Dwarfism Facts

You must have heard of Kenadie Jourdin-Bromley, the tiny Thumbelina of the real world. She was born on February 13, 2003 in Ontario Canada. She was just 2 pounds when she was born and given only 24 hours to live by her doctors. However, she managed to survive and was soon diagnosed with dwarfism. Dwarfism is a medical condition that leads to short stature of the affected person. These people generally are shorter than the less than average height of 4 feet 10 inches. There are many dwarfism facts that not many people of the tall world are aware of. The following paragraphs will cover some facts about dwarfism that will help change your outlook towards this condition.

Facts about Dwarfism

Before we begin understanding dwarfism, it is important to learn a few important dwarfism facts. Dwarfism is not a disorder, but a medical condition. People with dwarfism can be called using an non-offensive and preferred term 'little people', in United States and Canada. Dwarfism can be characterized as disproportionate dwarfism and proportionate dwarfism. In case of proportionate dwarfism, the body is normally proportioned and is very, very small. Disproportionate dwarfism is a condition where one or more body parts are large or small in size when compared to a normal adult. Most of the time dwarfism is caused by genetic disorders in bone and cartilage development. In some cases, it can be due to growth hormone deficiency and called pituitary dwarfism.

Many people believe dwarfism is a characterized by mental retardation and a short life expectancy. However, if you have a look at the facts about dwarfism, this condition is not associated with any form of medical complications. They have normal intellect just like those with normal height. They age normally and their normal life expectancy is not any different from others. The typical adult height of a dwarf is about 2 feet 8 inches to 4 feet 8 inches.

Dwarfism Causes

There are different dwarfism causes each with specific symptoms of dwarfism. Let us have a look at some of the dwarfism facts in the following paragraphs on causes of dwarfism.

Achondroplasia
70% of the cases of dwarfism are attributed to achondroplasia. This is an autosomal dominant disorder that is caused due to presence of an abnormal allele in the genome. There is a mutation in the fibroblast growth factor receptor gene 3. This gene acts as an inhibitor to bone growth. The symptoms of dwarfism due to achondroplasia are short limbs, increase in spinal curvature, distorted skull growth and average sized trunk. This condition occurs in 1 in 15,000 to 40,000 newborns.

Growth Hormone deficiency
Growth hormone deficiency is a medical condition that causes insufficient production of growth hormone. Somatotropin, a growth hormone deficiency may cause stunted growth or halt growth suddenly. This may occur due to damage to pituitary gland, Turner's syndrome, mutation in some specific genes, malnutrition and even stress.

Dwarfism Types

As we go further with facts about dwarfism, we come to a question how many types of dwarfism are there. There are over 200 types of dwarfism that varies from an individual to individual. As we have seen earlier, types of dwarfism are divided into two broad categories 'disproportionate' and 'proportionate' dwarfism. Some of the common dwarfism types are discussed below:

Spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita (SED)
This is a rare bone growth disorder that causes dwarfism. The dwarfism symptoms due to spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita include short stature from birth, short trunk, neck and limbs. The hands and feet are average sized. The adult height is about 0.9 meters to 1.4 meters.

Diastrophic dysplasia
Diastrophic dysplasia affects development of cartilage and bone. This is an autosomal recessive dysplasia where the affected person has very short arms and legs. They have joint problems that restricts their mobility. The dwarfism symptoms under this type include clubfoot with twisted metatarsals, inward and downward turning of foot, scoliosis and hitchhiker thumbs.

Primordial Dwarfism
Primordial dwarfism is a rare dwarfism type that is generally diagnosed in the fetus. The fetus is either very small for its gestational age or has some intrauterine growth disability during the ultrasound diagnosis. One of the interesting premoridial dwarfism fact is that only 100 individuals in the world are affected with this disorder. These individuals have a very small body size and rarely live more than 30 years.

Other dwarfism types include Achondroplasia, Pseudoachondroplasia, Hypochondroplasia, Pituitary Dwarfism, Osteogenesis Imperfecta,Turner Syndrome and Psychogenic Dwarfism. One of the many dismaying facts about dwarfism is that there is no cure or treatment for this conditions. However, with advance genetics, we can hope to find a breakthrough with dwarfism. Little people like all other people are totally normal. Just because they are smaller in size, does not make them any different. If you ever come across a little person, never make fun, stare or laugh at them. They are respectable humans just like you, who deserve to be treated with respect. We all have some or the other faults and making fun of someone with a short stature makes you look like a fool rather than the little people.

These were some dwarfism facts that will help you understand this medical condition better. Hope the above paragraphs have helped clear some myths about dwarfism in your mind.