Technion researchers, the Rambam Medical Center and the University of Gothenburg in Sweden have identified a mechanism that explains about half of the occurrences of a low floor (which have no other explanation)
Using the evolutionary theory of life history, Professor Zeev Hochberg from the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at the Technion and Professor Kerstin Albertson Weakland from the Sahlgrenska Academy showed that the body size of adults is largely determined during the transition from infants to girls. The transition usually happens at the age of 6-12 months, and each month of delay causes the child to reach a height smaller by 0.9 cm. So a delay of the transition to the age of 15 months (compared to the average of 9 months) will reduce 5.4 cm from the adult height.
"The size of the human body is a 'compromise' (trade-off) between the evolutionary advantages and disadvantages - between the advantages of size and its disadvantages", say the researchers. "Our claim is that a person's height is largely determined during the transition from babies to girls. This transition is characterized by the acceleration of growth. A delay in this transition affects a person's height for the rest of his life, and is the cause of 50-44 percent of the cases of short stature among children and adults in developed countries, and much more than that in developing countries."
In an article published in the important scientific monthly Pediatric Research, the researchers present the data and the theory of an evolutionary adaptation and plasticity strategy during the transition period from babies to girls, a strategy that comes to match our size to the energy potential of the environment in which we live.
Prof. Hochberg: "Humans, like other animals, have developed the ability to withstand energy crises, by reducing their body size. Such a crisis happens to a child in a state of malnutrition, but also if he is ill at the critical age with a prolonged illness or recurring illnesses due to infection in the children's daycare. Short-term evolutionary adaptations to energy crises drive a response adapted to the expected energy reserves through the transition from baby growth to child growth, and the result is a short stature. The evolutionary adjustment is passed on to the next generations, so that an energy crisis in one of the parents (mainly the father) or the grandparents will be passed on to his offspring and will cause a short stature up to the third and fourth generation."
7 תגובות
It's not just the diet, it's also the feeling.
Growth is managed by several hormones among them
Growth hormone with a systemic effect
and the most extensive. The hormone is secreted from a gland
Pituitary gland (hypophysis). This gland is given
to the effects of hormones and neurotransmitters.
Oppression and humiliation have a negative effect on growth.
Also divorce, relative lack of means
Frequent disconnections from friends and a sense of lack of direction.
It is known that the average height of the natives of Israel,
significantly larger than their parents' height.
And this even though some of the subjects came from developed countries.
Sometimes growth retardation has an evolutionary advantage.
Like needing less food and evasive ways in pursuit.
We unanimously decided to maintain a bond of silence in the matter of the epigenetic mechanism that stands
Behind the inheritance of the necessary features... and in the meantime let your children be simple
live.. they will already tell you what is best for their desired development.@%@
How does it look.?
By the way, as long as they do not manage to reproduce the construction method of the cafeteria in Tiberias, the lower floors will remain more common than the higher ones
I don't know why I named Yoav Meir 🙂
The thought behind the article makes sense because it also fits well with the fact that in recent decades each generation is taller than the previous one (something that has always been explained by the availability of energetic food).
On the other hand, as Meir pointed out, the explanation will not be complete (nor will it be so convincing) until the epigenetic mechanism behind the inheritance of the trait is shown.
Can someone expand on the mechanism of the inheritance of two or three generations from the father's side for short stature? Is it a post genetic mechanism of methylation or something similar? I would appreciate it if someone could answer or refer to an article on the subject.
Thanks.
And how is this knowledge used for the child's development? Disease prevention, proper nutrition..is there more detail?