Height Could be Linked to Risks of Blood Clots and Other Ailments

The height someone is might hold clues to their risk of several health problems, like blood clots, says a new study.

Height can be a predictor of risk for VTE or venous thromboembolism, more commonly called blood clots, showed a study published on Tuesday.

Blood clot risk appeared as lowest amongst shortest men and women and appeared to increase as height did, say researchers.

The study’s lead author said height was not something that anyone can do anything about. However, he added that height in population continues to increase, which could contribute to the number of thrombosis cases increasing.

The author added that he believed that as a risk assessment, height should be included just like overweight is, although formal studies must be performed to determine exactly the way height interacts with blood disorders as well as with other conditions.

Across the U.S., blood clots kill between 60,000 and 100,000 people each year, showed data from the Center for Disease Control.

In Europe, an estimated 500,000 deaths that are related to blood clots occur annually, showed a review paper from 2014.

The risk of having blood clots is not the only health risk linked to height, as heart problems, cancer, longevity and gestational diabetes have at some point during studies been linked to individual height.

The recent study on blood clots involved information on over 1.6 men from Sweden born from 1951 to 1992, as well as data on over 1 million women in Sweden who had their first pregnancy from 1982 to 2012.

Pregnancy can raise the risk of contracting blood clots, which is amongst the leading causes of deaths of new mothers in today’s developed world.

Researchers were able to identify siblings with different heights using the multi-generation register in Sweden. They used the country’s national hospital register to track blood clot diagnosis from 1968 to 2012.

They found that risk of blood clots fell 69% for women who were 5-foot-1 or shorter in comparison to women 6-foot or taller.

The risk fell 65% for men less than 5-foot-3 compared to men 6-foot-2 or taller.

Amongst men, researchers found a risk tied to height found for blood clots in lungs, known as pulmonary embolism and in legs as well as other places.

Among women, the only blood clot risk significantly associated with the patient’s height was in the legs.