Note: I have to admit right now that a lot of the articles and posts I create from now will be from many of the boards and forums I visit which I have on the Resource Page. I will always link them and reference Where I got the initial idea from. If you wanted to read more on the idea, click on the links, check out the boards and read the other people’s comments. Thank you.

So here is a very interesting study done by a group of Russian scientists researchers. The Institute the researchers are affiliated with is the Cell Technology Center at Russia’s Veterinary Academy. Apparently they went into sheep’s hind legs, cut them open, and inserted a porous implant where stem cells were added. The implanted eventually dissolved into the bone and the stem cells started to turn into the tissue around it, the bone and that meant that the leg expanded from the new bone cells.

The article is posted

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Sheep with model’s legs

Plastic surgery knows hardly any limits in making women as beautiful as they can afford. Even the most undistinguished clinics can provide their clients with breasts of any size and hourglass waists. However, long legs have until recently remained beyond their wildest dreams – until Russian surgeons invented a stem cell technique and tested it on sheep.

Until recently, the Ilizarov frame was the only option to lengthen or reshape limb bones, as well as to treat complex and open bone fractures. However, any woman whose self-esteem is impaired by not having legs up to her neck will soon be offered a different way. That path is not paved with roses either, but even high technology cannot cancel the old truth about beauty knowing no pain.

Specialists from the Cell Technology Center at Russia’s Veterinary Academy have completed a four-year experiment to extend bone tissue. They have tested their method on a hundred sheep, implanting in their hind leg bones a porous implant (matrix) impregnated with stem cells taken from the animal earlier. In fact a sheep’s legs have comparable structure and bear a similar load to human ones. The experiment has successfully led to the implant’s biodegradation and replacement with absolutely natural living bone tissue.

“This technique will help lengthen limb bones by up to 8 cm, and only because muscles and skin cannot be stretched further,” said project leader Alexander Teplyashin. In addition to fulfilling many women’s wildest dreams, the new technique will be widely used in disaster medicine. It will help treat survivors with problem bone fractures who would have otherwise faced limb amputation.

“It will become possible to replace the fractured part of any bone, even the skull, with a stem cell matrix,” Teplyashin said. Dr Davud Dervishov, head of the Academy’s immunology department, shares his colleague’s enthusiasm.

The project is now pending official approval of clinical tests. So hopefully, the women looking with envy at models on glossy covers won’t have to wait long.

Kommersant

Me: From the forums, it is generally concluded that this could become an alternative to the traditional limb lengthening surgical process that is available today developed by Ilizarov. There will not be any internal metal implants inside a person’s leg. The problem with this alternative method is that now the inhibiting factor is not the bone, but the muscle and tissue around it since muscle and tissue cannot stretch beyond say 8 cms in length in such a short amount of time. With the Ilizarov method, the muscles and surrounding muscles are elastic enough so they can be stretching by 1 mm each day for a long time. So far, the method is not commercially available and I suspect won’t be available for cosmetic surgery use to help short stature people for at least another 10 years. 

The articles this topic was originally taken from are HERE and HERE. For the forum discussion about this, click HERE.

 

So this was a new method or technique that I discovered while looking through the message boards and was mentioned quite a bit. Most people have agreed that it is a scam or that it DOESN’T work. However, I still wanted to mention it because it is something that one could look into if one was truly inclined. I would recommend that if one decides to try it to get in contact and talk with the method’s creator before trying it.

Apparently there are these people popping up that offers their services which does “Body Remodeling”. I found only 1 website that talk about this approach. So maybe it really is just one person with a method with a service. They are at www.bodyremodeling.org and their claim is that they are ” the latest technique to increase body height with body shape improvement “without surgery”. They claim to go to your house and help you grow taller since there is no actual physical clinic. For me that is okay since my company is online and mobile. I have a PO Box as the mailing address for my company.

This is from the Techniques Page

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“Body Remodeling Technique” is a very recent technique, generally depending on traditional physical therapy techniques, not only to make the muscles and nerves take the desired shapes, but also it molds the bones themselves to the desired shape and volume.

Our bodies, physiologically, are continuously changing through organized and coordinated destructions and creation of different cell types: skin, blood, muscles and of course bones.
Our bodies evolve and adapt themselves according to external pressures and events. Thus and according to the nature of our professional, social, personal and hygienic lives, our body responds with what fits it to keep it healthy and insure its future.

