Medical News

Short people more likely to develop coronary diseases

Added On : 17th April 2015

Image result for Short people more likely to develop coronary diseasesShort people face a greater risk of developing a coronary heart disease. This is the outcome of a British study published in the "New England Journal of Medicine".

Scientists from the University of Leicester analysed data from 200,000 people with and without coronary heart diseases. They found that that every 6.5 cm, respectively 2.5 inches change in height, affects the likelihood of a coronary heart disease by 13.5 per cent. Thus, a 152 centimetre tall person had a 32 per cent higher risk of disease than someone who was almost 168 centimetres tall.


Analyses of the genetic material showed that the inverse relationship is a primary association that is not influenced by other factors. Numerous genetic variants, which are known to be associated with height, are also linked to coronary heart diseases, say the researchers. "The more height increasing genetic variants that you carry, the lower your risk of coronary heart disease and conversely if you were genetically shorter the higher your risk", explained study author Christopher Nelson from the British Heart Foundation.

The impact of height on other risk factors for coronary diseases (cholesterol, fat levels, etc.) was only found to a lesser extent - less than one-third. Thus, the association must largely be caused by shared biological processes, which determine both body height and the development of coronary heart diseases.

 

Univadis

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