Short people are at greater risk for heart disease than tall people, according to a new study.
Tuula Paajanen of the University of Tampere in Finland analyzed 52 studies involving more than 3 million people and found that short adults were about 1.5 times as likely to develop heart disease and to die from it than tall people.
This was true for both men and women, researchers reported in the European Heart Journal. Anyone shorter than 5-foot-3 was considered short. Anyone taller than 5-foot-7 was considered tall.
The researchers hope the findings will spur more research to try to explain why short people may be at increased risk.
It could be because they have smaller arteries supplying blood to their hearts, which get clogged more easily.
Or it could be that their shortness indicates they were malnourished or had some kind of infection early in life that retarded their growth and also put them at increased risk for heart problems.
