Short People Stand At Greater Risk Of Heart Disease

If you are short, then get prepared to get short shrift.

You are at greater risk of coronary heart disease if you are short, according to a noted Indian-origin cardiovascular expert, Nilesh Samani, from the University of Leicester. A study of nearly 200,000 men and women found that shorter people are exposed to a higher risk of heart disease than taller people, according to time.

Samani, who heads the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences at the University of Leicester, said: "For more than 60 years it has been known that there is an inverse relationship between height and risk of coronary heart disease. It is not clear whether this relationship is due to confounding factors such as poor socio-economic environment, or nutrition, during childhood that on the one hand determine achieved height and on the other the risk of coronary heart disease, or whether it represents a primary relationship between shorter height and more coronary heart disease."

 Samani's new study that was announced on Wednesday showed that every 2.5 inches change in your height could expose you to greater risk of coronary heart disease by 13.5%, according to thehindustantimes.

Hence, if you are 5 feet, then you stand at 32% greater risk of coronary heart disease than a 5 feet 6 inches person, according to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"Now, using a genetic approach, researchers at the University of Leicester undertaking the study on behalf of an international consortium of scientists (the CADIoGRAM+C4D consortium) have shown that the association between shorter height and higher risk of coronary heart disease is a primary relationship and is not due to confounding factors," explained Samani.

This kind of heart disease is the most common cause of premature death globally.

 Samani pointed out some determinants of height. "Height has a strong genetic determination and in the last few years a large number of genetic variants have been identified in our DNA that determines one's height. The beauty about DNA is that it cannot be modified by one's lifestyle or socio-economic conditions. Therefore if shorter height is directly connected with increased risk of coronary heart disease one would expect that these variants would also be associated with coronary heart disease and this is precisely what we found," he said.