• The effect of zinc and L-arginine supplementation on height increase in children
  • Mohammad mahdi Mohammadi,1,* Zeinab Sadat Moosavifard,2
    1. BSc in Nursing, Department of Nursing, Bandar Abbas Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bandar Abbas, Iran.
    2. Department of Nursing, faculty of nursing, Bandar Abbas Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bandar Abbas, Iran.


  • Introduction: Children's short stature is one of the primary manifestations of nutritional status and an indicator of chronic malnutrition, which can cause complications such as the occurrence of diseases, early death, reduced mental development and functional weakness of children. Inadequate child nutrition and lack of nutrients is one of the most important causes of growth defects in these children. Among the nutrients, zinc and protein have a significant effect on the bone and muscle growth of the body in terms of both quantity and quality. L-arginine is an essential amino acid for children that the body cannot make naturally. L-arginine can increase the height of children by increasing the secretion of growth hormone. Zinc element is effective in bone growth and height increase by affecting the secretion of some hormones and also by increasing the production of vitamin D and as a result calcium absorption. On the other hand, by influencing the activity of somatomedin hormone, which is stimulated by the secretion of growth hormone, zinc creates cartilage and bone tissue and is an effective factor in the growth of the body and the growth of the bone skeleton.
  • Methods: The present study is a review of the articles registered in PubMed, SCOPUS, Embase, ProQuest and Google Scholar sites until 2019. The inclusion criteria included: 1) clinical trial studies, 2) human studies, 3) studies in English, and cell studies, reviews, animal studies, letters to the editor, and articles in non-English language were excluded from the study. These articles have investigated the effect of L-arginine and zinc supplements on children's growth.
  • Results: After searching the database, the title and abstract of 402 studies were examined and finally 10 eligible studies were considered. The results of 3 reviewed studies showed that the effect of daily L-arginine supplementation is effective on increasing the height of children. In 8 studies, the positive effect of zinc and L-arginine supplementation on height growth was found, and in 2 studies, contradictory results were seen.
  • Conclusion: The results of the review of the articles showed that the daily supplement of 1 mg of zinc per kilogram of body weight and 3 grams of l-arginine per day is recommended in short children to improve height growth.
  • Keywords: Zinc,L-arginine, supplementation, height increase, children