Want a Tall Kid? Try a Long-Distance Relationship

[Aaliyyah]

Want a Tall Kid? Try a Long-Distance Relationship

 

LiveScience.comBy Stephanie Pappas | LiveScience.com – Thu, 4 Aug, 2011

 

Check your atlas: The height of your child may be determined, in part, by how far apart mom and dad were born.

 

If mom and dad were born in the same town, their children are slightly shorter on average than the kids of parents with far-flung origins, a new study finds.

 

The researchers think the reason boils down to genetics: Parents originating in very different regions likely have very different genes relative to a mother and father who both grew up in the same hometown, where their own parents grew up. That greater genetic diversity may lead to children with bodies that operate more efficiently than others. Energy "saved" by this efficiency could then go to growth, said study author Dariusz Danel, of the Institute of Anthropology at the Polish Academy of Sciences.

 

"This effect is visible in children during the three analyzed stages of the development period, ranging from 6 to 18 years of age," Danel told LiveScience. [5 Myths About the Male Body]

 

Danel and his colleagues published their results online in July in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

 

Growing tall

 

Height is determined by a number of factors, including parents' height and socioeconomic status, because wealthier people tend to be better nourished. Earlier studies had found conflicting evidence about whether marital distance — the distance between parents' birthplaces — matters in how tall children get.

 

Danel and his colleagues used a dataset of the heights of 2,675 boys and 2,603 girls in Poland, measured yearly in the children's schools. The researchers also had information on parental height and family income. [Read: Taller People Earn More Money]

 

The latter two factors played an expected role in a child's height, but the researchers also found "unambiguous" evidence that marital distance mattered, too, Danel said. Marital distance explained about 20 percent of the variations in height among boys and 14 percent of the variations in height among girls, he said.

 

What little boys are made of

 

Marital distance may matter because even in our nomadic, globalized world, people who are born close to one another tend to have slightly more genetic similarities. Two people born farther from each other would thus be more genetically different, which could confer some genetic strengths on their offspring. This genetic diversity within an individual is called heterozygosity.

 

Heterozygosity is more likely to express itself in greater height in boys than in girls, Danel said. Boys grow for a longer period of time and at a faster rate than girls do, so any extra energy savings boys get from their diversified genomes is freed up for the energy-intensive growing process. Girls, on the other hand, might shunt their extra energy into reproductive maturation, Danel said, though the current study did not test for this.

 

Nowadays, most Western kids get more than enough energy through their diets to fuel their growth. But that wasn't always the case, Danel said. For much of human evolutionary history, nutrients were scarce and energy was at a premium. Under those conditions, the genetic strengths conferred by marital distance may have made an even larger difference in height.

 

The study didn't test children's genomes for heterozygosity, so marital distance is only an indirect approximation of genetics, Danel said. He and his colleagues are now designing an experiment to test the genetic link directly.

 

You can follow LiveScience senior writer Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.

[Aaliyyah]

haha something random I came across..any thoughts?..

[Jacaylbaro]

Could be true .....

 

I can see the Somali ethnic inuu sii gaagaabanayo right after everyone is marrying someone from his clan, sub-clan and even Inaadeero ...... in two more generations and i think we will be called "The Africa's Midgets"

[Som@li]

[Pucca]

studies like these really irritate me. how do they get funding when so many other researches are worth funding?! complete nonsense!

[genius pauper.]

then aaliyyah why not try the someone back in africa, lol.

[Som@li]

Warning people get dumb off-springs when they decline other attributes and marry for only height.

[Juxa]

eh marry a tall guy! that would make more sense, hadii aad guursatid nin ganbar oo kale u gaaban yacni ganbaro yaryar baad dhali!

[The Zack]

^maxaad u maageyaaa che?

 

LOL@ the study, Looool@genius good advice.

[Aaliyyah]

Jacaylbaro lol u are too funny..

 

Pucca I know hun lol I posted for the fun of it ..

 

Genius I was born in Africa myself even though I left there wen I was only 3 but still lol that wouldnt be a good advice if this research was true..but obviously this research is nonsense lol..i posted as a joke!

 

Somali lool probably u have to look for more than height..

 

Juxa lol my parents were both really tall but I'm only 5'8 (im not sure what happen maybe some recessive gene somewhere LOL) so im not sure the tall idea would work (lakin kolay mid gaban ma gursadeen) lol

 

salaam

[nuune]

^^ Anaa garanayo sababta aad ugu gaabnaatey reerka, hadaad i weydiiso sababta aad u gaabnaatey garan maayo waayo sababtaas hadaan ogahey waan kuu sheegi lahaa, adoo gaaban hadaad nin gaaban guursato ilma dhaadheer oo ashuun gaaban la eg ayaad dhaleysaan, hadaad adoo gaaban nin dheerna guursato waxaad dhali kal iyo mooye

[Aaliyyah]

^haha I will take my chances with a handsome tall fella anyday! allow mid gaban ha isoo xareen.aMEEN!

[genius pauper.]

ameen.

lakiin, does it matter if the man is short?

~~~~~~handsome-ta ayaa idishay!!

[Jacaylbaro]

Doest the distance matter here ?? ......... like if you are in the US and u marry someone from UK for example, with that kid will be shorter than the one u marry all da way from China or Chechnya ??

 

I mean the closer the shorter ,,

[Juxa]

Aaliayah 5'8 is tall for a woman lol

 

Marry nin gaaban and he shall be grateful baa la yiri