Long and short of it is, height matters
‘The short-statured may perceive themselves as being more disadvantaged than in the past’
Height should not matter, but it does. Tallness has always been a valuable biological asset, distinguishing the rulers from the ruled, rich from poor. We “look up” to our betters. In 1750, upper-class recruits to Sandhurst were, on average, an astonishing seven and a half inches taller than those to the much humbler Marine Society. Now that even the children of the least welloff have enough to eat, that height differential has narrowed to a mere quarter of an inch.
But with everyone now being so much taller, the short-statured may perceive themselves as being more disadvantaged than in the past, while the upward shift in average height has increased the numbers of the excessively tall – which has its own social drawbacks.
Hence the interest in making the short taller and the tall shorter than they would otherwise be. The outcome for the former has been rather disappointing as, despite early optimism that regular injections with synthetic growth hormone would increase their predicted height by an average of two inches, it has turned out to be just half of that, which, at a cost in excess of £40,000, is scarcely worthwhile.
The prospects for those who are already 6ft at puberty and thus likely to be extremely tall adults are, by contrast, much more encouraging. Here, the simple procedure of stapling the growth points around the knees reduces their ultimate predicted height by, on average, five inches.
What lies beneath
The plight of the Truro lady in her 80s with the sensation of “something crawling under her skin” – attributed by two specialists to delusional parasitosis (“the fixed belief of being infested with small living creatures”) – has prompted a couple of interesting contributions.
This could, it is suggested, be a form of formication (not to be confused with fornication…), from the Latin “formicare”, “to creep like an ant”, first described more than a century ago as “a form of itching like the crawling of a myriad of animals over the skin”. It can be variously: a feature of eczema, especially in the elderly; a particularly distressing symptom of the menopause; caused by intoxication with alcohol or cocaine (unlikely to be relevant here); and a side-effect of several drugs for the treatment of epilepsy; and, apparently, beta-blockers.
Next, the possibility of scabies, infestation with the tiny mite sarcoptes, should always be considered. This can be contracted from others, one woman points out, in the most improbable situations – in her case, from contact with another bare leg when sitting on a London bus in a miniskirt.
Wonder of cannabis
Cannabis – favoured by Queen Victoria (no less) for the relief of her period pains – is rapidly becoming the wonder-drug of our age.
It was in the news again last week when the Home Office refused to sanction its use to treat six-year-old Alfie Dingley’s otherwise intractable epilepsy.
Following my recent comments on its merits (or, rather, those of cannabidiol or CBD oil) in weaning people off heavy-duty opiate drugs, a reader writes to tell of the “dramatic improvement” following regular use by both his partner (with severe rheumatoid arthritis of the hands) and her best friend (with an arthritic neck). “It has transformed the quality of their lives, and they have become evangelical in its praise,” he writes.
And though apprehensive lest this might raise false hopes, a gentleman from Staffordshire reports that the most recent X-ray of his inoperable lung tumour shows “a significant reduction in size” that he attributes to the regular use of a CBD oil with 2 per cent cannabidiol concentration: nine drops, twice a day.
This could, of course, be a rare instance of spontaneous regression, though researchers at London’s St George’s Hospital have found that CBD oil does have specific anti-cancer properties, potentiating the effects of chemotherapy.
“We have a large collection of positive testimonials,” Dr Wai Liu is reported as saying.