“Body Remodeling Technique” is based on the change of the ratio of external pressures and events surrounding us, hence the targeted body segment responds gradually by changing the necessary cells to improve the shape according to the wish of the therapist. The most obvious implication for Body Remodeling would be without a doubt OVERALL BODY HEIGHT INCREASE.

Currently, multiple techniques inducing height increase do exist. The most important and most reliable technique – besides Body Remodeling – is the surgery called “the Ilizarov technique” where the leg bones are cut and the two parts are retracted daily by 1 mm with the aid of a specific machine.
Many problems might occur with the use of the surgery mainly: pain, infections, osteonecrosis and bone bending, added to many long months during which the subject must be bedridden, in addition to the high cost of this technique.

There are other techniques such as hormone therapy and drug therapy of course associated to all their side effects and unreliability.

On the other hand, the “Body Remodeling Technique” depends on 3 sections:

1. Physical Therapy:
Specific techniques and specialized equipment will aid the mild evolution of bone and muscle cells and increase its speed, under close monitoring and control.

2. Specialized Machine:
This machine is used to simulate specific external pressures and events, it is custom made to each subject, according to his or her body measurements. It helps the graduate increase of bone length with the least pain mentionable.

3. Sporting Exercises:
The exercises are necessary to insure the correct and healthy evolution of muscles and nerves in parallel with the increase of bones length during the treatment.

The results obtained by this “Body Remodeling Technique” are more than satisfactory, where the candidates gained an average height increase of 1.5cm (more than ½ inches) per month with no specific limits.

In addition, there are no limits regarding the age or gender of the persons that can benefit from this technique, keeping in mind that physiologically, there are 4 variables that influence the monthly increase average: age, gender, weight, and bone type.

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From a biological and physiological point of view, everything they stated is true but I can not say that what they offer really works. The claim is that the average height gain is 1.5 cm per month. Now if this thing works, that would be mighty impressive. .

This is from the FAQ page

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4. What is your technique and how it works?

This remodeling technique is called Non-Invasive Bone Distraction divided in two parts:

a. the machine

It is custom made; this means that every subject has his own machine, which he or she takes home with them. It is a complicated and secret mechanic system. It looks like a cervical collar, you know the sponge collar; it is also worn the same easy way. Every segment of the legs has its own machine, so for lengthening the legs a person would need 4 parts each one for a different segment 2 for the thighs and 2 for the legs. These machines permit full range of motion of the lower limbs joints, so it is possible to wear them under the clothes at home but they a little bit unestethic to go out wearing them. So by strapping this machine for at least 6 hours a day preferably 8 hours, and most specially during sleep. They help the bone grow taller. There is no pain and no irritating discomfort especially when the subject is used to the machine. But the machine in itself can do nothing without the physical therapy.

b. Physical therapy

In the beginning, the treatment consists of 3 sessions per week where different P.T. techniques are done to help the bone react to the machine. Then this number of sessions will be reduced, up to the time where the wanted height is achieved then the machine must still be worn but the P.T. techniques are stopped permitting the bone to stop remodeling. We should mention that the subject must follow a rigid muscle stretching and strengthening in parallel usually for 1 hour a day (1/2 in the morning and ½ in the evening). Naturally there are some advises that will be given before and during the treatment about nutrition, health and other subjects.

Me: There is a lot more in explanation you can find from the FAQs section HERE. From What I can see, the machine appears to be some form of rough padding that one wears. They say one can get 4-6 inches on average after many months or a year, I am not entirely sure. I would have to say that the site is very informative. After looking through the website, I looked around the internet on what others have said about this new method or product. This is taken from the great resource and blog Quest For Height written in June 2010 By Tyler Christopher Davis.

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Body Remodeling Review – Tuesday, June 15, 2010

I have been in contact through exchanging emails with a person named Harald Oberlaender in the last few days who had started the Organization Biomedical Growth Research Initiative. On a previous post, I had stated the organization was most likely a scam since it had an address which was a PO Box in Israel while Harald was from Germany. From the very first page on the website here the person was asking for a donation for the project HERE.  Apparently this project has been going on for 9 years now, 5 years since he posted on the Make Me Taller boards and he still hasn’t been able to get the funding of around say 300,000 to begin the first part of animal testing.

