7 Ways Your Height Affects Your Health

At 6 feet, 8 inches, Dr. Eeric Truumees literally stands out. “People remember who I am,” says the orthopedic surgeon in Austin, Texas. But despite height’s association with social and professional benefits, such as appearing more attractive and earning more money, towering over others has downfalls, too. “The bane of my height has been hitting my head on things,” Truumees finds, “and as I get a little slower and little less flexible, I find I’m doing that more often.” That’s just the start of height’s influence on health. Here are seven medical issues that may disproportionately affect people who are taller or shorter than average: 1. Longevity From an evolutionary perspective, there’s a price for enjoying the perks of being tall: a shorter lifespan. As the theory goes, “growing faster and being bigger will mean that you’ll have a shorter life, and we’ve seen that in rats,” says Mary Schooling, a professor at the City University of New York School of Public Health and Health Policy. But in humans, how the theory plays out isn’t quite clear. While certain genes have been linked to both short stature and long life, and shorter populations also seem to live longer, it’s tough to know whether stature itself influences lifespan or if characteristics like nutrition, socioeconomic status and disease risk are responsible. 2. Cancer If you think about what cancer is ...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news