People come in all shapes and sizes. Think about the extremes of masculinity and femininity as an example. Men with giant chests and height are much larger then a 5 foot 1 boney woman. In addition, differences between individuals belonging to the same sex can be drastic as well. Though most men are between a certain height range, it is not uncommon for some men to be a foot or two smaller or larger than the average.
Dwarfism Statistics
1. Individuals diagnosed with Dwarfism may suffer from similar problems.
2. Hypertonia, or low muscle growth is quite common in dwarfs.
3. Despite their small size, dwarfs do not differ from normal people in intelligence.
4. Dwarfs have the same life span as normal adults.
5. Out of the 200 or so reasons for dwarfism to occur, they are all relatively rare.
6. 1 in every 200,000 are affected by dwarfism.
7. With so many possible causes of Dwarfism however, the number of people affected by Dwarfism are larger than one would first think.
As stated before, people come in all shapes and sizes. So what about really small people? Known by a hundred different names, including midgets and dwarfs, there has always been the idea of little people in the public imagination. They have appeared in popular movies like the Wizard of Oz, and can even be seen going about their day to day lives on the streets.
Knowing more about this requires using the right language. Known as Dwarfism, individuals can have a condition that results in shortened stature. Let’s take a closer look at Dwarfism, look at Dwarfism statistics, and get to the bottom of what it means to be medically classified with Dwarfism.
Standard Deviation
People come in all shapes and sizes. If two very tall people have a child, there is a chance the child will be very tall as well. The same is true for short parents. If two short parents have a child, their child will also be short. When individuals are small because their parents are small, then it is not considered Dwarfism. Rather, it is considered nothing more then a standard deviation off from the average. Though it is rare to see very tall or very short people, it can statistically happen and it is not Dwarfism.
Defining Dwarfism
So then what is Dwarfism? Dwarfism, and the characteristic appearance we associate with individuals who have Dwarfism is a medical condition that inhibits natural growth. As a result, the individual never gets larger, as their growth is stopped. An individual without Dwarfism may be very tall, and only never have grown to that height due to the medical condition. As a result, two individuals with Dwarfism can have a child who grows to their natural height. Two short people on the other hand are much more likely to have short children.
Dwarfism in the United States is sometimes defined as an individual who is less then 4 feet 10 inches in height. Dwarfism has been known to occur because of over 200 separate conditions. As a result, the symptoms of Dwarfism vary greatly between individuals diagnosed with the medical condition. Dwarfism doesn’t just occur in humans. Dwarfism can occur throughout the animal kingdom, leading to such things as tiny horses, goats, and even elephants. In all cases, the animals exhibit similar troubles and humans, including a set number of potential complications.
Prevention and Treatment
Most kinds of Dwarfism are impossible to prevent or treat. They are the natural way that the body will involve, and intervention is still years in the making. In addition, once the body has matured, treatments are limited as well. Consider for an instance trying to add 2 feet to your height. What would you have to do? What could you do? The trouble is that individuals suffering from Dwarfism have to not only add height, but make it proportional to the rest of the body. While there are techniques for adding a few inches, they can be painful and many opt out of such surgeries.
Diagnosis
A diagnosis is most often made when the person is very young. For most kinds of Dwarfism, a simple physical examination may be enough to determine Dwarfism. Changes in natural growth are easy to identify and diagnose. In addition, genetic testing can be done to see if the individual has one of the 200+ underlying causes of Dwarfism. Finally, some individuals with Dwarfism are capable of passing it on to their children. If both parents have Dwarfism, then the chances are even higher. Even then however, it is not entirely certain that the child will have Dwarfism. In the end, the only way to tell is to watch the child grow, and see if their growth is at all stunted.