Being Short May Raise Risk of Heart Trouble

A new health survey has a simple conclusion: ''The shorter you are, the higher risk you have of developing cardiovascular disease," says the lead researcher. Specifically, men 5-5 or shorter and women 5 feet or shorter are 1.5 times more likely to get heart disease and die from it than taller people, reports LiveScience. Short people of both genders also had an increased risk of dying from any cause.

Researchers didn't conduct their own studies but analyzed about 50 previously published studies on the topic. "My favorite hypothesis is that shorter people would have narrower arteries, because this hypothesis hasn't been studied very much," says the lead researcher. "In recent studies using angiographic measurements, the coronary artery diameter was correlated with height and body weight, so there might be a point to it."
(More heart disease stories.)