Now we come to a very interesting question. It seems like all of the giants we have ever known became that way because of some form of medical condition which gave them their great size. The tallest man in recoded history Robert Wadlow had a hypertropic (oversized) pituitary gland which never even allowed him to reach puberty even at the age of 22. The current tallest man Sultan Kosen got that way because of a tumor dislodged close to and pushing against his pituitary gland. It does seem like every single person over a certain height, around the 8 feet mark is from a disorder.

However, there are some giants among us who appear to be completely normal in their bodily function and can claim that their great size is hereditary and comes from genetics. The most famous person known is probably the ex-NBA star Yao Ming who stands at 7′ 6″. His height comes from his parents who stand 6′ 7″ and 6′ 3″ respectively. There are stories that showed that his grandfather was supposed to be the tallest man in all of Shanghai during his era in China. It is too bad Yao Ming was born during the chinese era of the 1- child policy. We might have seen some more Yao Mings like his younger sister or brother who could have been even bigger than him.

So I got curious and asked the obvious question “Who is the tallest natural giant today?” and “Who is the tallest natural giant in history?” What I mean is that the person’s height should not be from a pituitary condition or say Marfans Syndrome.

There appear to be 3 main contenders of the title of the current world’s tallest natural giant

1. Paul Sturgess – 7′ 7″ – 7′ 8″ from the UK – Father is of great stature

2. Ri- Myong-hun – 7′ 8.5″ – 7′ 9″ – From North Korea – (What is really puzzling to me is how such a tall non pituitary person can arrise from a country which is very well known for its decades of malnutrition thus its short statured citizens. ??)

3. Neil Fingleton – 7′ 7.66″ from the UK – Entire family with his siblings all exhibit great height

There could totally possible even taller natural giants in the world like say from the Netherlands or Serbia or Croatia who don’t wish to come public and that is OK.

As for the tallest natural giant in history, Guinness World Records and people from the UK claim that right goes to a person named Angus MacAskill who was reported to stand 7′ 9″. It was claimed that he was the tallest, biggest, and strongest person who has ever lived. There are many stories about him and his feats of strength. I didn’t want to get into the details of his life but to note that many people from the UK have told tales of his great height and strength so it is possible his story and legend is slightly exagerated. To read more about him you can click on the resources HERE, HERE, HERE, or HERE.

I have looked around and can’t seem to be able to find an accurate photo or information about him. From some sources, it is believed that Angus MacAskill was not as tall as reported by other people. It is well known that people during the 19th century often exxagerated the height of really tall people to make them sound bigger and more powerful than they really were.

As for the documented giants who could have been just natural and genetic, there is the possibility that Vika Uppal who was reported to have stood at anywhere from 8′ 0″- 8′ 9″ could have been a natural giant. Some people claim that his facial bones structure and proportional body showed that he was not suffering from a pituitary condition. However , it was reported that Uppal died from a brain tumor operation so maybe he was not a true natural giant.

Overall, it is very difficult for me to answer the question of who was the tallest natural giant in human history. We have only had documented medical records for about 300 years and there have been plenty of legends in our human history where people talk about giants who lived in other tribes and civilization. How am I not to assume or theorize that there might have been a tribe somewhere in our human species past where through selective genetic selection where the tallest members mated, allowed for and created a group of people who were 9 foot, or even 10 foot in height? They might have died out when they faced their neighbors in say combat or war and was never heard of. Of course, I would not know that and no one would know such a fact in this day and age where it seems like everyone’s data and information is collected and stored somewhere for other people to look at.

I am just going to go with the whole theme for a while and write up a few more interesting posts about people who have extreme sized bodies since I personally find them so interesting. The next topic I wanted to research and write about is to figure out who are the tallest twins in the world, both men and women, identical or fraternal.

So far I have found out that there is a clear winner for the tallest twins in the world. For the last 15 years at least, that honor and the title of “World’s Tallest Twins” goes to Jim and Michael Lanier. Mike Lanier and his twin brother Jim Lanier (b. 27 November 1969) of Troy, Michigan are the tallest identical twins in the world, and stand 7 feet 6 inches (2.28 meters) each. The Lanier Brothers played college basketball at The University of Denver and UCLA, respectively. They have been featured on the Maury Povich Show. However, on the Guinness World Records website they are listed at 7′ 3″. I don’t know why though. (Resource 1, Resource 2, Resource 3)

As for the tallest female twins in the world, the title currently goes to Claire and Anne Recht of the USA who stand at 6′ 7″ (2.01 meters) each. They have been recognized by the Guinness Word Records for their title so it is official. (Resource 1, Resource 2) That’s all for now.

