Being vertically challenged significantly increases your risk of developing heart disease and dying from it but scientists haven't yet found a reason for the link.Researchers in Finland reviewed a raft of studies on the topic after previous research deliv
Being vertically challenged significantly increases your risk of developing heart disease and dying from it but scientists haven’t yet found a reason for the link.
Researchers in Finland reviewed a raft of studies on the topic after previous research delivered conflicting evidence on whether being short raises heart disease risk.
They combed through the data from 52 studies that featured more than three million people, who were sorted into categories according to height.
Overall, people under five foot three inches (1.60 metres) were considered short while those over five foot eight (1.73 metres) were classed as tall.
Men who were under five foot five (1.65 metres) were short and men over five foot nine (1.76 metres) were tall, while the numbers were five foot (1.52 metres) and five foot five for women.
The study found that the shortest people were nearly 1.5 times more likely to die from a heart disease, live with heart disease or suffer a heart attack than the tallest people.
Short men were 37% more likely to die from any cause than tall men while short women were at a 55% increased death risk.
The researchers said the reason for the association between height and heart disease is unknown but they suspect it could be linked to factors that cause poor growth.
There also could be a genetic component, they noted.
