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Increase height in children

Height problems

Tallness speaks of better health, longevity & higher social prospects, hence desired & pursued by all.

Final adult height depends mainly on nutrition, genetics, ethnics, sex, hormonal balance, parental heights and childhood infections / diseases.

Important factors

  • Nutrition (intrauterine /  infantile / childhood)
  • Genetics (tallness genes)
  • Ethnics (some tribes have shorter / taller height averages)
  • Sex (generally, males taller than females)
  • Hormones (continuous low estrogen or high estrogens/androgens both predisposing to short stature e.g., Turner’s syndrome, PCOD)
  • Parental height (many formula devised to predict final height from it)
  • Childhood infections (recurrent diarrhoeas / asthma, etc decelerates)
  • Psychological stress in childhood (demotes immunity & stem cell reserves)

Modulators of height

Bones are final denominators of the final height, so anything that affects bone growth in childhood affects height

1 ) HORMONES

    • Growth hormone (GH) / Insulin-like growth-factor (IGF-1) / Insulin
    • After GH / IGF-1,  steroids affect much.
    • Steroids  – Sex steroids (estrogen / testosterone)
      • Corticosteroids
      • Anabolic steroids

In general, steroids close the epiphyseal plate early, thereby halt height velocity forever.

2 ) NUTRIENTS

    • Vitamins & minerals.
    • Vit D is a steroidal hormone, essential for bone & height growth.
    • Vit D2 (plant source)
  • Vit D3 (animal source or UV light induced synthesis)
  • Calcium
  • Phosphates
  • Diet, exercise & sleep promote height.
  • Infections, starvation & emotional stress demote height.
  • Chinese food alters glutamate levels in females, hence early menarche and lowered final height.
  • Junk food also damages stem cell reserves & progenitor cells (↓ height)
  • DRUGS
    • Corticosteroids (asthma / allergy) (↓ height)
    • ADHD drugs; amphetamine / methylphenidate (↓ height)
  • DISEASES
    Some diseases are more prone to short stature
  • Turner syndrome
  • Rickets
  • IUGR
  • Premature babies
  • IDIOPATHIC
    • In majority, no cause can be assigned.

Mechanism of height increase

  • Long bones mainly contribute to the final height (also vertebrae, but to a lesser extent). Long bones grow through epiphyseal plates (EP), situated at either end of the bone.
  • EP has only one type of cells, chondrocytes & it (EP) expands through its (chondrocytic) proliferation and repeatedly gets mineralized, partially converting into bone, & adding to the bone length on either side)
  • At adulthood, when the final height is reached, the EP stops proliferating & gets fully mineralized merging with the adjoining bones completely, with disappearance of chondrocytes.
  • This stops further linear growth of bones. Bone is a highly mineralised tissue and is under constant remodeling process (reabsorption and re-deposition) throughout life.
  • When reabsorption is more than deposition, osteoporosis or rickets occurs and a person is prone to fractures / bending in bones.

 

Importance of height

  • Apart from social, psychological  & personality advantages, longer bones have higher bone marrow volume, which acts also as a reservoir of important stem cells MSC & HSC.
  • Since, stem cells require  a  special environment of the niche, a higher number of niches means the higher number of stem cells.
  • Number of niches correlates with bone marrow volume.
  • HSC (Hematopoietic stem cells) –   give rise to  RBCs/ platelets/angioblasts and MSCs    give rise to cartilage, bones, mesenchymal  tissue   &  fatty tissue.
  • Our longevity, immunity, youthfulness, tissue regeneration depend on stem cells reserves. So, healthy & longer bones means all the above benefits.

 

Role of supplements

GROWTH HORMONE

  • It has controversial reports on its efficacy. Helped some & neglected others.
  • GH is too costly and an inch of height may cost you lakhs of Rs.
  • It has major side-effects also;  e.g.,
  • may close epiphyseal  plate early (↓ final height)
  • may induce insulin resistance in sensitive children(IUGR/preterm)
  • take longer to increase height. One year treatment may increase
    Just   1-2 inches! So, not cost effective.
  1. IGF-1 has   helped some cases like GH (GH acts through IGF-1 mainly).
  2. Vitamin D2/ D3 & calcium supplements are also helpful, but only in deficient children. Oral vitamin D3 + inorganic   phosphates promote bone mineralization (BMD) and may promote linear growth.
  3. Prognosticators:  GH / IGF-1 / IGFBP3 / vitamin D3 levels are useful in predicting response to GH.

Normal average height growth

  • ICMR height / weight charts against age are a better guide.

ROUGH GUIDE

  • Average height growth is 2 inches per year and during two pre-pubertal years 4 inches per year. Less than this should alert you.

Role of homoeopathy

  • We have treated more than 20,000 children in the age group of 8 to 18 years in the last 36 years.
  • Success rate in males is about 80%, whereas in females about 90%
  • We preferred fixed formula over classical Homoeopathy.
  • In either sex, the height increases between 8 to 18 years.
  • The best height gain was prepubertal (roughly 8 to 12 years).
  • On average, girls were favored more over boys by Homoeopathy.
  • Extra height gained was added to the projected final height.
  • Projected height was calculated by ICMR charts / parental heights.
  • Chinese food disturbs girls more through early menarche / precocious puberty.
  • Homoeopathy is a regenerative medicine & is free from side-effects; apart from height increase, it promotes overall health of the child.
  • Since chondrocytes (cartilage cells), osteoblasts (bone forming cells) & lipocytes (fat farming cells) have common origin from MSCs, higher number of fat cells mean lower number of cartilage cells and bone cells (vice versa).
  • MSCs can migrate from bone marrow to fatty tissue (vice versa).
  • So obesity is harmful to height velocity in general.
  • Reducing fat reserves will transfer MSCs to bone marrow back, promoting thereby cartilage cells / bone cells and helping height velocity and final height.
  • Our height formula favors such obese girls also, by reducing fat & increasing height simultaneously.