How war affects Growth?

We are amidst a war between two nations currently. And we all are apprehensive about the results. Wars are always ...always a terrible business with all the lives lost, all the properties being damaged, all the destruction that ensues. But apart from all these bad stuffs, do you know that war can have an adverse effect on our height as well?

Historically speaking, the average height of an European got reduced during the two world wars in the twentieth century.

So, what’s exactly the relationship? Why does it happen?

 

Height of a human being, like any other biological processes, depends upon mainly two things-

1) The genes that you get from your parents and 2) the environment that you was brought up in.

It’s almost like a game of cards. Genes are basically the cards that you got and the environment can be thought as the way you play your cards. Any biological process is the combination of them. You also might’ve heard about the nature vs nurture debate? More on that later sometime.

Now back to our discussion, our height is a biological feature. And thus, obviously having tall parents help! Tall parents will pass down necessary genes for tallness. But that’s not the end of the story. Environment then comes into play as well. And in this scenario, environment could mean- nutrition, sanitation, hygiene etc. – nutrition being the most important of them all. Babies with tall parents but a malnutrition diet in the initial years would lead to a stunted growth. Proteins and green vegetables are great for your growth. So kids, next time your mother wants you to eat your veggies- you better listen to it or else, you won’t get tall!

Now, the pieces are coming together. Wars are pretty bad for nutrition. If you think back to world wars, most of the European countries had to exercise heavy rationing of foods. You would get limited amount of bread and milk per week for your family. Now, it’s completely a different issue that the war and primarily the decisions of some political leaders lead to famine and loss of millions of lives. Probably on a later date. Anyway, people had limited rations, sanitation and hygiene were not among the best, and thus you see the statistics. On average, people’s height got reduced. And that’s another strong point down against wars. We don’t want stunted growth, do we?

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Good bye and stay safe!