Shorter people are at greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to a study published Tuesday.
Each additional 10 centimetres in height translates into a 41 percent smaller chance of contracting the disease in men and a 33 percent smaller chance in women, according to the research in medical journal Diabetologia.
The greater health risk in shorter individuals is likely linked to higher liver fat content, and a larger number of risk factors for heart disease, stroke and diabetes, the authors speculated.
It has also been reported that insulin sensitivity and the functioning of special cells
Tin the pancreas that secrete the hormone are better in taller people.The study draws from a detailed medical survey of more than 16,600 women and nearly 11,000 men — aged 40 to 65 — in Potsdam, Germany from 1994 to 1998.
“These observations corroborate that height is a useful predictive marker for diabetes risk,” the authors concluded.People with diabetes have excessively high blood glucose, or blood sugar, which comes from food.
Some 420 million people around the world today suffer from diabetes, with the number expected to rise to 629 million by 2045, according to the International Diabetes Federation.Currently, the disease is divided into two sub-types.
With type-1 — generally diagnosed in childhood and accounting for about 10 percent of cases — the body simply doesn’t make insulin, a hormone that helps regulate blood sugar levels.For type-2, the body makes some insulin but not enough, which means glucose stays in the blood.
This form of the disease correlates highly with obesity and can, over time, lead to blindness, kidney damage, heart disease or stroke. Acute cases may also require limb amputations.
Another study of nearly 200,000 men and women found that shorter people have a higher risk of heart disease than their taller counterparts.
Every 2.5 inches up reduce the risk of heart disease by 13.5 percent, according to the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Scientists have long considered there to be a link between height and heart health, but the latest research found that genes controlling height were directly linked to heart disease risks.To be sure, height is only one of many factors that affect the level of risk.
“In the context of major risk factors this is small – smoking increases the risk by 200-300% – but it is not trivial,” Nilesh Samani, a professor of cardiology at the University of Leicester and lead author of the study, told the BBC News website .
