h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I read in the Independent this Sunday that tall people are more at risk from cancer than shorter people. If I remember it rightly, the factors that trigger unusally fast growth may also trigger the cell proliferation that may lead to cancer.

On the other hand, shorter people are more at risk from coronary and other circulatory diseases. These are linked to (poor) nutrition in the early stages of life.

But I guess genetics must come into it somehow too - I am short, not because I was ill-fed, because I most certainly wasn't, but probably because my parents are both shorter than average. My parents were both children during rationing, so their heights could well be linked to early diet. (Though it might be argued that the diet, at least of non-urban dwellers like my parents, was healthier then than it is now for the average child.)

And true to the predictions, my mum has heart disease and type 2 diabetes So, does this make me doubly at risk from developing similar diseases myself - my genetic predisposition, AND my own (lack of) height having a kind of cumulative effect?

I'm sure there are loads of people out there who can put me straight on this.

I don't think being tall or short is inherently good or bad. The articles I've read stress "Body Mass Index" (BMI) as an indication of good (or bad) height to weight ratio. Here is a calculator for BMI:

http://www.consumer.gov/weightloss/bmi.htm

This gets a lot of attention here in the US, where we have an "obesity epidemic". This is due IMHO to decades of advertising showing how sexy, fun and easy the fast food restaurants are. Then a movie like "Supersize Me" shows what a steady diet of fast food can do.


The most reliable advice seems to be stop smoking, eat a healthy diet (fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low fat), and exercise regularly. It seems very few Americans do this, preferring "snake oils" (fad diets, pills, 12 step programs, sympathy from TV celebrities, ... OK, sorry ...)

I believe there are some links between birth weight & life expectancy - bigger babies tend to live longer. That's probably to do with other factors, such as birth weight being associated with specific causes such as prematurity, parental nutrition.