So far I have decided to retract that statement of the organization being a scam and wait to see if Harald will sent me the idea proposals so I can see that the initiative has a real intent. I have signed a NDA and will not go into the specifics but will only state whether the ideas the researchers created are even viable. I do have a degree very close to Biomedical Engineering and the Chemical Sciences. In the internet space, one has to have a very good Bullshit Radar.

From a financial and investment point of view, I understand the challenges he faces. I guess there was a few interested investors but no one was willing to put their money where their mouth was. Speaking from experience from what I know about VCs (Venture Capitalist) and Angel Investors, it really is VERY difficult to get money from them. Often before people are willing to put money in, they want both 1. Some proof of concept through a physical product and 2. Evidence that other people have invested.

Since the project is only on paper and has no actual physical manifestation, investors are unsure if the idea even works. Plus, there has been not one person who has given money yet, so clearly no one is going to be the first to step up. Usually the first investor who puts their hand in the pot is the one who loses. If one has ever worked for any length of time in the financial sector, say investment consultant, they would know the horrible numbers that biotechnology companies have. Very few ever survive long enough to get their product approved and out to market. Most run out of money because they did not realize how long of a “runway” they need for the venture.

So, I am sitting here waiting for Harald’s reply email with the papers so I can look over them.

 

I was asked this question years ago by a friend when I tried to explain to them the extensive number of benefits to having height as an advantage in life. Ever since then I have asked myself that question maybe once every year and I have found that my answer has evolved as I become more educated on how people behave and economics.

What most people do when they are asked this type of question is to avoid giving a definite answer, often because they are afraid of being politically incorrect and offending someone else. So the most common answer is not some number they pull out of their head but a ,” Well, it depends…” or “How do you define the word “ideal”?” or “Are we talking men in only the US or across the world in general?”

One thing that life has definitely taught me is that when one tries to give a definite exact solution to any question, one has to consider all the possible situations. For any questions that become even slightly theoretical or metaphysical, the answer is almost always impossible to answer with a definite solution.

Life Lesson: Hard questions can never be answered to a satisfactory level for everyone who wants an answer. 

To answer this type of question which does involve subjective biases and preferences, one realizes that the answer may only satisfy 55% of everyone who reads such a post.  However, I am trying to gain the agreement of the majority of the readers beliefs and biases.

Let’s first set up some constraints and parameters so we can focus the answer down to only a few possible answers.

1. We are only talking about men for now

2. We are only talking about people from the USA, including say Alaska and Hawaii. It has been shown from previous posts that the height averages for different countries vary too greatly in a huge range.

3. Let’s assume we are talking about the white caucasian american. (I do realize that it is a race label)

4. We understand that the ideal height is different for different people, so we will actually have 2 different ideal heights.

Humans are social creatures so when we are talking about “ideal” height” we are really talking about the preference and opinion of other people. That means that whatever one’s own opinion of one’s height is removed from the equation. We are only talking about how other people view one’s height. How do they look at you based on your height ,assuming everything else in your life is the same?

When we are talking about the fact that different people have different opinions on their optimum height FOR YOU, their answers will be varied.

For men, the issue of height really has 2 primary social/interpersonal relationship functions, one for women and the other is for other men.

Function # 1: To gain the admiration, desire, and attraction from women

Function # 2: To gain the respect and awe (and maybe even jealousy) from other men

That is why I felt that there should be two different ideal heights, one for women for function #1, another for men for function #2.

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Let’s look at function #2 first. When you are a male and you meet and confront another male, at some unconscious instinctual level, you are sizing them up. The easiest way to size up another man is through their size. Size is used to showcase domination, fitness, strength, and physical prowess. If you are taller than the other people, your eye level is above theirs and you can literally “look down on them”.

However, the subject is not as simple as being taller is always better. At some critical point, the emotion of awe and respect other men might give you might turn into ridicule and sympathy if you are too out of societies constructed social rules.

The late author Michael Chrichton who was 6’9″-6’10” himself had stated that the optimum height for men in the US  was 6′ 6″. Here is a Harvard Medical School trained doctor who has been a best selling writer multiple times over stating such a claim. Thinking from a completely pragmatic point of view that does make a lot of sense. The average height of normal wall in american houses is 6′ 8″. One’s hair might add 0.5-1 inch to the height. If we then add the fact that most shoes add around 1-1.5 inches to ones height, we realize that 6′ 6″ is the upp er limit in height that one can be without any hindrances that can develop because of how buildings are created.

