Short People More Likely To Get Heart Disease

Short people are at an increased risk of heart disease, scientists have found.

Researchers from the University of Leicester concluded that the shorter a person is, the bigger their chance of suffering heart problems.

They investigated 180 genetic variants known to affect height in a study group of almost 200,000 people

And the results indicated that every change in height of around 2.5 inches (6.35cm) linked to these variants raised or lowered the risk of heart disease by around 13.5%.

Dr Christopher Nelson, one of the researchers, said: "The more height-increasing genetic variants you carry the lower your risk of coronary heart disease and, conversely, if you were genetically shorter the higher your risk."

The study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that someone 5ft 6ins tall had a 32% smaller risk of heart disease compared to a 5ft person.

While scientists have known for more than 60 years of the relationship between height and heart disease, it was not known the link was causal.

Factors such as poverty or poor nutrition during childhood could have both increased vulnerability to heart disease and stunted growth.

Study leader Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, from the University of Leicester, said the genetic analysis showed the association was "primary" and not due to "confounding factors".

"The beauty about DNA is that it cannot be modified by one's lifestyle or socio-economic conditions," he said.

"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."

It remains unclear exactly what mechanisms drive the association, but it is thought they involve "shared biological processes" affecting both height and heart disease risk.

The researchers say risk factors for coronary heart disease like cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes could explain less than a third of the relationship between shorter height and heart problems.