Are Tall People Healthier? Examining the Relationship Between Height and Disease Risk

08.08.2023

Are tall people healthier than shorter people? Researchers have discovered that tall people have a lower risk of heart attack, but that tall people are more likely to develop cancer. Who is most at risk of diseases such as diabetes and others?

It is true that the extent of a person’s health awareness in his daily life strongly affects his health, but the length of a person’s body can also affect his risk of disease.

diabetes

For diabetes Tall people have a better advantage over shorter people. Because the percentage of fat in the liver of tall people is lower and their insulin response is greater than that of shorter people, according to Norbert Stefan, a professor of clinical experimental diabetes at Tubingen University Hospital.

On the other hand, people who are shorter in height suffer from a poor utilization of glucose, which means that they are more likely to develop diabetes on average, according to what the “Journalism Editorial Network in Germany” (RND) wrote.

An evaluation conducted at the University Hospital in Düsseldorf in May 2023 also reached this same conclusion: the taller women and men were in different age groups, the more likely they were to be affected. with type 2 diabetes less. However, there are risk factors for developing diabetes in the case of severe obesity and lack of physical activity, for example.

Carl Kostev, in charge of epidemiological research at the IQVIA Research Institute, analyzed data on 780,000 adult patients in collaboration with a team of internists at the University Hospital Düsseldorf. The bottom line was this: for every ten centimeters shorter in height, the risk of infection increases with diabetes The second type is 15% in women and 10% in men. On the other hand, there is no association between height or shortness of height and type 1 diabetes, which often begins in childhood or adolescence due to an absolute lack of the hormone insulin.

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heart disease

The website “Journalism Editorial Network in Germany” confirms that height is also associated with riskCardiovascular disease. For this purpose, the data of nearly 660,000 patients at the University Hospital Dusseldorf was analyzed – and the result was: Women and men of shorter stature were more likely to develop high blood pressure or to have strokes in which brain tissue dies.

According to Dr. Stefan, Professor of Experimental Diabetes, tall people have many advantages, he lists among them: “Less fatty acids, less LDL-cholesterol, less glucose, and more favorable liver proteins (hepatokins).” This means that tall people have a lower risk of heart attacks.

In the dataset from Dusseldorf, shorter men and women were more likely to be affected heart disease Coronary artery disease, where the blood vessels narrow, which also increases the risk of heart attack.

According to the study, for every ten centimeter increase in height, the risk of this decreases by 9% in women and 13% in men. By contrast, taller women and men are more likely to develop atrial fibrillation.

Coagulation

Obviously, tall people do not have the same advantages in this regard. Dr. Stefan explains: “The longer the limbs, the more blood is pumped to the heart. According to Dr. Stefan, up to 90 percent of blood clots originate in the deep veins of the legs, and can lead to pulmonary embolism.”

His colleague Kostev and the team of internists in Dusseldorf also came to the conclusion that the risk of developing the disease increases by 23 percent for every ten centimeters of height.

A look at a Swedish analysis from 2017 shows that tall people have a higher risk of stroke.

US researchers also came to the conclusion that tall people have a higher risk of developing atrial fibrillation and varicose veins, which can promote thrombosis.

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Cancer

In the case of cancer, too, there is a relationship between height and the incidence of cancer. A comparison of data conducted by the University Hospital Dusseldorf showed that taller patients are more likely to develop cancer. The risk increases by 11 percent in women and by 6 percent in men for every ten centimeters of increase in height.

The German Journalism Editorial Network (RND) reports that researchers have also found an association between human height and certain types of cancer. Stefan mentions the three most common types of tall people: melanoma, colon cancer, and breast cancer.

p.m./p.m