It is somewhat bad news for the Dutch, the tallest people in the world.

The Dutch are the tallest people in the world. In 2020, more than one in five young men was at least 1.90 meters tall and 7 percent were taller than 1.95 meters. Among women, almost one in ten reached at least 1.80 meters. While being tall can be useful at times, it also has some drawbacks. According to researchers, taller people run a higher risk of certain diseases.

Dressing length and illness

The idea that there is a link between height and disease is not new. Several studies have suggested that tall people have a higher risk of common diseases, ranging from heart disease to cancer. However, scientists struggled with whether actually their height is the culprit, or factors that influence a person’s height, such as diet and socioeconomic status.

Important

According to researcher Sridharan Raghavan, however, it is important that more clarity is provided. “Because height is easy to measure, it can be an important tool to better understand the relationship between growth and disease,” he explains in conversation with Scientias.nl from. “In addition, we often measure our height as we grow up. And so research into this can also help prevent some diseases.”

Study

In the new study the researchers tried to extract the confounding factors by looking separately at the association between different diseases and a person’s height. The team analyzed genetic and health data from more than 250,000 adults. In addition, they considered more than 1000 conditions and general characteristics. This makes it the largest study to date of the link between height and disease.

Diseases

The results confirm previous findings. For example, it appears that being tall is indeed linked to a higher risk of certain common conditions, including cardiac arrhythmias and varicose veins. In addition, the researchers also uncovered new connections. Taller people appear to be more susceptible to nerve damage, which affects the nerves in the body. They also appear to be at a higher risk of skin and bone infections. On the other hand, tall people are less likely to suffer from coronary heart disease, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Causes

Why this is so? Unfortunately, we can only guess at possible causes in most cases. “The link between height and arrhythmias has been recognized for several years, but as far as I know the reason remains uncertain,” Raghavan says. “As for varicose veins, studies suggest that the pressure on the veins is higher in taller people. This is also why taller people are more likely to have clots in their veins. However, the exact cause still needs to be studied more closely.” Despite the fact that we do not yet know exactly why, the connections appear to be straightforward. “Clinical experts confirmed such associations based on their clinical experience,” Raghavan continues. “For example, in practice they often see that taller people are more likely to suffer from peripheral neuropathy (a dysfunction of one or more peripheral nerves, ed.). The cause is still uncertain, but I hope we will learn more about it in the coming years.”

To the question from what specific height the risk of the aforementioned diseases increases in particular, Raghavan cannot answer the question. “We haven’t studied that,” he says. “We saw length as a continuous variable rather than a threshold.”

Mitigating risk

The findings of the study may seem somewhat worrisome to us, the tallest people in the world. However, we can also do something to reduce the risk of certain diseases. And by maintaining a favorable lifestyle. “Although you can’t really influence how tall you get, you can choose not to smoke, get enough physical activity and maintain a healthy weight,” Raghavan sums up.

According to the researcher, the findings from the study are an important starting point. “I think our results are a first step towards including height in the assessment of disease risk,” he said. “We identified conditions for which height can really be a risk factor. So our study is not an end point, but hopefully provides a starting point for future studies in two areas. First, to see if height can help identify people who are at greater risk for certain conditions. And second, for understanding the biological mechanisms. These mechanisms are likely to be different for different conditions. But hopefully our study will provide some direction for future studies and show a common denominator that may underlie certain diseases.”