Can Height Be Predicted?
Genes, nutrition, and overall health have their effects right from the beginning. Rather predictably, we achieve about half of our adult height by age 2. So one way to predict ultimate height is simply to double the height achieved by the second birthday. Other ways to predict height take information from childhood growth charts (see below), your parents height, and a reading of your “bone age.” Bone age is assessed by X-rays that indicate how much development has already occurred in the skeleton and how much more is possible. If the growth plates are still open,for example, more growth is likely. The closer you are to final height (by virtue of your age or the finding of closed growth plates on X-rays), the better these formulas predict height. The observation that family members tend to be of similar stature is born out by formulas designed to predict height. One commonly quoted formula uses parental height and gender to predict adult height (in inches) as follows: For men: (height o
