Why would someone shrink in height?

I don't understand. I was measured to be about 5'9.75 by the doctors. My older brother who is measured at 5'10" was about the same height as me just about 3 months ago. We used to both look about the exact same height just 3 months ago and now when I came back from college he seems noticeably taller than me, like about an inch or over. I grew to about his height about a year ago and now I am shorter than him it seems. He is 24 and a half and I am 20 so I highly doubt he could of grown in 3 months.

The only thing that could of contributed to me shrinking in height would be the fact that I did lots of heavy lifting recently (I have lifted for many years but not so seriously, since I had access to an excellent gym for the first time since transferring to this university), I did lots of walking (I recently transferred to a large public university and my classes are sometimes up to 20 minutes away, took a walking class, plus I take walks sometimes because I took easy classes this semester and have lots of time on my hands) and I stopped sleeping with a pillow in between my legs. This may of shrunk my spine I guess.

Other than that I can't think of any other way that I would shrink. I am not obsessed with height, but this has really annoyed me and kept me for a few hours last night. I am going to refrain from lifting weights for a month and I will begin to sleep with a pillow in between my legs in the night and see what happens.

Thoughts? Has this ever happened to you? any suggestions?

@crazyguy111: Probably your Spine is crooked from a bad posture, eazy to get but eazy to prevent!

I've thought about this and tried to improve my posture, and there is no difference.

Has he grown?

@crazyguy111: Maybe you're a midget and your parents didn't tell you yet!

it's totally possible it is not you. More likely than not your brother just had a growth spurt. I grew from 5 ft 9 to 6 ft 1 over one summer in high school. It could have happened to your brother as well.

maybe he was wearing shoes while you weren't xD

Its possible, but I doubt you can grow much at 24 years of age in 3 months.

@crazyguy111: There is a man who was quallified as a midget and as a giant in his lifetime so everything is possible!

lol.

How tall are you now?

I don't know, I haven't measured myself, and I haven't been to the doctors lately. Although I am clearly shorter than my older brother while I used to be his height. Oh well...

@crazyguy111: Didn't you change class from barbarian to ranger

Ah...

no.

It's possible that your brother has grown and it's possible that you've shrunk. If your nutrition and water intake is subpar, the cartilage disks in your spine will compress, especially if you're regularly dehydrated. As someone else has noted, long term poor posture will also make you shorter.

It's much more likely that your brother experienced late growth than you shrinking at such a young age. That typically doesn't start, in males, until after age 60.

It's possible you've been hexed.

The milkman is shorter than your dad.

really?

Cross my heart.

Kidding aside, you just don´t "shrink", age doesn´t matter either, not even being next of kin counts, there are many genetic, environmental and nutritional variables that affect how a person develops, you and your brother only share half the genes for starters ( only homozygotic twins share the same genes, and even there other variables like nutrition and environment play a role on how the genes express ), so go to a physician to be checked in search for any abnormalities in the spine and the limbs.

I see. He probably just had a late growth spurt or something, rare, but I can't think of any other way.

IIRC, the human body can stretch as much as 2-3 inches when sleeping.

Either you shrank or he grew. The easiest thing would be for you to have someone measure your height to see if you shrank or not (or ask your brother if you can measure his height).

By heavy lifting do you mean bench presses or do you mean squats? I imagine squatting with a heavy weight could compress your spine. Walking compresses the spine a bit, but when you sleep the spine decompresses, so people are normally at their tallest when they first wake up.

What about your brothers hair, what's it like? I look taller when I haven't had a hair cut in a while since my hair gets puffy.

Also I think there are exercises you can do to get a little bit taller (basically they involve stretching tendons and ligaments that might be tight).

@whipassmt:

cool, what kind of stretches are these?

I doubt in this case that you've shrank, he probably just got taller, or you misjudged your height in comparison to his.

With that said, every male in my family has done military service. They've all also shrank. I was around 5'9-5'10 when I joined the Marines, 5 years later I'm 5'8-5'8 1/2. Nowhere close to 5'9.

My dad was 5'11 when he joined the army, he's also 5'8. 20 years of jumping out of planes, three herniated discs in his back, and 20 years of ruck marching shrank him. My uncle was 5'7, now he's barely 5'4.

It happens with strenuous activity.

Interesting. Does the height come back?

No, once damaged it´s damaged for good.

No, I'm pretty sure it has to do with cartilage and other shit in your spine. It happens as you age and do physically strenuous activity. Once it compacts like that, I don't think you get it back.