2023-08-05 17:24:00
The fact that people are getting taller is statistically proven: German men measured an average of 1.67 meters in 1896, but almost 1.80 meters in 2021. For women, the figure climbed from 1.56 to 1.66 meters during this period. Of course, the decisive factor is how health-conscious someone spends their everyday life. Nevertheless, body size can also have an influence on the risk of illness.
When it comes to diabetes, tall people have an advantage. Because the genetic factors for body growth are related to less fat content in the liver and better insulin sensitivity. This is how the professor for clinical-experimental diabetology at the University Hospital Tübingen, Norbert Stefan, reports. These two factors ensure that adults are less likely to develop diabetes.
Height can also affect the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. For this purpose, the data of almost 660,000 patients were evaluated by the University Hospital Düsseldorf – with the result: Smaller women and men are more likely to develop high blood pressure or have a stroke than large ones.
In the data set, short women and men had a higher risk of coronary artery disease and heart attack. For every ten centimeters more height, the risk decreases by 9 percent in women and 13 percent in men.
When it comes to thrombosis, tall people are clearly at a disadvantage. “The longer the extremities, the longer the blood has to be pumped up to the heart,” explains Prof. Stefan. According to him, up to 90 percent of the thrombosis occurs in the deep veins of the legs and can lead to a pulmonary embolism.
In the case of cancer, too, there is a connection between body size and the frequency of the disease. The risk increases by eleven percent in women and by six percent in men for every ten centimeters of height. According to Prof. Stefan, one of the reasons people are getting taller is the increased consumption of dairy products and red meat.
Excessive animal protein consumption activates growth genes (above all the growth factors IGF-1 and also IGF-2) and regulates them upwards. The connection to cancer comes from lifelong stronger cell growth, which increases the risk of developing the disease through IGF-1 and IGF-2.
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