How to be taller

02 Feb 2010

It pays to be taller: apart from getting things down from shelves, there's a wealth of evidence pointing to a correlation between height and success at work.

A 2005 study in the Journal of Applied Psychology, based on data from the US and the UK, found that every centimetre over average height is worth an extra $311 (£190) a year. Over a 30-year career, even controlling for factors such as age and gender, the average gap in earnings between a Nicolas Sarkozy (165cm) and a David Cameron (184cm) is well over £100,000. And for men, at least, height is often intimately linked to attractiveness to the opposite sex.

The best way to ensure you reach your maximum height potential is to start young.Make sure nothing gets in the way of your human growth hormone doing its work. Heavy meals stimulate insulin production, which in turn inhibits the flow of growth hormone: stick to several small meals a day, and don't eat for a couple of hours before you go to bed -- it's in the first two hours of sleep that most growth hormone gets released. Try to get your full eight hours, and take plenty of exercise.

If you're past adolescence, all is not lost. Any exercise that involves stretching the spine, such as yoga or Pilates, can offer a temporary height increase, and improved posture can make this permanent. Practitioners of the Alexander technique -- in essence, relearning how to stand and hold your head straight -- claim to have grown by up to 3cm, by flattening the curves of the spine; but evidence remains anecdotal.

One proven method is limb lengthening surgery, originally developed by the Soviet surgeon Gavril Ilizarov to help injured servicemen during World War II; the principal centre is still the Ilizarov Scientific Centre in Kurgan, Siberia. Bones in the legs are broken in several places and pins screwed into the sections to stop them knitting together. The body produces more bony tissue to fill the gap; as the fractures heal, the bones are pulled apart by a millimetre or so a day. Over several months, the legs can become considerably longer -- 8 or 10cm is not uncommon. The drawbacks are that it is expensive -- £75,000 or more -- involves a long period of inactivity, and is by all accounts extremely painful.

There are less drastic steps. Women can wear heels or platform soles; and for men, there are cowboy boots and, less obviously, "status shoes", with concealed lifts -- these can discreetly increase height by up to 10cm. Or if you're satisfied with creating an impression of height, stand up straight, wear dark, slim-fitting clothes and keep your hair short (long hair makes you look as though you've got no neck). Finally, stand next to people who are smaller than you: it worked for Judy Garland.