Table of Contents
Most intra-population variance of height is genetic nature, where short stature and tall stature are usually not a health concern as you could think. If the degree of deviation from normal is significant, hereditary short stature is known as familial short stature. Tall stature is known as familial tall stature. Confirmation that exceptional height is normal for a respective person can be ascertained from comparing stature of family members and analyzing growth trends for abrupt changes among other people. There are also various diseases and disorders that cause growth abnormalities. Most notably, extreme height may be pathological, such as gigantism, which is very rare. Gigantism is resulting from childhood hyperpituitarism, and dwarfism, which has various causes. Rarely, no cause can be found for extreme height, while very short persons may be termed as having idiopathic short stature. Tallness has been suggested to be associated with better cardio-vascular health and overall better than average health and longevity. However, height may not be causative of better health and longevity. Some other studies have found no association, or suggest that shorter stature is associated with better health. On the other hand being too tall can cause awkward situations in society and not being able to fit into society at all. Height often plays a crucial role only in sports. For most sports, height is useful as it affects the leverage between muscle volume and bones towards greater speed of movement of these people. It is most valuable in sports like basketball and volleyball. In these sports, short players are well above average in height compared to the general population. In some sports, such as horse racing, auto racing, and gymnastics, smaller frame is more valuable. In other sports, the role of height is specific to particular positions, for example in soccer, a tall goalkeeper is at an advantage because he has a greater armspan and can more easily jump higher. Therefore, one will rarely, if ever, see a short goalkeeper in professional soccer. In rugby union, lineout jumpers are usually the tallest players on the pitch, as this increases their chance of winning clean ball. In the same time, scrum-halves are usually relatively short.