Your Stature Could Kill You!

Recent Studies done by Dr. Nilesh Samani and his colleagues at the University of Leicester explore the linkage between height and heart disease. For years doctors have recognized a trend that shorter people have a higher chance of developing heart disease, but the genetic explanation has remained a mystery.

This study focused on 180 genes known to be related to a person's height and found that the most probable cause of this is that these genes which regulate growth related to height also regulate growth and development of the arteries and vessels in the vascular system. When a person is shorter, their vascular system may also be smaller and underdeveloped, which increases the person's chances of developing coronary heart disease.

The study was published in The New England Journal of Medicine and stated that a person who is one standard deviation (6.5cm) shorter than another person will have a 13.5% higher chance of developing heart disease. Samani stated that, though it is not a sort-term possibility, he believes that studying the underlying genetic codes related to height and heart disease could lead to treatments in the future.