up at home on a dairy farm whilst he was sent away to school – maybe milk straight from the cow does make you tall and strong?!
What is for sure is that I was always tall. I was a great, big, long baby at over 11lbs and throughout my childhood I was always the tallest child in school, until my teens when one boy overtook me.
As I started to consider what I thought about height in families, I realised I had always assumed that when I have children, they too will be very tall. But is this true?
There are lots of genes which affect height from those that produce growth hormone to those which affect bone growth and many inbetween. What is that while height is partially hereditary a definite is that nutrition and environmental factors also play a significant part in how tall you become.
For instance, it is well publicised that if your mother smokes and/or drinks alcohol during pregnancy, this can affect the birth weight of the baby but according to research, it can also affect you eventual adult height. Nutrition is an important factor – for both the pregnant woman and of the growing child in their formative years. In developed countries such as the United States, height is estimated to be 80% hereditary whereas in developing countries such as Nigeria, it is only estimated to be 62%. This is attributed to the overall better standard of living such as nutrition and healthcare which is found in the US.
So, it seems that whilst we are born with a genetic potential for height, it is the environment that we grow up in that will enable us to fulfil that potential or not. Maybe it was the milk after all!
What do you think? Are you from a family of giants or are you (like me) the odd one out?
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
MTGirl 05.14.10 at 10:36 pm
I think height is genetic, but not predictably so. In my family (two girls, one boy, I’m the youngest), my parents are 6′0″ and 6′5″, with my dad being the tallest. My oldest sister is the short one at 5′10″, and takes after my father’s mother’s side of the family strongly. My brother and I 6′5″ and 6′8″ respectively, and my brother takes after my mother’s side a little more than either me or my sister. This made more sense to me after my Dad told me about an article he had read about the x-chromosome. I guess some scientists are saying that the amount of genetic info carried on the Y chromosome was small to start with and is dwindling, to the point that most of the info deals with the genetic info for forming male bits and pieces and such. This means that most of the info on looks and such is on the x-chromosome. In the case of boys, they only have one of these, which they get from their mother. However, in girls, the x-chromosome from the father is dominant over the mom’s x (unless the gene is damaged, in which case the mom’s genes steps in). So, for a trait carried only on the x chromosome, it would leapfrog from mother to son, to son’s daughter and so on. So, it means that (in some cases) boys take after their mom’s dad, and girl take after their dad’s mom. What’s interesting to me is that in my family, this gets less true after the first child, with the oldest (my sister) taking strongly, STRONGLY after my dad’s mom’s side, my brother having my dad’s coloring but my mom’s eye color and other traits, and me, the youngest girl, having my grandmother’s nose but my mom’s chin. Of course, I have relatives where the sons all look exactly like the dad, so this theory obviously needs some work, but now that I know to look for it, it is pretty interesting….
MTGirl 05.14.10 at 10:39 pm
Yeah, I am notta so good atta explaining. But most tall women I know are pretty darn smart, so hopefully everyone can figure out my rambling explanation of “Looks and height might be carried on the x-chromosome, so all you tall idiots dating short women could be cursing your sons….”
Tara 05.28.10 at 7:11 pm
I’m 6′2. My mother is actually 5′6! It’s crazy when I see the two of us in photos together.
But I come from a line of tall people.
My dad is 5″10. (Yes, I’m taller than both my parents!) I have uncles on both sides of my family that are 6′7 and a grandmother who is 5′11.