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Taller men may have a lower risk of dementia

NEW European research has found that men who are taller in young adulthood may have a lower risk of dementia in old age. Lead author Terese Sara Høj Jørgensen explained that “we wanted to see if body height in young men is associated with diagnosis of dementia, while exploring whether intelligence test scores, educational level, and underlying environmental and genetic factors shared by brothers explain the relationship.”

The findings, published in eLife, showed that there appeared to be a 10% reduction in the risk of developing dementia for around every 6cm of height in individuals above the average height.

After the researchers took intelligence and education into account in their analysis, the association between height and dementia risk was only slightly reduced.

They also found a relationship between height and dementia even when they looked at brothers who were different heights, which suggests that genetics and family characteristics alone do not explain why shorter men had a greater dementia risk.

“Together, our results point to an association between taller body height in young men and a lower risk of dementia diagnosis later in life, which persists even when adjusted for educational level and intelligence test scores,” says senior author Merete Osler. “Our analysis suggests the association may have common roots in earlylife environmental exposures that are not related to family factors shared by brothers.”

Osler added that they cannot be sure if the findings are generalisable to women, as previous studies which have investigated whether there are differences between genders in regard to the relationship between height and dementia have so far proved inconclusive. – AFP-Relaxnews