Stand Tall! - Height Loss Unhealthy

December 12, 2006 A new study from a British medical school has revealed that men who lose an inch or more of height as they grow older are more likely to have an increased risk of heart attack and death. Published in Archives of Internal Medicine, the latest study of 4,200 men also considered other risk factors like smoking, tobacco and alcohol for heart disease and poor health. The study suggested that men who lost 3 cm in height were 64 percent more likely to die than those who lost less than 1cm. According to the BBC, the study was part of the British Regional Heart Study. It kept the track of men between 1978 and 1980 and then followed them up 20 years later when they were in their 60s and 70s. Over the 20-year period the men lost an average of 1.67cm of height. However, 1,400 of the men lost more than 2cm. The results indicate that many of the additional deaths in men who had lost height were due to cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease or other non-cancer diseases. However, it also found that loss of height loss was the increased the death risk to nearly 42 percent. It triggered coronary events such as heart attacks, even in men who had no history of cardiovascular disease. The scientists have no clue why it happens but said osteoporosis, a disease that causes loss of bone mass density, was already known to increase the risk of death. The head of the study, Dr. Goya Wannamethee, at the Royal Free and University College Medical School in London, said osteoporosis was the cause of more severe height loss - generally 6cm. "It's been well established that shortness is associated with cardiovascular disease, so we were interested to see whether height loss itself could influence mortality," Wannamethee said. "It's another indicator of poor health. Even fairly benign height loss," she added.

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