One of the most common ideas that is proposed by the evolutionary psychology and evolutionary biology branch is the claim that men can be separated into two major groups, the alphas and the betas. The Alphas are the bigger, more dominant, more assertive group. It seems that in a recent set of studies, we find a clear endocrine correlation. From the study “The role of sex hormones in the kinetics of chondrocytes in the growth plate. A study in the rabbit.” We find that the subject rabbits who are castrated (have sex organs removed) had lower levels of chondrocytes in their epiphyseal plates, have less chondrocyte proliferation,  and increased levels of apoptosis. From this study, we can say that there is a positive relation to the amount of male sex hormones, the endrogens, but mainly testosterone, and the height they reach.

However, we realize that in nature, an excess of anything is also not good either. From the study “Normal bone growth requires optimal estrogen levels: negative effects of both high and low dose estrogen on the number of growth plate chondrocytes.” we can clearly see that for optimal maximum height, the estrogen level in a person must be be somewhere in the middle rance. If there is too little estrogen there will just be less proliferation while if there is too much, there will be less proliferation but also an increase in chondrocyte apoptosis. This conclusion is proved from two previous studies, “Estrogen deficiency leads to decrease in chondrocyte numbers in the rabbit growth plate.” and “Effects of estrogen on growth plate senescence and epiphyseal fusion“. The other important thing to remember is that testosterone will eventually aromatize into estrogen as time continues. One of the primary ideas that bodybuilders who still have their physis throw out is to take steroids that are aromatizing inhibitors like Anavar to stop the build up of estrogen which would cause the cascade reaction effect of final closure of the plate. THis would increase the amount of time for growth.

If I integrated these studies together, I would argue that while estrogen, (and testosterone) is clearly needed for optimal height, it must be kept at only an above average level, and never taken to the extreme. Too much testosterone is know to lead to violent, aggressive behavior and tendencies, something which was socially acceptable thousands of years ago when the world was rules by force, but now that rules is no longer socially allowed. Plus, I suspect that too much testosterone would cause the earlier onset of puberty, and lead to shorter final height. This might help explain the tongue in check term “Napoleon Complex”. The Short Men complex which results in below average stature men being aggressive, and trying too hard to prove themselves, and overcompensate for everything, may actually be of an endocrine origin, where there is an extreme level of testosterone level within their system. This shows that the evolutionary biology ideas are based on biological hormonal data where the bigger male is on average more aggressive than smaller males, but there is a smaller subset of males who are small but are very aggressive who has very high levels of testosterone.