Some individuals with heights far exceeding the average may be due to rare medical conditions or a combination of genetic factors and diet.
Robert Wadlow, the tallest person in history, stood at 2.72 meters before passing away at the age of 22 in 1940, according to the Guinness World Records. Wadlow surpassed the current average height for men in the U.S., which is 1.75 meters. However, like most other real-life giants, his towering stature was the result of a medical syndrome, as reported by Live Science. “Most giant patients experience issues related to growth hormone,” stated Márta Korbonits, an endocrinology professor at Queen Mary University, London. “That is what Robert Wadlow suffered from.”
Robert Wadlow is the tallest man in history. (Photo: Bettmann)
Korbonits emphasized that the primary cause of gigantism is an elevated level of growth hormone produced by the pituitary gland in the brain. Most often, such high hormone levels are caused by a benign tumor. It is likely that we will not see anyone else as tall as Wadlow again due to modern doctors’ ability to remove tumors and use medication to halt growth caused by gigantism and tumors that may threaten human health.
Other syndromes can also lead to unusual heights, including Marfan syndrome, a genetic disorder that can cause bones to grow longer. However, some individuals possess extreme heights without having any medical syndromes, including the former tallest man in the world, Bao Xishun (2.36 meters). They may possess a range of genetic variants affecting their tall stature. While researchers find it easier to study giants from more modern times, it is certain that tall individuals have always existed. The oldest known case of gigantism comes from the remains of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh who measured 1.87 meters.
Korbonits’ research found that many tall individuals in Ireland today carry gene mutations inherited from a person who lived 2,500 years ago. Genetics combined with environmental factors, such as early-life diet, play a crucial role in determining height. Populations tend to grow taller over time alongside advancements in civilization.
Pavel Grasgruber, a researcher at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic, noted that some male remains from the late Gravettian culture, which specialized in mammoth hunting around 29,000 years ago, exhibited unusual heights that could have inspired legends of giants. The tallest among the seven skeletons excavated from the Grimaldi cave system in Italy in the early 20th century was estimated to be 1.96 meters tall. Meanwhile, the average height for men in Europe at that time was less than 170 centimeters.
Researchers are uncertain whether these tall remains represent the Gravettian population. However, tall men were quite common among the early Upper Paleolithic populations in France and the Moravian region (now Czech Republic). They achieved heights that modern industrialized nations did not reach until the mid-20th century. According to Grasgruber, the reason for the tall physique among Upper Paleolithic hunters was the low population density and abundant resources of mammoths and other large mammals.
