Scientists have found that height appears to be inversely correlated with risk of heart disease. In other words, being short comes with a greater risk.
In a study published April 8 in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers looked at 180 genetic variants in 200,000 people with and without heart disease. The researchers -- led by Nilesh Samani, a professor of cardiology at the University of Leicester -- found that for every 2.5 inches of height that a person is shorter than someone else, the shorter body's risk of clogged arteries is 13.5 percent greater.
The idea that a person's risk of heart disease -- the leading killer worldwide -- is linked to height has been known for more than 60 years, but scientists had wondered whether poverty, poor nutrition and other environmental factors could be the reason for the link. This is the first study to show a role played by genetic inheritance and the first to quantify the effect.
The researchers looked at two pools of DNA, one collected for a genetics of height study and another from a genetics of heart disease study, and then they identified pathways where the genes that control height could also influence heart disease.
The effect appeared clear-cut in men, but less so in women. The researchers wrote that it's unclear whether this represents a genuine difference in the effect of genes and height and heart disease between men and women or whether this is due to the study's smaller sample size for women. Earlier studies have been more clear in their conclusions that women's height also affects their risk for heart disease.
ActiveStyle on 04/20/2015