I heard of the case of Adam Rainer, where his apparent condition called “acromegaly” caused him to grow uncontrollably beyond adolescence. He was both a dwarf at 19 and a giant at 33. How is this possible if growth plates predetermine height?

Question

I’ve been wondering this for a pretty long time

In: Biology

Answer 1

Acromegaly is the condition where the pituitary gland has a non cancerous tumor on it and is common in middle aged men. So excessive growth occurs because too much growth hormone is secreted.

Every aspect of growth is controlled from that single gland and when the body needs to grow it sends out a signal from this tiny gland to the rest of the body to grow. The tumor causes a malfunction in the gland and tells the gland to secrete more growth hormones when normally it shouldn’t be over secreting them.

The only way to stop it is to have surgery to cut out the tumor or have radiation treatment done to kill the tumor cells.

Most doctors will do an operation through your nose to get at the pituitary gland but in some cases cannot remove all of it which requires more treatments.

[https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/acromegaly/symptoms-causes/syc-20351222](https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/acromegaly/symptoms-causes/syc-20351222)

[https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/acromegaly/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20351226](https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/acromegaly/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20351226)