In the last post I wrote I had talked about the tallest couple that has ever existed in history, at least in the age where documentation was possible. It is rare indeed to spot any man over 7 foot tall, like 1 out of 100,000 chance of that happening. I have only seen that happen maybe 15-16 times in my own life. It is rarer to see a woman even close to 7 feet tall. I personally might have seen one woman who was around the 6′ 9″- 6′ 10″ range at a city fair once and I was not even sure about that. But to see a man and woman together who are both 7 foot, and married as a couple could be one of the rarest sights one ever gets to see in one’s life, except say you happened to see Bigfoot or an UFO land on your front porch.

From the meeting and culmination of the tallest couple ever, Anna Haining Bates and Martin Van Buren Bates had conceived of two children. The first one was a girl who was supposed to be the same size as Anna when she was born (around 18 lbs, more than twice as large as an average sized baby) but the girl turned out to be a stillborn. The 2nd child they had was a boy and this boy is claimed to have been the biggest baby to have ever been born. It was stated that the first initial labor process took 36 hours. Sounds painful. Apparently the baby boy’s head was too big to pass through so the doctors tried to use forceps.

From the Wikipedia article on Anna Haining Bates click HERE. The baby was born on 19 January, but he survived only 11 hours. He was the largest newborn ever recorded, at 10.8 kg, or 23.12 pounds and nearly 30 inches (71 centimeters) tall and each of his feet were six inches (152 mm) long. Now THAT is a large baby. However, was he the largest baby ever recorded?

So currently the biggest and longest baby in history has measurements of weight: 23.12 lbs and length/height: 30 inches

I did some more research over the internet using google and typed in “largest baby” and decided to see what popped up. There seems to be a few contenders for the title of “world’s biggest baby” for the current world today . Let me list a few of the them.

1. Chun Chun – Xinxiang CIty, Henan Province, China – 2012 – 15.52lbs (7.04kgs) in central China. – (Resource 1, Resource 2)

2. North Sumatra, Indonesia – 2009 – A full two-feet long and weighing 8.7kg (over 19 lbs), the huge child was born via a caesarean section. The unnamed baby is in healthy condition despite initially needing oxygen to overcome breathing problems.  The cause of his great size is because his mother suffers from diabetes. (Resource 1, Resource 2)

3. Niamh – Britain’s biggest baby girl — weighing 14 lbs 4oz. – was nearly DOUBLE the average UK girl’s weight of 7lbs 4oz when born by caesarean. (Resource 1)

4. JaMichael – Texas, USA, – 2011 – weighing 16 lbs 1 oz. 2 feet long. Janet Johnson is mother has diabetes (Resource 1)

5. Kiran Singh – Meerut, India – (measured at 10 month old, so technically was still a baby at that age) – 22kg (3st 7lb) and at nearly 1m (3ft 2in) tall – (Resource 1)

6. Hegang, Heilongjiang Province, China – 2007 – (a little more than 2 ‘ 5.5″ tall) 0.75 meters , exceeding the previous “super baby” by 0.09 meters. He weighs 7.05 kilograms, 0.08 kilograms less than the world’s heaviest, ranking second in the world. (Resource 1)

7. Lu Hao, China – 3 years old – (2011) – 132 lbs !! – 5 times the size of a child his own age – Born at 5.7 lbs – He already gets short of breath on the slightest effort. He can also expect joint damage, high blood pressure, heart trouble and diabetes, if he hasn’t developed these complications already. (Resource 1, Resource 2)

On a related note, a study was done where the size and height of siblings were compared. It turns out that children who were born later in a woman’s succession of children were more likely to be bigger and taller than her earlier children. Doctors and Researchers hypothesize it is because after have a few kids, the woman’s uterus and birth canal becomes bigger and more accomodating for her next children. That means that your younger sisters and brothers are probably going to be bigger than you because they were born later and your mother had more room down there to grow a baby.

