Height in humans is positively correlated with cancer

[haidut]

Yet another piece of evidence for Peat's ideas. I remember reading in one of his books/articles that large dogs don't live long and die primarily of cancer, while small dogs live longest (and die iatrogenically) due to their larger brain/body mass ratio, which determines how fast metabolism is. It seems the same may hold true in humans as well. Not to mention the fact that of the people confirmed to have lived beyond 100 years of age the overwhelming majority were under 6' of height. I am still looking for the study on the centenarians and height and I will post it when I find it.

http://news.sciencemag.org/health/2011/ ... lop-cancer
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanon ... 1/abstract

 

[Jenn]

Uhh.. short people still get cancer.

I don't know that small dogs have larger brain to body mass either. I do know that my 8-10lb Doxie ate almost as much as my 100 lbs Pyrs. Activity level was significantly different.

Too short or too tall can be a thyroid issue though.

 

[Peata]

A while back I read there was a study that taller women had a higher cancer risk after menopause. But I don't remember what they considered "tall".

 

[jyb]

Not to mention the fact that of the people confirmed to have lived beyond 100 years of age the overwhelming majority were under 6' of height.

Isn't the average height overwhelmingly under 6' anyway?

 

[haidut]

Not to mention the fact that of the people confirmed to have lived beyond 100 years of age the overwhelming majority were under 6' of height.

Isn't the average height overwhelmingly under 6' anyway?

Yes, I guess that could be another explanation - i.e. most people are under 6' so there is a higher chance centenarians will be under 6' as well. However, I checked some more info on this it seems that most centenarians are under 5'3'', which I think is below average worldwide, according to Wolfram Alpha:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=av ... man+height

If you search Google for mortality/longevity and height you'll find a lot more references than the one I posted. I think it goes something like 17% increased chance of dying before 60 for every extra inch of height.

 

[mandance]

For as many studies suggesting height increases mortality risks, there are just as many saying the opposite. I don't see any connection between height and mortality.

 

[jaa]

Coincidentally, the new pranarupa article also touches on this point:

"Interestingly height in humans is positively associated with cancer, tall people get more cancer, it is possible the ratio of brain and nerve tissue to body size play a similar role here as it appears to with regenerative capacity (Green et al. 2011)."

http://pranarupa.wordpress.com/2013/08/ ... n-context/

 

[mandance]

That still doesn't make sense...height, brain mass and tissue don't create cancer, cancer is the same process in all living things.

 

[gretchen]

I've read estrogen closes off the bone growth (this is what dr. Uzzi Reiss says) so this might explain why short people (women at least) are hypothyroid- they tend to be naturally estrogen dominant. I am only 5'1" and have had hypothyroidism my whole life, though cancer does not run in my family and many of the females on both sides of family are long lived.

 

[aliml]

Taller height and risk of coronary heart disease and cancer: A within-sibship Mendelian randomization study​

Background:​

Taller people have a lower risk of coronary heart disease but a higher risk of many cancers. Mendelian randomization (MR) studies in unrelated individuals (population MR) have suggested that these relationships are potentially causal. However, population MR studies are sensitive to demography (population stratification, assortative mating) and familial (indirect genetic) effects.

Methods:​

In this study, we performed within-sibship MR analyses using 78,988 siblings, a design robust against demography and indirect genetic effects of parents. For comparison, we also applied population MR and estimated associations with measured height.

Results:​

Within-sibship MR estimated that 1 SD taller height lowers the odds of coronary heart disease by 14% but increases the odds of cancer by 18%, highly consistent with population MR and height-disease association estimates. There was some evidence that taller height reduces systolic blood pressure and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, which may mediate some of the protective effects of taller height on coronary heart disease risk.

Conclusions:​

For the first time, we have demonstrated that the purported effects of height on adulthood disease risk are unlikely to be explained by demographic or familial factors, and so likely reflect an individual-level causal effect. Disentangling the mechanisms via which height affects disease risk may improve the understanding of the etiologies of atherosclerosis and carcinogenesis.

Taller height and risk of coronary heart disease and cancer: A within-sibship Mendelian randomization study

Genetic data from siblings provides strong evidence that taller height increases the risk of cancers but lowers the risk of coronary disease.

elifesciences.org

 

[Herbie]

I can see how tall people would either eat less food than a short person based on cultural things like serving sizes, resources or women eating next to nothing to be slim and have less nourishment or end up eating more food and therfore more pufa.

Or they got tall from thyroid and pituitary problem in the first place.