text: its dominant here extra info\n\n\nHuman height\nFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia\nJump to: navigation, search\n"Stature" redirects here. For the comic book character, see Stature (comics).\nHuman height, or stature, is the height of a human being. Adult height generally varies little between people compared to other anthropometric measures. Exceptional height (variation from the average of around 20%) is usually due to gigantism or dwarfism. Adult height for one sex in a particular ethnic group follows more or less a Gaussian distribution (bell curve) but with some individuals lying several standard deviations away from the mean. (The tallest well-documented giant was 8 foot 11.1 inches (2.72 m) tall.) Height is determined by the interaction of genes and environment. Final adult height may be attained anywhere from the early teens to early 20s, though it is most commonly reached during the mid teens for females and late teens for males. A person's height also varies over the course of the day, by an average of 19 mm (¾ in), gradually shrinking as the spine compresses over the course of a day, and stretching back out overnight (Tyrrell, et al. 1985).[1]\n\n \nYao Ming is the tallest person in the NBAContents [hide]\n1 Changes in human height \n2 Determinants of growth and height \n3 Process of growth \n4 Height abnormalities \n5 Role of an individual's height \n6 The role of height in sports \n7 Average adult height around the world \n8 References \n8.1 Notes \n9 See also \n10 External links \n \n\n\n[edit] Changes in human height\nThis article or section may contain original research or unverified claims.\nPlease help Wikipedia by adding references. See the talk page for details.\nHuman height is regulated by many factors. Since the development of modern medicine and plentiful nutrient-rich food in the developed world average height has increased dramatically. Nutrition is the most important factor in determining height; and height records from military records and other documents can be used to quite accurately compare nutrition and height in various eras. Evidence has shown that height decreased in Britain in the early nineteenth century, before beginning its long increase around mid-century. Increase in height has not been constant, however. The European Middle Ages was an era of tallness with men of above six feet (1.83 m) considered unremarkable. In Europe human height reached its nadir at the start of the nineteenth century. Until the general rise in human health, as urbanization increased, the accompanying trend was a height decline.\n\nEuropeans in North America were far taller than those in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, in fact the tallest in the world. The original indigenous population was also among the tallest populations of the world at the time. However, several nations, indeed many nations in Europe, have now surpassed the US in terms of average stature, particularly the Netherlands, and the Scandinavian nations. Most markedly is the Netherlands where average height has increased at the greatest rates. For instance: the Netherlands was in the late nineteenth century a land renowned for its short population, but today it has the tallest average in the world [1], with young men averaging 1.83 m (6 ft) tall and only shorter than the peoples of the Dinaric Alps, where males average 1.856 m(6ft 1.08 in) tall. The Dutch are now well known in Europe for extreme tallness. The increase has been so dramatic that various things have been redesigned to fit the much taller frames. In contrast, average male height in impoverished Vietnam and North Korea[2] remains comparatively small at 5 ft 4 in (1.63 m) and 5 ft 5 in (1.65 m) respectively. Currently, young North Korean males are actually significantly shorter. This contrasts greatly with the extreme growth occurring in surrounding Asian populations with correlated increasing standards of living. Young South Koreans are about 3 i