A person's height may increase their chances of suffering from several common diseases as adults. This included an association between height and an increased risk of peripheral neuropathy and circulatory disorders.
Alexandra Alyokhina, a neuroscientist, said specifically for MedicForum that the results of the latest studies are “a significant contribution to understanding how height is associated with clinical conditions from an epidemiological point of view ”.
“There is a catalog of clinical conditions associated with genetically predictable growth. In other words, these are conditions under which height can be a risk factor or protective factor, independent of other environmental conditions that can also affect growth and health.
Although being tall has protected people from cardiovascular diseases such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and coronary heart disease, atrial fibrillation (irregular heart rhythm) was found to be higher in taller participants.
It was found that taller patients are at greater risk of most non-cardiovascular diseases. This is especially true of peripheral neuropathy—damage to nerves outside the brain and spinal cord, especially in the extremities—and circulatory disorders affecting the veins.
Medicforum has previously written about gallstones.