Human growth regulation is dominated by the socio-cultural exposome

Humans are social. They live and grow within their communities. Yet, despite similar genetic makeup and comparable physical living conditions, communities that do not share the same socio-cultural background often differ greatly in height. Evidence suggests that growth is substantially influenced by the social community (community effects on height) which narrows the spectrum of the potential variation in height by at least 50%. Strategic growth adjustments within social networks reflect the social position with physical size being a potent signal of dominance supported by a variety of accessory social and cultural signals and symbols among humans. The concept of Socio-Economic-Political- Emotional (SEPE) influences on growth describes growth as a mirror that signals the emotional balance between the socio-cultural exposome, the personal perception of this exposure and its translation via hypothalamic neuropeptides into the metabolome, and ultimately, into the physical signal of body size to be returned to the social community. The strong conservation of this complex signaling pathway since more than 400 million years in the vertebrate line suggests substantial evolutionary relevance, and is strongly supported by recent considerations on self-organizing processes found in both random network systems and in the social networks of a variety of social vertebrates.