That is a strange way to reason but makes some sense. For example, the largest toddler in the world Karan Singh is the son of one of the talles women in the world. The biggest and longest recorded baby ever born was to Anna Haining Bates, who was one of the tallest women to ever exist.

I often like to add a few posts that are entertaining and for today, that post will be about the tallest couple that has ever been documented in history.

It is often quite easy to find couples where the guy is far larger than the girl, and it is rare to see couples where the female is taller than the guy. Over the years the stigma of shorter men dating taller women has started to abate but the standard is still that the women will be shorter than the men. Most women of short stature actually prefer to be with really tall men. I can only theorize that these petit who always choose to date and mate with really tall men are unconsciously trying to overcompensate for their own limited size and hope at some level that their partner’s size and genes can be dominant enough to pass on their height to her future children.

As for shorter men who date taller women, those types of men are often also suffering from some form of insecurity and think that by showing that they can date tall women, they can validate their self worth to the rest of the world. For the women in the relationship, they don’t seem to care about height too much but focus more on how much the other person, the guy can love them and treat them right.

For the tallest couple in history, it seemed like both people were able to be happy with their relative height. For the guy in the relationship, Martin Van Buren Bates also known as “The Kentucky Giant” for his fame during the American Civil War was 7′ 9″, no small man himself. From the Wikipedia article about him found HERE, they state that,

“Though born an infant of normal size into a family of normal-sized people in Letcher County, Kentucky, he is said to at one time have been 7 feet 11 inches (2.41 m) in height. The Guinness Book of World Records and other reputable sources have him listed at being 7 feet 9 inches (2.36 m) tall and weighing 470 pounds (213.64 kg). His first occupation was as a schoolteacher, but upon the outbreak of the Civil War, he joined the Confederate Army as a private in the 5th Kentucky Infantry in September 1861, rising to the rank of captain within short order. His ferocity in battle, aided by his imposing figure, made him legendary, with Union soldiers telling tales of a “Confederate giant who’s as big as five men and fights like fifty”.

From the pictures of him standing next to his wife thought, we know better and estimated his height to be less, probably around the 7′ 5″ mark. I mean come on, we all know that men like to exaggerate their height (as well as other body parts) it was stated recently that Bates may have been “only” 7′ 3″. On the tallest man website, he is estimated to be actually 7′ 3.5″ which seems to be about right.

His wife Anna Haining Bates is a true giant in the family, standing at an astounding 7′ 5.5″. If she was truly of that height, then she is probably one of the biggest and healthiest female giants ever in history. If we looked at another photo we would note that in most photos of Anna and Martin together, they are about even in relative height. Of course Anna has a dress on so we can not see what type of footwear she has on. Since it is the 19th century in the US, we can assume she has no pumps or high heels on so we could guess that she is probably wearing flat footwear.

When we then look at the photos of Martin, we can see that he is wearing boots, which often can give a 1.5″-2.0″ added height. This is why I have concluded that Martin is probably not the 7′ 9″ or 7′ 11″ that he was billed as when he went on tour with the circus. Those Barnum & Bailey people are well known for exaggerating the heights of their supposed “giants” who are indeed tall, but not true in their stated height.

However,I would say the point is lost. All I need to state is that the guy was tall, and the girl was even TALLER. Together, they are probably the only 7 foot couple to ever exist, at least in documented history. Combined together, their total height is almost to 15 feet. (If you can find a taller couple, tell me and I will edit this post)

They would go one to have two children, both who died either in childbirth or never made it to live. One of the children given birth to would be measured and turn out to be the biggest baby to ever be born and recorded. Of course, that topic will be another post for another day.

To Learn more about Anna Haining Bates, you can either go to the Tallest Man website HERE or Wikipedia link HERE. To learn more about the couple, click HERE.

Recently, the county of Letcher in Kentucky decided to honor their historical giant. Link is HERE.

In my search for a solution for height increase, one of the most common methods and tools that people talk about is the use of ankle weights. When I read through the boards like Giant Scientific and the Impartial Height Increase Boards, I notice a lot of discussion on the focus on using ankle weights. So I wanted to find out why people have become so fanatic over this method, and why they believe it can work.

