Can a Sedentary Lifestyle Stunt Growth?

[kent davidge]

I spent the last 5 years of my life almost entirely sitting in front of a PC. I'm 1.75 m height while my dad, uncles and of most of young male of my age are at least 1.80 m height.

I was thinking if that is due to my lack of body exercise. Did my behaviour of sitting down all the day contribute for me stop growing up? If I keep this life-style (aside of other health issues), is it likely that I will become even smaller than I'm now?

 

[phinds]

Have you done any research on this before posting your question? If so, what have you found out?

 

[kent davidge]

Yes, as I usually do with all questions I have. Did not find answers, thus started the thread.

 

[phinds]

Yeah all I could find was about mental shrinkage but doesn't seem to be any indication that being sedentary causes more spine shrinkage than not. Maybe we'll have a medical expert here who'll know.

 

[jim mcnamara]

"Shrinking" is usually associated with age - osteoporosis and sometimes sarcopenia. Regular exercise strengthens bone - makes bone denser. I read a short clinical paper on bone density in an active professional baseball pitcher who was older than all other MLB pitchers at that time. He was left-handed. There was significant difference in bone density - high in the left humerus, lower in the right. Exercise counteracted some of the effects of ageing on bone density.

https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/traits/height
This shows that about 80% of height is genetic, ~20% is environmental - diet and exercise. We cannot conclude anything about your case, nor should we.
You can go from here.