History abounds with tales of hugely tall men and women, but it’s only in the past couple of hundred years that we’ve had medical explanations for the phenomenon. Pituitary gigantism, Marfan syndrome, eunuchoid tallness, Sotos syndrome, and acromegaly are all conditions that can cause those afflicted to grow beyond the human norm.

Pituitary gigantism is by far the most common cause of extreme height. It usually occurs due to over-secretion of growth hormone from cells in the pituitary gland or as a result of a tumor on this same gland at the base of the brain.