Ever see tall old people? What happened to them all?

[Intestinal fluids]

Im 6'-4" and in my 40s and i look around and i never see tall old people. Am i doomed? I know you shrink as you age but not "THAT" much. Where are all the 6-4 80 year olds? Are my choices to be dead or short? Help!

[Dakini]

My grandpa was over 6' and he made it into his 80s.

I think that your problem finding tall old people might be due to a couple of things. For one, you're looking for a relatively small portion of the population (the people above 6'4") and you're then adding that they have to be older. If you don't interact with a lot of older people on a daily basis, you might not notice average heights and all this, or you might just not have encountered some very tall people. Also, people in their 70s and 80s now grew up in the 1920s and 1930s. The 1930s weren't exactly prosperous times, so nutrition might not have been so good which might result in some stunted growth.

[SaintB]

It could be that when you where a child, old people were taller than you so for some reason you still think of them as taller evern though you yourself are massive; but you never see one so you get confused.

I'm like that with all my older cousins; I see them and go, "I thought they were tall!"

[Intestinal fluids]

My mother lives in a retirement building and ive never once gone into the elevator and not towered over everyone in there.

[Greed and Death]

If your over 6'2 your circulatory system cuts out sooner as you get older.

[Dakini]

My mother lives in a retirement building and ive never once gone into the elevator and not towered over everyone in there.

Ok. I'm still saying that you shouldn't worry. There are some tall older people, but they're probably rarer because of things like food shortages when these people would have been kids. Tall people don't just die off faster (except the super tall).

[Intestinal fluids]

One of our senile posters?

[Vault 10]

Im 6'-4" and in my 40s and i look around and i never see tall old people. Am i doomed? I know you shrink as you age but not "THAT" much. Where are all the 6-4 80 year olds? Are my choices to be dead or short? Help!

People shorten as they grow old. Has to do with the spine.

[Ashmoria]

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articl ... id=1071721

just what you can see from the link page...


"Longevity studies of deceased US veterans found an inverse relation betweenheight andlongevity.13Evaluation of height and longevity of deceased professional base-ball playersand 19th century French men and women also showed an inverse relation, asshown in figures figures11and and22.14In a review of literature on height, body size, and longevity, we foundseveral studies that showed a negative correlation between height andlongevity.2
...

Many studies have found a positive correlation between cancer, rapidgrowth, and height.2For example, Albanes reported that rapid growth during adolescence is tied toincreased cancer risk in adulthood, with a 3- to 4-mm increment in leg lengthabove average resulting in an 80% higher risk in nonsmoking-related cancer,based on a 50-yearfollow-up.15 Hebertet al also found that taller US physicians (183 cm [6 ft] or more) had ahigher cancer rate than shorter ones (170 cm [5 ft 7 in] ormore)."

so maybe you ARE doomed.

[Saint Clair Island]

I recall reading "somewhere" that while tall people tend to have better lives, short people tend to live longer. Never seen any studies corroborating this, but if it's true, maybe all the tall old people died before they turned 80 while the short ones could make it to their 900s.

[Buffett and Colbert]

No tall old people??? THE HORROR!!

[Katganistan]

Im 6'-4" and in my 40s and i look around and i never see tall old people. Am i doomed? I know you shrink as you age but not "THAT" much. Where are all the 6-4 80 year olds? Are my choices to be dead or short? Help!

Gravity, scoliosis and osteoporosis leads to people shrinking in old age.

Get plenty of calcium, exercise, and pray you have good genes.

[No Names Left Damn It]

Not as much food etc to go around when they were younger, coupled with spine problems. But there's a man who lives across my street who's 90 odd, and he's my height. (6'1)

[West Failure]

Short people secretly kill them all.

[Emperor Matthuis]

I've always wondered this, but screwing as I'm six foot five.

[Grays Harbor]

its a grand conspiracy. all old tall people are cut in half to make 2 short old people.

[Colonic Immigration]

If your over 6'2 your circulatory system cuts out sooner as you get older.

Is that bad?

[Colonic Immigration]

Not as much food etc to go around when they were younger, coupled with spine problems. But there's a man who lives across my street who's 90 odd, and he's my height. (6'1)

You've shrunk. I could swear you used to say you were 6'2"

[No Names Left Damn It]

You've shrunk. I could swear you used to say you were 6'2"

Nope.

[Tiesabre]

I'm 6'7" and 22. I understand. From what I'm told and learned us tall people's hearts work harder to pump the blood throughout our body.

So once we get old, our hearts have been working overtime our whole lives and tend to give out sooner than shorter people.

[Lizardiar]

I'm 5'9'' and I count myself as tall, though my brother is 6'7''....Go to WV in America, plenty of tall people.

[No Names Left Damn It]

I'm 5'9'' and I count myself as tall,

Can I have some of what you're smoking?

[Dakini]

I'm 5'9'' and I count myself as tall,

Can I have some of what you're smoking?

If Lizardiar is a girl, then she's tall.

[Fjorelberg]

I wouldn't worry too much about this. I'm 1.98 cm (about 6'6") and i'm not worried.

People these days just grow taller then the 'older generation'.
I know here in Holland people these days grow, on average, 7,5 cm taller then people 50 years ago.

Two main reasons: One is that the diet has improved considerably. (no, i don't mean the fast-food industry)
We have more variety in our diet, which results in a better dose of vitamins, minerals and proteins. This helps us grow to our optimal length.
2nd is a better health. A better health means the body has to waste less energy on being sick or dealing with other 'energy consuming malfunctions'.

Seems to me the only reason we see so few tall, old people is because the people who are now old just didn't grow that tall.

[No Names Left Damn It]

If Lizardiar is a girl, then she's tall.

Good point. Lizardiar, you male or female?