Yes, nutrition and upbringing do influence height significantly. I'm really surprised nobody has mentioned the indisputable height difference between two nations sharing the same genetic pool, but vastly different lifestyles - South Korea and North Korea. Here's what research shows:
North Korean men are, on average, between 3 - 8cm (1.2 - 3.1in) shorter than their South Korean counterparts
The height gap is approximately 4cm (1.6in) among pre-school boys and 3cm (1.2in) among pre-school girls
Martin Bloem is head of nutrition at the World Food Programme, which has been providing food aid to North Korea since 1995. He says poor diet in the early years of life leads to stunted growth.
"Food and what happens in the first two years of life is actually critical for people's height later"
In the 1990s North Korea suffered a terrible famine. Today, according to the World Food Programme, "one in every three children remains chronically malnourished or 'stunted', meaning they are too short for their age".
Also, thanks to better nutrition, each generation tends to be taller then the previous one. From from SciAm:
modern humans are taller than those from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In fact, over the last 150 years the average height of people in industrialized nations has increased approximately 10 centimeters (about four inches).
[...] conditions of poor nutrition are well correlated to smaller stature. For example, the heights of all classes of people, from factory workers to the rich, increased as food quality, production and distribution became more reliable [...] the heights of vagrant London boys declined from 1780 to1800 and then rose three inches in just 30 years--an increase that paralleled improving conditions for the poor.
Quoting from another study (which was brought up on this forum before, BTW) that followed height trends worldwide over the past 100 years:
Although height is one of the most heritable human traits (Fisher, 1919; Lettre, 2011), cross-population differences are believed to be related to non-genetic, environmental factors. Of these, foetal growth (itself related to maternal size, nutrition and environmental exposures), and nutrition and infections during childhood and adolescence are particularly important determinants of height during adulthood (Cole, 2000; Silventoinen et al., 2000; Dubois et al., 2012; Haeffner et al., 2002; Sørensen et al., 1999; Victora et al., 2008; Eveleth and Tanner, 1990; Tanner, 1962; Tanner, 1992; Bogin, 2013).
Anecdotally, my cousins are taller than me by about 1", and they're both female. Their mother is 5'3", 2" taller than mine, and their father is 5'7", just as tall as mine. Keep in mind that Caucasian women are on the average 4-5" shorter than men, and that statistic is found in my country too. So yes, my mom was 2" shorter than their mom, but my female cousins aren't 2-3" shorter than me; they're 1" taller. However, my cousins were *very* well-fed as children while I was not (see the end of my post).
Quote from: myloginacct on November 24, 2017, 03:07:37 AMThere's nothing people who were born blind can do to make themselves see (as of yet).
Yes there is - brain-computer interfaces coupled with HD cameras can already give sight to the blind.
Quote from: myloginacct on November 24, 2017, 03:07:37 AMThere's nothing people who were born with chronic, inherited genetic diseases can do to cure themselves.
Gene therapy can already cure certain genetic diseases. CRISPR technology is rapidly advancing towards more therapeutic applications and my friend and Ligandal CEO Andrew Watson has just announced this week a breakthrough method of delivering genetic therapies enabled by CRIPSR, TALEN, mRNA, siRNA, DNA using nanoparticles.
We live in extraordinary times. By the way, those who haven't looked into CRISPR yet, watch this:
Genetic Engineering Will Change Everything Forever – CRISPR
Quote from: myloginacct on February 08, 2018, 08:46:54 PMI don't think nutrition was a factor for anyone in this forum.
I grew up in a country with food rationing and my family forced me to fast (no protein) for about half of the year until I was over 20 and my growth plates had fused. My mother is 5'1" and my father is 5'7" - while the parents of my two female cousins are 5'3" (their mom, my sister's dad) and 5'7" (their dad, same height as my father). Despite women being on the average 4-5" shorter than men in my country, my cousins are 1" taller than me. My cousing were very well fed though (they were born after food rationing ceased, and their parents weren't religiously indoctrinated). How much of that particular case is genetic and how much is malnutrition we'll never know, but on a large population scale, it's clear that early age nutrition and environmental factors do impact height.