A new study claims the risk of type 2 diabetes is low for taller people. The findings reveal for every 10cm taller an individual was, the risk of the condition decreased by 41 per cent in men and 33 per cent in women.
The team also found those considered to obese were at a reduced risk of diabetes, 36 per cent for men and 30 per cent for women,for every additional 10cm in height. "This may indicate that a higher diabetes risk with larger waist circumference counteracts beneficial effects related to height, irrespective of whether larger waist circumference is due to growth or due to consuming too many calories," authors of the study told a news portal.
For the research, the team took into account other factors that increase the risk of diabetes like lifestyle, age, education, and waist circumference. The study included 27,548 participants out of which16,644 were women between the ages of35 and 65. 10,904 in the group were men between the ages of 40 and 65 years.
Previous research has also found a link between height and other serious health conditions. One study found the risk of cancer increased for each 10 cm taller an individual was. Researchers speculated the reason height plays such a key role in determining the risk of disease is because they have more body cells.
Researchers also want to look into the risk of diabetes in shorter people. The findings suggest higher liver fat content may be the reason for a high risk of type 2 diabetes for shorter people.Meanwhile, taller people researchers say have a "more favourable cardiometabolic profile" that people who are shorter.
"Our findings suggest that short people might present with higher cardiometabolic risk factor levels and have higher diabetes risk compared with tall people," authors of the study told a news portal. Adding, "Our study also suggests that early interventions to reduce height-related metabolic risk throughout life likely need to focus on determinants of growth in sensitive periods during pregnancy, early childhood, puberty and early adulthood, and should take potential sex-differences into account."
The study's findings were originally published in the Diabetologia journal.
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