There are some small cars that are being developed these days that maybe a guy who is 6′ 6″ can not fit into, but the large trucks that are still sold can still house a man of that size quite comfortably. In terms of shoe sizes, there are many stores that sell pants and shirts with larger inseams and shirts these days. When one asks other grown men  who are the most popular and most admired strong American males (let along from the African American community) , the names Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant appear often and they are both 6′ 6″.

These days it is actually really hard to find great male role models. A lot of young guys these days don’t have male heros they can look up to. In sports, the athlete that has come close to achieving immortality in the last generation was probably Michael Jordan. Sure there are the people who admire Bruce Less but for some people, it is really hard to relate to him because he had the foreign element about him. Plus, even though Bruce was strong and ripped like crazy, he was reported at 5′ 7.5″ feet tall, which was very averaged sized for an asian guy from his era. If you walked by him on the street , you wouldn’t know that he was someone special. He however learned how to overcompensate for his limitations of being asian and average sized to become a legend. However, that legend happend only after his death. There are other types of heros like Gandhi, Einstein, and Steve Jobs but they were never of the size that could instantly bring forth respect and awe form men just from their physical presence.

So the first guess for the ideal height of men FOR men is 6′ 6″. At that height, from other men you command respect and illicit awe while not pushed to a level where you are viewed as some form of anomaly.

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Now let’s look at what the ideal height is for function #1. If we go to any internet discussion board that asks women what is their ideal height for men, many of them say that the taller, the better. (Reference Link 1)

Of course it is important to understand what a person says and what they actually do are 2 different things. It is reasonable to say that a 5′ 2″ female would like in theory and her mind to date a guy who is 6′ 8″ since he give her some form of mental security but in actually that could be very mechanically difficult. I am imagining a lot of awkward head tilting, neck straining, and uncomfortable positions…but that is just me.

Recent scientists concluded that women prefer on average to have their ideal male mate be 11% longer in height to their own height. So a girl who is 5′ 6″ would on average like a guy who is slightly longer than 6′ 1″. (5′ 6″ = 66 inches –> 66* (1.11) = 73.26 inches)

From the Wikipedia article on human height found HERE we learned from from 2003-2006, the average height for adult white male is 1.79 meters or 5′ 10.5″. I used to live close to Idaho and traveled a few times through the Mid West area where many towns are still primarily caucasian and I can tell you through just my own experience that the number provided by wikipedia is rather small, especially for the younger generation of guys.

However, let’s assume that number is correct. so from a SI unites pont of view, the average height is ~ 1.80 meters. Now, girls in general want the taller guy. They want a guy who is better than average, say by 1-2 standard deviations. I would assume no one chooses intentionally to “settle” for someone who is less in any way than the average. The US usually refers to the smaller length unit as inches, not centimeters. So if a women was to give a minimum height requirement, they would usually say 6′ 0″, which is 1.83 meters in SI units.

However, there are so many caucasian american guys who are  6 foot so they are not really “tall”. It is true that we can continue to add another inch and see if the american female’s opinion of the guy changes. 6′ 1″? still considered average, but getting cuter. 6′ 2″? Maybe 40-50 years ago that was the golden standard that people wanted to reach, but people have grown taller since then. 6′ 3″? Now we can reaching a level where a guy can be classified as “tall”. There was some study done from data collection that showed that only 3% of all people in the US was 6′ 3″ or taller so if you are at that hieght, you are in an elite group of individuals. Of course, that  study had combined the numbers of males and females so the real percentage was probably 6% of all men was 6′ 3″ or taller, which is still a nice elite group one can be in.

For many girls, 6′ 3″ could be considered the ideal height, but let’s continue to add th inches. 6′ 4″? There seems to be quite a few athletes these days at the height getting a lot fo exposure like Michael Phelps and Dwayne Wade. However, we must also remember that most women don’t focus on sports that much. Movies and TV is still a very popular way people absorb the media. If we look at the most famous male actors which are considered attractive like Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Or Chase Crawford, or Channing Tatum , none of them are on the “tall” side. They are either average height or slightly below average. Thus, we can conclude that the admiration, desire, and attraction we want from women can be developed without the need for great height. Women care more about how you make them feel and the emotions more than anything. Maybe it used to be that the ideal male was the larger than life, rugged, tough men from decades before but women this days prefer a more real life sized man. Some women do choose not to date really tall men because they look strange.  Many women have called 7′ 6″ Yao Ming scary because he looks like and is the size of Frankenstein’s monster. However, that doesn’t mean that they have shut off that primitive part of their brain to desire tall men. So what is the standard deviation from average do they really desire in their men?

