As I was going through my usual list of websites I always read, I found out from TheTallestMan.com that our beloved giant Tanya Angus has passed away some in the last 12 hours. The source comes from The Daily UK

She was 34 and seemed to have died from a heart failure. From the source, it states…

Tanya’s Insulin-like Growth Factor levels, which had fallen from 3,000 at the worst of her condition to just 283, had started to creep back up into the 500’s. The normal range for a healthy person is around 250.

It is thought the extreme pressure on her body, caused by 12 years of coping with her huge size,  caused her heart to fail.

A notice on Tanya’s website, which has inspired and helped acromegaly sufferers around the world, reads simply: ‘It is with deep sorrow that we announce the passing on of our beloved Tanya Angus at 12.25am on January 14, 2013, due to her heart and TIA. RIP dear one’

Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA) is a type of mini-stroke, caused when the blood flow to the brain stops for a period of time.

Tanya had suffered a number of TIAs in recent years.

As a person who has tried to study the gigantism and acromegaly condition before, Tanya Angus was one of the most rarest of cases where her condition was even more unique than other cases of Pituitary Gigantism. She had the most extreme form of acromegaly ever documented.

I had in at least two other posts mentioned the strange possibility that her condition proves that even after growth plate closure, you can still increase in size, due to the fact that she started exhibiting the pituitary condition and started to grow taller again at the age of 21 (from source). It states that she was just 5′ 8″ and 130 lbs. She would eventually reach 6′ 11″ and over 400 lbs in weight. However that claim was always challenged due to the inconclusive nature of the senescence of the growth plates.

What is conclusive is that her heart, lungs, and joints all grew due to the excess hGH.

I have on occasion write posts about the passing of other giants like Yao Defen with post “Former Tallest Women In The World Yao Defen Died” . We have to remember that sometimes being taller is not better. Being bigger does come with its own set of problems and disadvantages since the world is designed for people smaller. It turns out that people like Igor Vovkovinskiy have an extremely hard time finding big enough shoes and any shoes he does find cost thousands of dollars. I know that I personally have had an insanely hard time finding big enough shoes (and pants) in my current country of residence due to my feet size.

As we continue on in our epic search for a way to increase our height and grow taller, I hope we can put everything in life in perspective in not losing sight of what really matters and is important in life. We may not be tall, but we are alive and can still find ways to enjoy our life.