Great Heights Indeed for Ukraine Giant

8-foot-5 former veterinarian is world's tallest living man
By Heather McPherson,  Newser User
Posted Aug 9, 2007 7:18 PM CDT
Great Heights Indeed for Ukraine Giant
apparently stimulated his pituitary gland. He lives with his mother, Halyna, taking care of the family's house and garden.(AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)   (Associated Press)

Leonid Stadnik knows how the weather is up there. The 8-foot-5 Ukrainian was declared the planet's tallest man by Guinness World Records yesterday, the AP reports, displacing a 7-9 Mongolian. Stadnik is 6 inches short of the all-time mark, held by an American.

Stadnik, a 37-year-old former veterinarian, lives with his mother in northwestern Ukraine. He attributes his height to an operation he underwent at 14, which stimulated a gland that produces human growth hormone. "My height is God's punishment," he told the AP in 2004. "My life has no sense." (More Guinness World Records stories.)

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