Short people at greater risk of a heart attack

IF you are short you are at greater risk of a heart attack – and genes are to blame, research shows.

Every 2.5in change in height affects your chances of developing coronary heart disease by 13.5 per cent.

Compared with a 5ft 6in person, for example, a 5ft person’s risk of heart problems is on average almost a third higher, while for a six-footer the risk is almost a third lower.

The discovery was made by establishing how genetic variants that affect height are also directly associated with coronary heart disease. It is the first time a study has revealed a genetic link between the two.

Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, British Heart Foundation Professor of Cardiology at Leicester University, where the study was done, said it had been known for more than 60 years that there was a link between height and the risk of a heart attack.

But it had previously been thought the higher risk among short people might be linked to poor nutrition in childhood or other factors that affect growth.

Experts had assumed one possible reason was that shorter people have smaller coronary arteries which are more prone to becoming furred up earlier in life. Sir Nilesh said: ‘We have shown that the association between shorter height and higher risk of coronary heart disease is a primary relationship and is not due to confounding factors such as nutrition or poor socioeconomic conditions.’

Researchers looked at genetic data on almost 200,000 people with or without coronary heart disease. They examined 180 genetic variants that affect height, says the New England Journal of Medicine.

They found the link between differences in height and changes in the risk of coronary heart disease. The results were broadly similar for men and women. The study investigated whether this could be explained by an effect of a person’s height on known risk factors such as cholesterol, high blood pressure or diabetes.

But they found that an association with cholesterol and fat levels could explain only a small part of the relationship between height and the risk of heart attacks, leading researchers to conclude that shared biological processes determine the height people reach and the development of coronary heart disease.

BHF associate medical director Professor Jeremy Pearson said further research may suggest new ways to reduce the risk of heart disease.