So the real question is, where is that height that balances size and looks?

I conclude that the ideal height is 6′ 3″, maybe slightly taller at 1.91 meters in SI units. If you look at a lot of the lead actors in action movies these days, they can often be classified into two groups by height. They are either the average sized joe who is agile and smooth. Think Daniel Craig in James Bond (5′ 10″), Matt Damon or Jeremey Renner in the Bourne Series (both 5′ 10″), Robert Downey Jr. (5′ 9″), and Colin Farell from Total Recall (5′ 10″). Then you have the larger sized male leads who are taller , broader, but not as agile or quick. Think Josh Duhamel in Transformers series (6′ 3.5″), Dwayne Johnson (6′ 3.5″), Gerard Butler (6′ 2″), Brandon Routh from Superman (6′ 3″), or Chris Hemsworth, the guy who played the lead in Thor (6′ 3.5″).

So my point is that the Hollywood movies these days have officially separated the male leads in say action movies into groups based on size. You can have either the average sized actor playing the lead like Brad Pitt (5′ 11″) or the slightly larger actor playing the lead like Ryan Reynolds (6′ 2″). These images have reached the subconscious of the average american female and when they say that they want the “tall guy” to date, they are reaching back into their memory of the movies they’ve seen and choose the guy who is 6′ 3″.

And that is my proposed guess on what the ideal height for the American women is , 6′ 3″ (1.91 meters)

A while back ago I had written an article asking the question “How many 8 feet tall people are in the world?” Turns out the answer was 3 currently at this time who are alive. There is another person who could be the 4th but there is sort of a controversy over that issue so me and few other height enthusiasts decided to leave it as it is for now.

I guess it was only appropriate and a matter of time before I wrote and tried to answer this question. So….

“How many 7 feet tall people are in the world?”

Of all the people in the world, I personally really believe that I am one of less than 100 people in the world who know as much about height and height growth who could possibly answer this question

The only other person who can possibly answer this question is someone who does actually has studied Auxology which is the official scientific name for the study of human growth.

Here is my answer

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I am going to use a combination of mathematics, statistical reasoning, real life situations and personal observations, hours and years poring over height related literature, and some “hand waving guesstimation”.

This is what I do know. I have lived in a variety of countries in my life with some of the biggest variability in the size of the resident’s bodies. I have lived in super crowded cities over 20 million people and have lived alone close to the woods in the middle of nowhere.

In each of our brain, there is a part in the back of our brain called the R.A.S. , the reticular activating system which is always subconsciously looking for what we choose to consciously seek after. Some people prefer to focus on people’s eyes so when they walk by a lot of people, they only notice and can describe people’s eyes from memory. Other people look at the ground and are fixated on a passerby’s shoes. That is what they choose to focus on.

We get what we choose to focus on. Well, I focus on height. When I walk past a huge group of people, I look for people who are either abnormally tall or abnormally short. They are the people I notice the most. Of course, they are also the most easily noticeable.

I used to live in Seattle, WA. In the last census taken in 2011, it was reported that Washington State has about 6.8 Million people. Hell, most people don’t even answer the census that comes in their mail anymore (If you do, you are better than me since I always forget). So we could say that the real population of the state of Washington could be maybe 10-20% bigger than the census reports. Instead, we should be collecting the numbers by the number of social security numbers given out and the number of people who arrive in the US with a passport and never had a ticket to leave the country.

Next, we have to take into account for people who are in the state illegally. If we assume the influx of illegal immigrants, we can increase that to say another 3% , assuming that 1 out of 30 people in the state is there illegally. However, we have to remember that probably the majority of the illegal immigrant are from down South, from Mexico or other Central America countries. Sure, there might still be human trafficking through say a ship or cargo loader from the sea. but those numbers should be a lot smaller than the people who just walk past the border. I would assume that not many Canadians try to flee down south through the border into the US.

