What's Needed for Growth?

              Certainly, nutrition affects
growth. If a child is fed better,
he will grow to his potential
height. — Dr. Robert McVie
What's needed
for growth?
By SALLY REESE
Times Medical Writer
Like the horse, we are taller than our
ancestors.
The first horse was as small as a dog.
There are indications, though, that our
heights are leveling off.
Poor nutrition was thought to be a cause of
small stature, but it has been found in the U.S.
that heights of children of the 70s were the
same as heights of children of the '60s.
We are not now increasing in height from
generation to generation.
Dr. Robert McVie, pediatric en-docrinologist
at LSU Medical Center, made
the observation while discussing factors that
modify growth rates.
McVie participates in a National Pituitary
Agency project to determine the minimum
amount of hormone necessary to produce
normal growth rates in growth hormone-deficient
children.
Concerning normal height range, he re-ported:
only 5 percent of American women
are under 5 feet and only 5 percent are over 5-
feet-8; only 5 percent of American men are
under 5-feet-5 and only 5 percent 'are over 6-
feet-2.
Certainly, nutrition affects growth, the doc-tor
said. If a child is fed better, he will grow to
his potential height.
"If we look at other countries where
(change in) nutrition is important, we see that
the people are getting taller," McVie said.
"The Japanese are taller than they were
before World War II."
But what else is required for the growth
hormone to work?
Love and sleep, said McVie.
It has been found that an unloved child
responds dramatically in the release of
growth hormone to being in a loving environ-ment,
the endocrinologist said.
He reported the case of a child who did not
grow, although he had no nutritional deficien-cy.
The child was on a research floor for 10
months and meanwhile became attached to a
caring nurse. When the nurse went on vaca-tion,
the child stopped growing. When she
returned, he resumed growing.
"So they need love," McVie said flatly.
Sleep is important, because • the greatest
amount of growth hormone is usually secreted
during sleep.
The growth hormone is the intermediate
hormone that makes us grow. It is secreted by
the anterior pituitary gland, which controls
general body growth.
It functions by producing another hormone
called somatomedin, which means "growth
mediator," and it is this hormone that actually
causes growth, said McVie.
Certain abnormalities in growth such as
dwarfism and giantism have been traced to
defects in the pituitary gland, which result in
deficient or excess growth hormone.
Some people do not make growth hormones,
consequently, they are very small. In infancy,
they may have problems with hypoglycemia
(low blood sugar) and seizures, said McVie.
They will grow poorly and become midgets.
A midget is the normal dwarf, undersized
(Times photo bv Lee ShiveJyj
Stephanie Austin, age 3, gets measured for growth by Dr. Robert McVie
but perfectly formed, "just a tiny person."
There are many types of dwarfs; a midget is
the perfect form.
So, McVie went on, the growth hormone can
be decreased because the pituitary gland does
not make it, or makes it imperfectly.
Or, he added, the pituitary gland may be
damaged by infection or tumor and cease to
make growth hormones, and the child will
grow very poorly.
Other hormones can affect growth, said the
LSUMC professor.
If the child is hypothyroid, he will grow
poorly, because the thyroid hormone is neces-sary
"for the manufacture and release of the
growth hormone.
If the child makes or receives too much
cortisone, the high levels of this adrenal
hormone will prevent the growth hormone
from acting normally, "and the child does not
grow."
At the time of puberty, the sex hormones
appear to increase the release of growth
hormone, and acting in concert with growth
hormone, produce the growth spurt that leads
to final height.
In the U.S., pituitaries are obtained in
autopsies and sent to a center where growth
hormones are separated and made available
for treatment of growth disorders.
"We get them through the National
Pituitary Agency for children who lack the
hormone," McVie said. "Anybody who is
growth hormone deficient can get it.
Treatment with growth hormone is done by
McVie and his colleagues, Dr. Joseph Low-enstein
and Dr. Steve Levine, at LSU Medical
Center. It involves injection primarily.
"We teach parents to give the children shots
three times a week," said McVie.
Too much growth hormone can produce"-
heart disease, diabetes, curvature of the spine'-
and giantism, he said.
Nutrition, love and sleep are major factors"
in normal growth, he reiterated, and if these
are adequate, and the health is good, a persol)
should reach his or her genetic potential.
What should parents look for?
"If a child does not grow 2 inches a year,'
talk to your doctor.'
Doctors look at growth in two ways: what-you
achieve and how fast you achieve it.
When we reach our final height varies-from
person to person, because we reach',
puberty at different ages, McVie said.
It is like two cars bound for the samp-destination
but traveling at different speeds*: