Gigantism

Gigantism, also known as giantism (from Greek gigas, gigantas "giant"), is a condition characterized by excessive growth and height significantly above average. In humans, this condition is caused by over-production of growth hormone in childhood before the long bone epiphyses closes.

Terminology
The term is typically applied to those whose height is not just in the upper 1% of the population but several standard deviations above mean for persons of the same sex, age, and ethnic ancestry. The term is seldom applied to those who are simply "tall" or "above average" whose heights appear to be the healthy result of normal genetics and nutrition. It is usually caused by a tumor on the pituitary gland on the brain. It causes growth of the hands, face, and feet. In some cases the condition can be passed on genetically through a mutated gene.

Other names somewhat obsolete for this pathology are hypersomia (Greek: hyper over the normal level; soma body) and somatomegaly (Greek; soma body, genitive somatos of the body; megas, gen. megalou great). In the past, while many of them were social outcasts because of their height, some (usually unintentionally) found employment in Friedrich Wilhelm I's famous Potsdam Giants regiment.

Many of those who have been identified with gigantism have suffered from multiple health problems involving their circulatory or skeletal system.

In history, art and literature
Height discrimination may hurt very tall people. The phenomena of gigantism existed all along history, with some nations and tribes taller than others.

Giant people
Giants have been depicted in the Bible as fearful people of the enemy

The giants of Crete are listed in various historic sources, beginning with Titan - a Greek mythological giant, and including Gigantus - after whom giants and gigantism is named. Rhodes is another Island where giants were said to have lived, with the Colossus of Rhodes a giant statue of a giant patron god Helion. In a 1968 Asterix cartoon - Asterix at the Olympic Games coinciding with the 1968 Summer Olympics in New Mexico, Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo depict a 'Colossal' Olympic player from Rhodes, who meets his family who are all extremely tall. In Asterix in Normandy they meet giant Vikings who have a giant dog looking down at Dogmatix. The people of Finland today are known to be very tall.

The Kenyan Masai and other African tribes are known to be very tall. The bible mentions Hushay Haarki (The long fast runner) who runs faster than Ahitofel and is an African (from the land of Kush).

In modern literature and movies giants are depicted as initially feared but when met are seen as friendly:

Roald Dahl wrote The BFG - Big Friendly Giant, where most giants are scary except the BFG.

In The Princess Bride, Fezzik (played by André the Giant) is a giant on the brute squad, but turns out to be very gentle. In a tribute to Andre posted on YouTube, he is quoted as saying the reason he enjoyed being on the film's set was because outside it: "Nobody looks at me".

In the 2003 film Big Fish, Matthew McGrory plays Karl, a gentle giant, feared by the city, and is forced to eat people in order to save himself from starvation.

Giant animals
It is presumed that fascination with large animals is what leads to the quest for and findings of large ancient remnants such as dinosaurs and mastodons. Larger animals on earth today include: polar bears, whales, giant squids, and elephants among others.

Giant animals are also shown in many movies, usually depicted to induce fear into the viewer. Most notably are King Kong, Godzilla, and the Great White Shark from the 1975 film Jaws.