I personally have used ankle weight myself years ago when I was trying to make the High School basketball team and I wanted to increase my leaping ability to add extra inches to my jump. I did succeed in adding the extra inches for a short while I never made it on the team. I later found the ankle weights again years later and used them in my exercise routine and tried to see if I could add the extra height through leg lengthening but I personally gave up on the venture when I noticed that one of my knees buckled and felt weak after using the weights for too long. So for medical reasons, I did not go with this method to increase height since I was afraid it would have lead to more negative consequences than benefits.

I wanted to start out by linking the Wiki article on what ankle weights are. You can find out about them by clicking HERE.

Ankles

Ankle weights are a commonly found weight used in many activities. Further from the core, fixated above the ankle around the lower shin and Achilles tendon, due to leverage much less weight is needed to increase the forces on the body.

As they are attached to a region with a far smaller diameter than the thigh, there is not room for much weight without greatly changing the effective width of the lower leg. An advantage over thigh weights is that they are not attached to any major muscle or fat storage region, so tightness is not a factor and it can be used in almost any exercise.

Being above the ankle, movements incorporating the calf muscles such as calf raises can benefit from ankle weights.

Ankle weights are useful in adding weight to pull-ups and dips, especially when incorporating leg raises into the movements. They are also useful in slow kicking katas, and static-active stretching of the legs when balancing on one leg, or suspended in the air.

Light ankle weights have a history of use resistance for kicking in swimming, and of forward flexion in kicking, walking, jogging, and sprinting exercises. Concern has been expressed regarding this type of training. It may put too much stress on the joints, similar to the shearing forces found in eg extension and leg curl exercises.

Practicing weighted movements at high speeds also causes the nervous system to fire at larger intensities. If an individual loses the weight without being trained to adapt to the transition, he may overexert himself without checking at the end of the movement and overextend a tendon. This is more of a risk when people fully extend their limbs in such movements and do not come to a controlled stop at the end, limiting muscle flexion. Generally, the muscle being extended is more at risk, not one held statically. For example, the quadriceps muscle could overexert in a snap kick trained with ankle weights, but in a rising kick, it is the hip flexor muscle more likely to overextend. In either case, the hamstring and associated ligaments would be at risk for a tear.

One major advantage to ankle weights, unlike wrist weights, is that it adds a whole new component to exercises that wrist weights do not, since we can’t grip dumbbells with our feet like we can with our hands. It is a major advantage in training rotational hip stabilizers, to work on turnout for martial arts and dance postures. To do this, the leg is bent 90 degrees at the knee, and then rotated inwards and outwards to bring the foot upwards. This is commonly seen in foot bag kicks and holds.

One potential disadvantage to ankle weights is they may add stress to ligaments in ankle or knee. For this reason, some people discourage running while wearing them.

Me: So what about this thing makes the H.I.S. try it out and put it in their routine? This is what I gathered from the main page of the Giant Scientific site located HERE.

How can you grow taller from knees?

The knee cartilages are capable to grow, thicken, adapt and remodel. Through continuous exercising to apply stress on the knee cartilage, one might be able to transform the cartilages into real bones, and this process is called endochondral ossification.

Most bones of the body are formed originally from cartilage. As a fetus, the skeleton is made of cartilage and fibrous structures that are shaped like bones. Over time these structures transform into real bones when cartilage is replaced with calcified bone matrix. This remodeling and changing can happen due to the continuous activity of bone forming cells called osteoblasts and the bone resorbing cells called osteoclasts. The process of bone sculpting and resorbing allows bones to respond to stress or injury by their ability to change their shape size and density.

The knee cartilage can grow longer and thicker if you can consistently train it under stress with the correct exercises. The cartilage will gradually adapt to the stress and grow to sustain the force.

