An interesting association has been made by Swedish researchers, that the taller you are, the more you stand at risk for cancer, after conducting a large study of both men and women participants.
- A number of 5.5 million people were studied through birth records between 1938-1991
- For every 4 inches above 3.2 feet in height, women had an 18% increased risk, and men an 10% increased risk
- Melanoma risk also lifted by 30% for both genders
- Taller women were at 20% heightened risk for developing breast cancer than shorter women
According to the researchers at the Karolinska Institute in the University of Stockholm, they have found links between a person’s height and their chance of having cancer during their life. They looked at records for around 5.5 million people, born between 1938 and 1991. They studied their health throughout their lives and found a connection between the two seemingly unrelated factors.
For every 4 inches over 3.2 feet in height, women have an increased risk of developing cancer of 18% in women, and 10% in men. That has been given an example that if a woman was 5’6” feet, she had around a third more likely chances to have cancer than a woman who was 4’9” feet. Their study supports others conducted in the past, but they cannot definitively say it will be the same for all countries.
It was not clear if the same risk would stand for men and woman adjusted to other climate, diets and genetic backgrounds. According to Dr. Emelie Benyi, has stated that while taller individuals have a heightened risk for cancer, it does not mean that they will also have a bigger rate of mortality.
Due to the fact that “the cause of cancer is multifactorial”, it’s impossible to predict what will happen to each person in part. For example, the study didn’t cover statistics about remissions or duration of life after diagnosis.
It has also uncovered that for 4 inches, both men and women had a 30% likelier risk of developing melanoma, the most common type of skin cancer. Breast cancer risk was also increased in taller woman by 20% when compared with those of shorter height.
The average for the Swedish population is of 10% of getting breast cancer during their lifetime. Which means that if a woman is 5’11”, she has a bit of an increased chance, at 12% of developing the highly dreaded condition. The blame could fall on growth hormones during their adolescence.
While height was not linked as a direct cause of cancer, it could be one of the factors taken into consideration. According to Dr. Benyi, growth hormones stimulate cell growth as well as stopping cell death. It has been suggested that with more cells in their bodies, taller people have a natural increased risk of developing cancer.
Since the condition starts from a single mutated cell, bigger bodies mean more cells, and more cells lead to more chances of cancer, according to Dorothy Bennet from the University of London.
Researchers also point out that being tall does not mean that you will develop cancer. It’s only one of the many factors that increases the risk.
Image source: hghsuppliers.com
samarastt says
In 2007, the World Cancer Research Fund reported that height
was related to cancer based on evidence that was “strong, consistent and
impressive.” Many studies have also found that shorter, smaller bodies
tend to live longer. The famous gerontologist, Alex Comfort, reported in 1961
that within a species smaller individuals live longer. Recently researchers,
Kraus, Pavard and Promislow, reported that considerable evidence indicates that smaller individuals within a species tend to live longer. Human studies showing shorter people live longer are numerous. For example, He et al. (2014) reported that they tracked over 8000 elderly Japanese-Hawaiian males and found that shorter men lived longer. Another study by Samaras (2014) summarized eight different areas of research supporting the thesis that smaller individuals live longer. Professor Bartke, Director of the Aging and Longevity Research Laboratory at SIU also concluded that smaller body size was an advantage (Is smaller better?, 2012). Salaris (2012) also found shorter men lived longer in a small, isolated village in Sardina. Many more studies of various populations support these studies. For more information see http://www.humanbodysize.com
Since height is only 10% or less of the longevity picture,
tall people can live to be 100 years if they have good genes, follow a
healthful diet, exercise regularly and keep their BMIs on the low end of a
healthy range. Well-off people tend to live 5 to 10 years longer than poor
people and this is no doubt due to good health habits, less smoking and good
health care and practices. Higher income people tend to be taller and thinner
than poor people.