New Study Explores Link Between Height and Heart Disease

Cardiologists have known since the 1950s that short people have an increased risk of developing coronary artery disease. What baffled the medical community was the reason behind the correlation. A new study published this week in The New England Journal of Medicine has found the answer may be hiding in our genes. 

Nilesh Samani, a cardiologist at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, along with a team of colleagues, examined the genes of 200,000 subjects to determine whether people who had genetic traits linked to a short stature also had an increased risk of coronary artery disease. The relationship between the two was “striking” according to Samani.

The study found that people who were 2.5 inches shorter than average height had a 13.5 percent increased risk of developing coronary heart disease. The shorter the person, the greater the risk researchers found. More studies need to be conducted to pinpoint which genetic variations connect height with heart disease so that treatments can be developed.

In an interview with NPR, Samani noted that, "We've been rather simplistic in our view of what causes coronary artery disease. We thought about traditional risk factors and then genes that might cause coronary disease. But what this [study] highlights for me is that probably developmental processes are going on that probably have an influence on height, and they probably also have an influence on [blood vessels of the heart] in a way that predisposes you to getting coronary artery disease."

Despite being significant, researchers found the “shortness” risk factor is still significantly smaller than the risks posed by smoking or high cholesterol. The study also failed to find a significant connection in women. One explanation for the lack of correlation in women could be the lower sample of women in the study. Researchers looked at the genes of just 80,000 women compared to 120,000 men. The study's subjects were also primarily white, prompting some in the medical community to call for more studies with a broader range of ancestry groups before concrete conclusions can be drawn.

To learn more, read the entire article.