Giants taller than two meters amazed the imagination in ancient times. Giant people became heroes of legends and myths. However, it is possible to believe in the reality of the existence of individuals with huge growth only on the basis of reliable data, evidence, supported by indisputable evidence. Such data appeared in the 20th century.
Robert Pershing Wadlow is the tallest man who has ever lived on the planet. He was born in Olton (Illinois, USA) in 1918. Measurements taken in June 1940 showed that Robert Wadlow's height was two meters seventy-two centimeters, his arm span was 2 m 88 cm. The young man weighed 223 kilograms. He was the owner of a huge hand, the length of which reached 32.4 centimeters. Robert's height increased rapidly from the age of 4 due to a pituitary tumor and acromegaly. The giant young man studied law at the university after graduation.
At the age of 18, he traveled all over the country with the circus, later publicperformances of the good giant, as Robert was called by his compatriots, became constant. However, he alth problems made themselves felt. At the end of his short life, Wadlow could not do without crutches due to limited sensation in his legs. The tallest man did not live long, he died in his sleep in July 1940. The wound on the leg, rubbed with a crutch, got an infection that caused sepsis. A blood transfusion and an operation undertaken by doctors were not enough measures to save the life of a 22-year-old giant.
Today, the tallest man in the world is a Turkish citizen named Sultan Kösen, born in 1982. The height of the Turkish farmer, recorded in the Guinness Book of Records, is two meters fifty-one centimeters. He also holds the record for the length of the arm span (275 cm), so the title of "the tallest man in the world" is not the only one owned by the giant. The measurement procedure took place in February 2011.
Sultan has a pituitary tumor, and he has to move only with the help of crutches. Since 2010, his hormone levels have been monitored by doctors from the University of Virginia. In March 2012, doctors confirmed that the course of therapy prescribed to Sultan Kösen gave a positive result: the hormonal activity of the pituitary gland was normalized, and constant growth was stopped.
"Ukrainian Gulliver" with a height of two meters fifty-three centimeters refused to challenge the palm in the nomination "the tallest man."
Leonid Stadnyuk, a resident of a village near Zhytomyr, explains his refusal by his unwillingness to be in the zone of close attention of the press, and also by the fact that he was tired of the glory that fell on him. Leonid began to grow at an accelerated pace at the age of 14 after doctors removed a benign tumor in the cerebral hemispheres. Probably, the pituitary gland was affected during the surgical intervention, which led to a violation of secretion and metabolism.
There are people making incredible efforts to get into the Guinness Book of Records. Those awarded the title of "tallest man" would give a lot so that their names would not appear on the lists of record holders, because gigantism is not a sign of he alth, but an ailment that reduces life expectancy and causes suffering. In addition, patients with gigantism have a high risk of dying from an intercurrent (complicating the course of the underlying disease) disease.
