I am a 17-year-old male. I am 5’4” tall and my height has remained the same since the last three years. I had suffered from Typhoid when I was 14 and I haven’t grown an inch since then. Before that my growth was normal. My parents are of short stature, so my height seems to be influenced by that. But family members from my father and mother’s side are quite tall. My uncle (father’s brother) is 5’7” and their father was six feet tall. My maternal uncles are also both 5’10’’. Is there anything I can do to continue my height growth? And why has the growth of my height suddenly stopped?   — Anonymous

You have correctly stated the fact that genetic plays a major role in one’s height stature with your parents both being of short stature. The height of 5’4” – 5’6” is in fact typical Nepali height and it all depends on what perspective you look at yourself because lots of great people have been short. The active part of growth influenced by Growth hormone occurs till the age of 18, then one does add few centimeters till 21, and rarely some may add till the age of 24. Usually by the age of 21 the long end of the bones fuse together preventing further growth. But we can’t absolutely say that height does not increase after this age. We can say that the development won’t be visible as it was earlier. There are other factors which contribute towards the height of a person like exercises, posture, diet/nutrition and environmental factors.

Increase in height is attributed to the production of a hormone, called the Human Growth Hormone, which is secreted by the pituitary gland in your brain. Till the point when you have reached the completion of puberty, the growth hormones would continue to stimulate growth in your body. Growth hormones are released by a small structure deep within the brain with the hormones released while you sleep and after you have exercised. Men grow the most from 12 to 16 with the increase in height being as high as 12 inches in normal cases. Boys actually gain the most weight during this period, too. The growth during this time period is mostly in the extremities with the legs, feet, arms and hands growing the fastest. However, by 18, the body grows to its fullest with the shoulders getting broad and the body becoming more muscular.

Both environment and genetics play a major role in the determination of height of a person. It’s basically a combination of your genetics, eating habits and hormones, with stress being the only factor which can halt timely height growth. Whether past history of typhoid had any role in it, there have been some research papers on whether typhoid and the medicines used for its treatment could have caused shunted growth; the answer is ‘No’.

Exercising can have a profound effect on increasing your height if you are young as the growth hormones are released after every session of exercise. So, try to jog, run, swim and ride a bicycle whenever you can and your height would grow as a result.  Since you are still only 17, there are some exercises methods which may be of help to increase your height by stimulating your growth hormone — stretching, hanging, kicking, cycling, swimming, playing basketball/volleyball, skipping, ankle weights, and yoga namely hanurasana and bhujangasana to name a few.

Other factors that have contributory roles are sleep, nutrition, massage and posture. Finally, there are some off-beat desperate innovative alternative methods to increase height which are not done routinely and that I would not personally recommend but few places do advocate them, namely, Stem cell therapy, Limb lengthening surgeries and homeopathic medicines.

In conclusion, do visit an endocrinologist doctor and perhaps he/she could give you appropriate advice besides the guidelines suggested above.