What I am trying to do with the first part of my arguement is get the most accurate guess of the real population of the state of Washington as possible. So my guess is that instead of the 6.8 million reported by the census, the number is probably more like 8 Million, which is around a 15-18% increase.

From my daily walking and people watching this is what I have figured out. When I was living in the USA, in Seattle which has a population of only 500,000 I would see a 7 footer or someone very close to 7 foot maybe once every 1.5-2.5 months. I have never seen a 7 footer and saw them again. In the last year, I have seen maybe 4-5, one every 2.5-3.5 months but this year was very unique because the rate that I see them is a lot higher than previous years. Of course if I go on more large gathering places like a fair or concert, I would see a lot more.  The city of Seattle has around 620,000 people.

I would say that I personally have seen maybe 10-15 people who are 7 foot tall or taller in my life. This is the part where I have to guess. Since I saw those 4-5 7 footers in Seattle in the last year, I would guess that there is maybe 1 7 footer for every 300,000 people in the state of Washington. that comes out to be about 27 7 footers in the state of WA. Now that does sound a little high but I would assume that WA is one of those states that height is higher than average of other states. If we than use that 1/300,000 people rule that comes out to be about 1030 7 footers in the USA.

Since there is about 7.1 billion people in the world, we could just divide 7.1 billion by 300,000 to get 23,600 7 footers.

Now that number is too high. I admit that my first calculation seems to be off, maybe even by 1 entire magnitude.  The main reason is because most of the world is NOT tall, say really around 1.65 meters tall averaging out both men (5’8″) and women (5’3″). The average is smaller so the number the total world population has to divide by should be bigger.

We also have to take into consideration the fact that certain groups of people seem to be genetically bigger than others. In the last post, I had shown that there was 16 7 footers from Serbia at least from the Tier 1 level of professional basketball male players. Serbia has a population of around 7.2 million people . I would guess that the real number of 7 footers in Serbia is probably 40, or 1 7 footer for every 200,000 people.

If we compare that to say Vietnam, the ratios would be completely different. Vietnam has a population of almost 90 million. Guys who are 1.8 meters and girls who are 1.7 meters tall are considered tall there. For a native Vietnamese to get to be 1.9 meters is incredible, but our standard and desire is to move that cut off point by 2 more decimeters, which could be 3-4 more standard deviations away from the already deviated average. to more than 2.1 meters. 7 feet is 2.13 meters.

I would guess  that in the country, there is probably 5-6 people over 7 feet. So 1 7 footer out of every 15-20 million people, taking into account and including people who might be suffering from gigantism and acrogemaly. This is all assuming that there is are probably a few 7 footers hidden from public or the media for fear of publicly exposed. People do treat people of extraordinary height in a way that make them feel like a sideshow or displayed animal sometimes.

This is the best number I could come up with for the number of 7 footers in the world. Multiply the the total world population by a number that is about 30% larger by 1 less mangitude in value compared to the ratio value used in the US calculation which is 1/2,300,000 to give around 3090 7 footers in the world. 

so V2= (V1/10)*(1.30)

So the final calculated answering using pure reasoning is that there is about 2800 7 footers in the world currently, including for unknown ones, giants who have avoided the media out of privacy and fear reasons, and those that might be inflicted with medical conditions causing their large size.

 

As a followup to the previous post, I wanted to figure out which ethnic group is the tallest in the world. Again, we go back to the initial resource link we had used before on wiseGEEK found HERE

Of course to be able to answer that question, we have to define what is exactly an “ethnic group” and what is the difference between the words and terms ethnic group and ethnicity and race and nationality.

Let’s explain all the terms from easiest to hardest.

1. Nationality – Nationality refers to the geo-political land mass you are associated with by political and military treaties derived terms from rules and regulations. Where you hold your citizenship is what your nationality is. Usually, the country of your passport is the country of your nationality (although not always, exceptions can be expats, asylum seekers, spies ie. 007 James Bond). If you have dual citizenship, like being both Canadian and American, you have dual nationality.

This means that if you are chinese and you were born by chinese parents in China but you moved to the USA and became an american citizenship through naturalization, your nationality is American or USA.

Note: By coincidence (or maybe not so much coincidence) we had answered in our previous post HERE the question “What is the tallest nationality?”