Height increase exercises that target knees:

• Sitting with ankle weight
  • 
  • start out with 10 or 15 lbs of Ankle Weight on each leg, gradually increase the load as your knees get stronger. Make sure the knees are completely dongle off the edge of the bed or chair, so they can be completely pulled toward the earth gravity . Also make sure your feet do not touch the ground, loft the bed if you have to or sit on many pillows. Try to sit for at least 30 minutes in one sitting to sustain a continuous stress. Look at below picture for proper sitting position. Your upper body can lay flat on the bed with pillow on head to read a book or watch tv, time goes by easier this way.
  • massage the muscle in knee area to help blood circulation after sitting session is finished.
  • Try to avoid or minimize any pressure on your knee immediately after you are done sitting. Because you do not want to lose the freshly stretched knee cartilage by walking on it, try to rest them as long as you can or do this immediately before sleep.
  • Some ambitious height increase seekers would even sleep with ankle weights. But this is not recommended, since alot of people find it very difficult to fall asleep with weight dongling on their legs, restful sleep is extremely cruical for your body to grow and re-generate.
  • if you feel any numbness or painful sensation in any part of your legs, stop immediately and rest to avoid any injure. Maybe the ankle weights are too heavy for you, remember patience is the key, height increase won’t happen over night.

• Kicking with ankle weight
  • kicking with Ankle Weight
    strapped on lower thigh. Start out with 5 lbs ankle weights on each leg, gradually increase the load as your knees get stronger. Kick low toward the earth gravity. Do at least 10 minutes of kicking on each leg at a moderate pace, gradually increase the pace as your knees get stronger. Kicking positions in one motion are illustrated in the following two pictures, remember to kick low and toward earth’s gravity.

Kicking initial position	Kicking ending position

Me: So the idea is to make the lower leg where the tibia and fibula longer through increased tensile decompression of the cartilage around the knee area. I wanted to list a few routines that people have given that state that the method works.

Routine #1 : From Hubpages by cooljohnny23

EXERCISE 1: ANKLE-WEIGHTS:

This is perhaps the best workout to increase the height of your lower body, at any age, even after your bones are fused.This exercise is solely intended to increase the length of your lower body, by stretching the cartilate between your knees. Prolonged stretching will elongate the cartilage and increase its mass, which in turn will increase the length your lower body

How to do?

Sit on a high chair and use a Ankle weight fastener to add weights to your ankle. Start with small weights initially and gradually increase as you go on. Allow your legs to stretch down with the pressure of the weights. Once completed, remove the weights and relax your legs by kicking your legs gently for 5-10 times, and then vigorously for 5-10 times. This will flex your knee cartilate to enable it to grow in length

Perform the Workout 3 times a week for optimal results

Routine #2 & #3: Taken from the product page under the Height Gain Exercises pdf

These are the comments other people have made on the subject of wearing and using ankle weights:

This idea that coffee and caffeine stunts one’s growth has been a very prevalent “myth” that has been going around for at least as long as I have been around. I heard about this idea floating around my school even when I was in grade school and my mother would tell me not to drink coffee because she was worried that I would stunt my growth. I guess she believed it because she had had heard about this myth from when she was younger and in school too. Those long nights of studying and writing papers in High School and College was always accompanied with large pots of coffee and during that time, we probably didn’t or think about our growth being stunted when we were in so much pressure to reach academic success.

Coincidently, I am drinking a cup of Non-fat americano as I am writing this, which I have not had in years. It just so happened that the the person who took my order got it wrong when I actually ordered a fruit smoothie (don’t judge me, I like my fruit!) and I decided to not return it to be nice.

So does drinking a lot of coffee stunt one’s growth? From the studies done, that is NOT TRUE. From the resources I have found, all of them say the same thing, which is that it was originally believed that coffee would lead to increased risk of osteoporosis and loss of bone mass. That was proved to be not true.

Resource #1: MSNBC

Research suggests that coffee consumption has no effect on height. This myth was started decades ago when it was thought that caffeine in coffee may be a risk factor for osteoporosis, and subsequently lead to reduced bone mass. However, much of the previous research that linked caffeinated beverages and osteoporosis were made in populations that also had low calcium intakes. These people were more likely replacing calcium-rich milk with coffee or caffeinated sodas. Low calcium intakes are clearly linked to reduced bone health.

More recent studies suggest that even if caffeine does offset calcium absorption, the effect is both slight and easily offset by adding some milk in your coffee. Of course, you’ll also need an appropriate daily dose of calcium throughout the day from low-fat dairy, fortified foods, certain greens and/or supplements.

Resource #2: New York Times

he only problem, it seems, is that after decades of research on the physiological results of coffee consumption, there is no evidence that it has any effect on height.

How this myth got started is unclear. But scientists believe it has something to do with caffeine, which for many years was thought to be a risk factor for osteoporosis. That concern stemmed from early studies that associated high intake of caffeinated beverages with reduced bone mass.

