Do Short People Live Longer? Here’s the Impact of Height on Life Span

Your height has an impact on your lifespan. Some claim that shorter people live longer, and it seems to be the case.

Do Short People Live Longer?

A 2003 study published in Elsevier discovered a negative link between increased height and longevity based on data from millions of deaths.

The lifespans of shorter people appear to be longer than their taller counterparts, according to the study's findings, which also revealed that "shorter, smaller bodies have lower death rates and fewer diet-related chronic diseases, especially past middle age."

Cross-country skiers were six inches shorter and usually lived nearly seven years longer than basketball players among more than 2,500 male athletes from Finland. Additionally, a study of men who served in the Italian army discovered that under 5-foot-4 survived two years longer than their taller counterparts.

An older study conducted in 1992 also came up with the same conclusion. The study aimed to assess one component of the so-called entropy theory of aging, which postulates that an increase in internal disorder causes aging and predicts that a person's life expectancy decreases as mass increases.

Based on statistics for fewer groups of sportsmen and famous individuals in the USA, the first assessment of the relationship between human size and longevity or life span in 1978 revealed that shorter, lighter men live longer than their taller, heavier counterparts. These conclusions were validated by a 1990 study that included 1679 men and women from the general American population.

Men of height 175.3 cm or less lived on average 4.95 years longer than those of height over 175.3 cm, while men of height 170.2 cm or less lived on average 7.46 years longer than those of height at least 182.9 cm, according to records at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in San Diego, California, USA, used in the study. According to an analysis by weight difference, men who weigh 63.6 kg or less have a 7.72-year longer lifespan than men who weigh 90.9 kg or more.

The study supported previous researchers and refuted the belief that taller individuals are healthier. Several researchers endorsed the notion that shorter people have longer lifespans than their taller counterparts.

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Why Do Shorter People Live Longer?

According to expert demographer Jean-Marie Robine, this is likely due to the biological fact that taller people require more cell replications to fill their bodies, which can cause them to become more physically exhausted more quickly, CNBC reported.

Robine stated that due to inadequate nutrition during the first year of life, people were substantially shorter than [they are] now. He said they could not grow correctly or defend themselves against contagious illnesses. At the population level, we historically linked small stature with subpar first-year development and a high mortality rate.

According to Robine, those who are shorter live longer than those who are taller if they have access to the best money and education available.

According to David Sinclair, co-founder and scientific advisor of Tally Health, a biotech business that seeks to increase healthspan and extend longevity, height matters. The smaller you are, whether a canine or a human, the longer you'll live inversely.