Sunday, September 7, 2008

Stopping the Growth of a 7 Foot 12-Year-Old

In my last post, I wrote about Brenden Adams, the 7 foot tall twelve-year-old. Scientists and doctors have finally discovered the cause of his abnormal rampant growth. Human DNA contains chromosomes that determine many factors of our body. Brenden's 12th chromosome has broken off and reattached onto the wrong place in his DNA. This disrupted the gene that controls growth. It therefore affects every single cell in his body. Because of this, his current size is absolutely irreversible, but the doctors wished to slow him down from growing any bigger. They came up with a very simple solution. They are injecting him with large amounts of testosterone to start puberty. This naturally slows the growth of an individual when they near adulthood. Brenden may have a fully mature body by the time he is a teenager. Even with the slowed growth, it is expected he will reach over 8 feet tall before he stops growing.

3 comments:

Sheri Fresonke Harper said...

Great story, love the colors in your photographs :) Sheri

Anon said...

Then it must be possible for me to alter my chromosomes and grow continuously to giant size...
TO THE LABORATORY!

NovaBlogger said...

That's what really scares me about this. If we have figured out the cause, it might not be too long before scientists figure out how to duplicate this "defect". Imagine what an army of giants could do... or even a giant Vince for that matter.