More recent studies suggest that if there is such an effect, it is both slight and easily offset when dietary intake of calcium is adequate.

There is also another explanation for the association. According to a study by Dr. Robert P. Heaney, a calcium expert at Creighton University in Omaha, much of the research linking caffeine consumption to reduced bone mass was conducted on elderly people whose diets were low on milk and other sources of calcium – largely because they drank so much caffeine-laden coffee and soda instead.

Another study tracked 81 adolescents for six years and found that those who had the highest daily caffeine intake had no difference in bone gain or bone density at the end of the study than those with the lowest.

THE BOTTOM LINE The research suggests that coffee will not stunt growth.

Resource #3: TLC: How Stuff Works

….but most experts agree that it has something to do with an early study linking caffeine to reduced bone mass and osteoporosis. Those studies, however, were conducted on elderly people whose diets were lacking in calcium, which could easily have explained the loss of bone mass.

Subsequent studies showed that women aged 65 to 77 who drank about 18 ounces of caffeine daily did have greater bone loss over a three-year period than those who didn’t. But the effects occurred only in women with unusual variations in their vitamin D cell receptors — and were completely mitigated if the women ingested the recommended daily allowance of 1,200 mg of calcium a day.

Focusing exclusively on children, a more recent study tracked 81 teenagers for six years. The result? There was no difference in bone density between the biggest buzz catchers and those who drank the least amount of caffeine

Resource #4: Baby Center

No. Caffeine has plenty of undesirable effects, but interfering with a child’s growth isn’t one of them.

As any adult who relies on a morning cup of coffee or tea can tell you, caffeine is a stimulant. It might make a child irritable, upset her tummy, make her heart beat faster, raise her blood pressure, and disrupt her sleep, but it won’t keep her from growing.

Of course, inadequate nutrition can slow a child’s growth. And caffeinated beverages such as sodas are empty calories, contributing no nutrition while filling her up. This is another good reason to keep your child’s caffeine intake to a minimum.

You might be surprised to discover how much caffeine is in various drinks and foods:

Caffeinated soft drinks (12 ounces): 34 to 72 mg (check the label)

• Energy drinks (8 ounces): 76 to 280 mg
• Iced tea (12 ounces): about 70 mg
• Milk chocolate (2 ounces): 12 mg
• Dark chocolate (2 ounces): 40 mg
• Chocolate milk (8 ounces): 5 mg

Tyler’s Notes:

Here’s my research on coffee and the latest study I found regarding coffee and growth:

In vitro effects of caffeine in growth cartilage of rats.

“THE CARTILAGINOUS EPIPHYSES OF FEMURS OF NEWBORN RATS, WHICH WERE DIVIDED INTO TWO SUBGROUPS: treated with caffeine and control group, both observed over the time periods of 0, 7, 14 and 21 days. The cartilaginous epiphyses of femurs of each subgroup and each time span were subjected to histomorphometric, immunohistochemical analysis, Tunel technique and RT-PCR in real time.
The decrease in proliferative activity and the increase of apoptotic chondroblasts at 21 days were found regardless of the subgroup. However, the decrease in cell proliferation caused by caffeine was lower than in the control group and significantly increased the expression of gene transcripts for chondrogenic differentiation, represented by Sox-9 and Runx-2. However, the in vitro culture with caffeine revealed antagonistic effects: despite the positive effect on chondroblasts proliferation and differentiation, caffeine increased apoptosis, characterized by increased expression of caspase 3 and of the number of cells undergoing apoptosis.{Increased apoptosis is not necessarily bad for height growth}
Caffeine presents antagonistic effects in vitro on growth cartilage, increasing the proliferation, differentiation and cell apoptosis.”

“The percentage of empty chondroblasts lacunae in the cartilaginous epiphysis of the femur significantly increased over the growth period. However, the percentage of chondroblasts gaps with pyknotic nuclei increased on day seven, remaining so until the 21th days compared to day zero. However, at 21 growth days, the group treated with caffeine showed a number of empty lacunae of chondroblasts significantly lower compared to the control group.”

Here’s a comparison of control and caffeine chondrocytes per lacunae:

Sox9 levels were almost 4 times higher in the caffeine group than the control group.