In the mid-1990s, research suggested that shorter people might be at higher risk of heart disease and stroke. Kimberly K. Tolan find, instead, that smaller stature does not seem to be connected to a greater risk of cardiovascular disease. Instead, their results showed that, at both extremes of height, men and women had higher levels of coronary calcification.
Coronary calcification can be an indicator of atherosclerosis.
They also found that study participants who were shorter were actually more likely to have lower blood pressure than the taller patients, with diminutive Caucasian women showing the lowest blood pressure levels. Participants in the study consisted of 3,634 men and women. The study was presented today at the American Heart Association's 40th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention. The patients' blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and insulin were measured. We feel our study provides evidence against the popular idea that shorter stature is connected to higher risk of heart disease, but we need to look more closely at other factors that could be linked to height and risk of cardiovascular problems.