2. Race – Race as defined by Wikipedia found HERE is “”a classification system used to categorize humans into large and distinct populations or groups by heritable phenotypic characteristics, geographic ancestry, physical appearance, ethnicity, and social status. In the early twentieth century the term was often used, in a taxonomic sense, to denote genetically differentiated human populations defined by phenotype.””

Apparently, the word “race” was originally used to refer to any nations or ethnic groups. From Wikipedia, “”In the 18th century, the differences among human groups became a focus of scientific investigation…The 1775 treatise “The Natural Varieties of Mankind,” by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach proposed five major divisions: the Caucasoid race, Mongoloid race,Ethiopian race (later termed the Negroid race), American Indian race, and Malayan race, but he did not propose any hierarchy among the races. Blumenbach also noted the graded transition in appearances from one group to adjacent groups and suggested that “one variety of mankind does so sensibly pass into the other, that you cannot mark out the limits between them”.

In addition, “”In the last two decades of the 18th century polygenism, the belief that different races had evolved separately in each continent and shared no common ancestor, was advocated in England by historian Edward Long and anatomist Charles White.””

It is without a doubt that because of the idea and creation of race, a lot of struggles and pain an suffering has resulted. Social scientists, anthropologist, and geneticist have all tried to define the term “race” as accurately as possible while most geneticists have pretty much concluded that the idea of race is very hard to find from a biology point of view at least right now. Since the science does not back up the idea of “race”, I have decided to not talk about race since it is a poorly understood or even defined word/ concept. I personally do not believe in the idea of “race” since the concept is too fuzzy and inaccurate that the very definition of the word can be left to interpretation toevery subjective person’s own biases. For me, what can not be easily defined will not be discussed too much.

3. Ethnicity  – That leaves up to only figure out what is the difference between the terms “ethnicity” and “ethnic group” . From this PDF found off the University of Deleware website HERE. the word ethnicity is defined as “”identification with and feeling a part of, an ethnic group and exclusion from certain other groups because of this affiliation. ”

That means that the term “ethnicity does not directly describes physical attributes and characteristics like height. It really is a “feeling”. When the word “identification” is used, that means that it really is talking about a belief system, not a system that implies or directly is related to physical characteristics perse. Thus, the word “ethnicity” does not really imply height generalizations or stereotypes.

For example, if you asked people in both North and South Korea what their ethnicity is, they would say that they are both Korean. However, the average height of the North Koreans is far lower than the average height of the people in South Korea.

In general, the relative group size of the terms “nationality” and “ethnicity” are usually the same. Not so for the term “asian”.

Asia is a continent of 4 billion people. Ethnicity and Nationality refers most often to one’s country of origin or the nation one’s relatives came from. Since the USA is a nation of immigrants, the USA is a big exception to the rule that the group size of “ethnicity” should be the same as for “nationality”. For most people in the world, when you ask them what is their ethnicity or nationality, they give the same answer, like Lithuanian, Polish, Thai, etc. BUt for the US, you ask them their nationality, they will say “American” but when asked about their ethnicity, they might say something like “1/2 english, 1/4th german, 1/8th french, 1/8th Cherokee”

4. Ethnic Group – An Ethnic group is defined as “”shared beliefs, values, habits, customs and norms, and a common language, religion, history, geography, kinship or “race”. The PDF make the important point that ethnic groups are “view and treated as if features are biological”. So now we see that the term “ethnic group” is far better and more accurate at describing and defining a group of people. The size of the group is also the smallest.

An example is that even though most people think that the country of India is mostly homogeneous, it is actually a conglomerate of smaller ethnic groups that combine together to give themselves one label, one word that defines them. There are at least over 40 small ethnic groups that make up the country of India. In general, the term “ethnic group” kind of gives the impression of a tribe, more than a city-state.

So this is why I am trying to use the term “ethnic group” when I ask what is the question “What is the tallest ethnic group in the world?”

Let’s FINALLY get to answering that question now.

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I remember going through the over 300 comments below the question and a specific area appeared over and over again where people stated that the height of people was very large.

It was a area that included, croatia, serbia, bosnia/herzegovina, and montenegro. One area that was stated in almost mythical ways was Dalmatia. Personally, I had never even known such a place existed, except the reference to the dog breed type Dalmatians.  Apparently the whole region can combined and referred to as the dinaric alps area.

