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Short stature linked to heart disease

Category: Heart Health and Cholesterol

Shorter individuals may want to consider having their cholesterol tested as well as take other measurements of their heart health, as a new study has found a relationship between height and heart disease.

Researchers from the University of Tampere in Finland examined the data from 52 separate studies into heart disease and found that shorter adults were more than 1.5 times more likely to develop and eventually die from heart disease than taller adults.

The study's lead author, Tuula Paajanen, said that shorter individuals may fail to ever fully develop veins and arteries that are able to function at high levels, making them more susceptible to certain risk factors.

"We hypothesize that shorter people have smaller coronary arteries and smaller coronary arteries may be occluded earlier in life due to factors that increase risk," Paajene said. "Smaller coronary arteries also might be more affected by changes and disturbances in blood flow."

The report suggested that shorter people should not worry too much about the findings because height is just one risk factor for heart disease that cannot be controlled out of many others that can be, such as weight, lifestyle and diet.