A new research has found a correlation between people's height and their likelihood to develop any kind of cancer.
Leonard Nunney, a professor of biology at the University of California Riverside looked at the average height — 5 feet and 4 inches for women, 5 feet and 9 inches for men — and found that their risk of getting cancer increases by 10 percent for every 10 centimeters above that. He also found that height is also connected to a person's risk of developing other health problems such as blood clots and diabetes.
His research was published in the journal The Proceedings of the Royal Society.
Height And Cancer Risk
For the study, Professor Nunney used existing data on people who were diagnosed with cancer. He looked at at least 10,000 cases, both men and women, and then compared it to their individual heights.
He hypothesized that because a tall person has more cells, they have a greater risk of developing cancer compared to their shorter peers. The research also found that the risk increases based on gender in which a tall woman has a 12 percent risk of developing cancer versus 9 percent in tall men.
The research found a correlation in 18 Out of the 23 types of cancer tests.
"Now, you can't do anything about your height, but what you can do is tell extremely tall individuals that they should be aware of this, and if they have any concerns, to get checked," stated Professor Nunney. "It just suggests more vigilance, I think."
The research adds evidence to previous studies that have also found a connection between a person's height and an increased risk of developing cancer. In particular, a research from 2011 that involved over 1 million middle-aged women in the United Kingdom found that the risk of getting cancer increases by 16 percent for every 10 centimeters above the average height.
Healthy Lifestyle
However, not all tall people are doomed to die because of cancer. Georgina Hill of the Cancer Research UK, a person who is not involved in the study, said that the increase of cancer risk connected to height is not significant enough to cause alarm.
It is still important to maintain a healthy lifestyle by avoiding cigarette use and alcoholic beverages.
