My brother had a pituitary tumor that probably would have caused acromegaly had it not been removed.
He's three years younger than me, and around six inches taller LOL. It still probably had some effect.
On a related note, a friend of mine in high school became a friend of Gheorghe Muresan after chatting with his interpreter at a bunch of games...in fact became pretty good friends with his interpreter. I thought that was pretty cool. Muresan was awesome to watch.
I've played enough basketball with seven footers to know how many tall people are out there. Rather harrowing at times when you are 5'9. One team I played in high school had two seven foot players...our tallest player was 6'3 that year. Ridiculous.
I certainly think if there were higher radiative levels in past (and perhaps higher isotopic levels), I see no reason why people couldn't have been bigger.
I also wonder about acromegaly...perhaps the solution in to beat it with nutrition...provide the sustenance needed to allow the body to expand to deal with the swelling. Note that would have been much easier if prey was larger in the past and there was ample readily available protein. Just food for thought hehe.
As far as acromegaly and many other disorders from which humans suffer, I believe they may ultimately be related to our genetics. Specifically, I'm of the view that we are the product of genetic engineering, and those engineers like human ones are less than perfect. I fear many of these problems may never be sorted out unless seen in the correct context.
Because really, some of us may naturally be intended to be much larger, and the environment disrupts our optimum development (think about a magnificent Great White shark being raised in a 10-gallon fish tank full of dirty bathwater). In addition to the factors you mentioned, I think the environment in ancient times may have been extremely different.
For example, dinosaurs may have been so large partly because gravity was weaker, and gravity was weaker because the Earth was smaller! Which sounds kooky until you begin to examine the evidence:
I used to reject out of hand the idea that the largest giants recorded in ancient texts were up to 36'. Well I can tell you, I don't reject the idea any more.
One video I saw a LONG time ago really weirded me out. I believe it was a video that was a recreation of how the Earth may have started, and it was a small ball of water with two bright points of light on it. They flitted all around the globe, and when they happened to collide, a new spot of light appeared at the collision point, and as new spots appeared, the ball of water appeared to get bigger to accommodate the new "life-forms". Kinda reminded me of Conway's Game of Life.
I intuitively felt the original two points of lights were positively and negatively charged, and perhaps was just early interaction of the Earth poles or magnetic moments or something along those lines.
But there was positively something spooky about the video...like I swear someone was actually looking at the origin of the Earth with a chronovisor or something...it didn't seem like CGI at all, nor did it look like something physical or handmade. Now I'd obviously wager it was simple CGI, but videos don't stick in my mind for twenty years, generally speaking.
It'd be interesting if the expansions of Earth turned out to be in line with pole reversals...that's approximately what I wondered 20 years ago. And hey, if we get to witness a pole reversal in our lifetime...woowee.
My brother had a pituitary tumor that probably would have caused acromegaly had it not been removed.
He's three years younger than me, and around six inches taller LOL. It still probably had some effect.
On a related note, a friend of mine in high school became a friend of Gheorghe Muresan after chatting with his interpreter at a bunch of games...in fact became pretty good friends with his interpreter. I thought that was pretty cool. Muresan was awesome to watch.
I've played enough basketball with seven footers to know how many tall people are out there. Rather harrowing at times when you are 5'9. One team I played in high school had two seven foot players...our tallest player was 6'3 that year. Ridiculous.
I certainly think if there were higher radiative levels in past (and perhaps higher isotopic levels), I see no reason why people couldn't have been bigger.
I also wonder about acromegaly...perhaps the solution in to beat it with nutrition...provide the sustenance needed to allow the body to expand to deal with the swelling. Note that would have been much easier if prey was larger in the past and there was ample readily available protein. Just food for thought hehe.
As far as acromegaly and many other disorders from which humans suffer, I believe they may ultimately be related to our genetics. Specifically, I'm of the view that we are the product of genetic engineering, and those engineers like human ones are less than perfect. I fear many of these problems may never be sorted out unless seen in the correct context.
Because really, some of us may naturally be intended to be much larger, and the environment disrupts our optimum development (think about a magnificent Great White shark being raised in a 10-gallon fish tank full of dirty bathwater). In addition to the factors you mentioned, I think the environment in ancient times may have been extremely different.
For example, dinosaurs may have been so large partly because gravity was weaker, and gravity was weaker because the Earth was smaller! Which sounds kooky until you begin to examine the evidence:
This web site is dedicated to exploring the mounting evidence that dinosaurs lived in a reduced gravity.
I used to reject out of hand the idea that the largest giants recorded in ancient texts were up to 36'. Well I can tell you, I don't reject the idea any more.
Cool site, like the animations too.
One video I saw a LONG time ago really weirded me out. I believe it was a video that was a recreation of how the Earth may have started, and it was a small ball of water with two bright points of light on it. They flitted all around the globe, and when they happened to collide, a new spot of light appeared at the collision point, and as new spots appeared, the ball of water appeared to get bigger to accommodate the new "life-forms". Kinda reminded me of Conway's Game of Life.
I intuitively felt the original two points of lights were positively and negatively charged, and perhaps was just early interaction of the Earth poles or magnetic moments or something along those lines.
But there was positively something spooky about the video...like I swear someone was actually looking at the origin of the Earth with a chronovisor or something...it didn't seem like CGI at all, nor did it look like something physical or handmade. Now I'd obviously wager it was simple CGI, but videos don't stick in my mind for twenty years, generally speaking.
It'd be interesting if the expansions of Earth turned out to be in line with pole reversals...that's approximately what I wondered 20 years ago. And hey, if we get to witness a pole reversal in our lifetime...woowee.