Handbook of Growth and Growth Monitoring in Health and Disease
Growth is one of the human body’s most intricate processes: each body part or region has its own unique growth patterns. Yet at the individual and population levels, growth patterns are sensitive to adverse conditions, genetic predispositions, and environ
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Victor R. Preedy Editor
Handbook of Growth and Growth Monitoring in Health and Disease
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Editor Victor R. Preedy Department of Nutrition & Dietetics Diabetes & Nutritional Sciences Division School of Medicine King’s College London London SE1 9NH, UK
Printed in 3 volumes ISBN 978-1-4419-1794-2 ISBN 978-1-4419-1795-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-1795-9 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London Library of Congress Control Number: 2011939068 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of going to press, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
Growth entails the development of parts or all of a living being, from conception to maturity. The pattern of growth is not uniform and each body region has its own distinct growth characteristics. This is clearly illustrated by the typical growth spurts in boys and girls, driven by the endocrine changes accompanying puberty. However, patterns of growth are perturbed when there are changes in metabolism or physiology as well as adverse conditions such as disease, malnutrition, and overt endocrine imbalance. In some populations the general prevailing patterns of growth and development are quite distant from the normal ranges documented by international organizations. Superficial interpretation may indicate that such apparent adverse patterns may be environmental in origin, but genetic predisposition may also impact on growth. Thus a significant number of factors are responsible for the differences between how children should grow and how children actually grow into mature adults. The human body has an inherent capacity to compensate for abnormalities by “catchup growth” to predetermined levels. However, this realignment to normality does not occur in every individual, and perturbations in growth may have long-term or lifelong implications. Because of these implications, abnormalities in organ, tissue, or whole-body development need to be characterized, measured