From this scientific study HERE done in 2005 of the measurement of men from the dinaric alps area, 28% of all males was over 1.90 meters in height. That is insane. If we now consider the fact that the data taken also included say older generations which are probably shorter, we could state that 1 out of every two males in the area is 6′ 3″ or taller. I have heard many stories and references about the height of men from Croatia and Serbia.

Let’s take a look at the circumstantial evidence and try to build a case for our selves.

1. I have met maybe 3 people who I was sure was Croatian. One guy I talked to who was 6′ 1′ told me that he was the shortest guy in his family of 4 brothers. The others, I never asked about their height.

2. 2008 100 meter butterfly in swimming silver medalist Michael Cavic is 6’6″.

3. Retired basketball legend and Bulls Toni Kukoc was 6′ 11″.

4. The tallest tennis player is Ivo Karlovic who stands at 6′ 10″ from Croatia. and Marin Cilic is 6’6″

5. World Cup’s tallest striker – Serbia’s 6ft 7.5 ins forward Nikola Zigic

6. Vanja Iveša – 2.05m – (6ft 8½”) – Croatian goalkeeper playing with Turkcell Super Lig club Eskişehirspor

7. Lazar Jovisić – 2.02m (6ft 7½”) –  21 year old Serbian goalkeeper transferred to CD Nacional in Portugal in 2008.

8. Vanja Ivesa – 2.05 m (6′ 9″) – Croatian goalkeeper

9. Darko Milicic – drafted 2nd in 2003 by NBA after Lebron James – 6’11-7’0″

10. Miladin Kovacevic – accused of assaulting student and tried to flee country – 6′ 10″

11. Vlade Divac – 7′ 1″ – famous NBA former player –

17. Serbia basketball players over 7 feet tall: 1. Nenad Krstic – 7′ 0″, Stephan Lukovic – 7′ 0″, Nemanja Arsic – 7′ 0″, Bogdan Radosaljevic – 7′ 0″, Dejan Musli – 7′ 0″, Nikola Milutinov, Mile Ilić – 7′ 1″, Dusan Ognjenovic – 7’1″, Dragan Tubak – 7′ 2″, Nenad Misanovic – 7′ 2″, Dusan Cantekin (Dusan Gavrilovic) – 7′ 3.4″- 7′ 4″, Boban Marjanovic – 7′ 4″, Samuel Deguara – 7′ 4″, Marko Dujkovic – 7′ 5″, Marko Marcetic – 7′ 5″, Slavko Vranes – 7′ 6.5″

Note: There are Serbian Basketball teams where the average height of the men is 6′ 10″

18. Croatia basketball players over 7 feet tall:  Miro Bilan – 7′ 0″, Mario Kasun – 7′ 0″, Jusuf Nurkic – 7′ 0″, Denis Vrsaljko – 7′ 0″, Domagoj Bubalo – 7′ 0″, Filip Kraljevic – 7’0″,     Ognjen Kuzmić – 7′ 1″, Robert Rikic – 7′ 2″, Nedžad Sinanović – 7′ 3″

15. Bosnia basketball players over 7 feet tall: Nemanja Sladoje – 7′ 0″, Nedžad Sinanovic – 7′ 3″, Dalibor micic – 7′ 4.5″

13. Montenegro basketball players over 7 feet tall: Milos Lopicic – 7′ 1″

14. Slovakia basketball players over 7 feet tall:– Martin Miklosik – 7′ 5.4″

If you look at the list, you would realize that the number of extraordinrarily tall players is incredible. I don’t know which ethnic group at this point has the highest average level height. As of right now, at this point, it is not possible to determine which Ethnic Group really has the highest average height. Even though Serbia has far more 7 footers listed in its basketball program, it could be that the Serbian basketball program is just more developed than the other Nations in the Dinaric Alps area. However, what is clearly noticeable is that there is a disproportionately high number of extremely tall people in that country.

For the populations of the countries we are viewing they are from Wikipedia,

1. Serbia – 7.1 Million from October 2011

2. Croatia – 4.3 Million from March 2011

3. Bosnia & Herzegovina – 3.8 Million from June 2011

4. Montenegro – 0.6 Million from 2011

Note: This article will be edited further later, say in 1 month because I don’t know how to finish the article and reach a conclusive answer