(WXYZ) - Researchers say they can tell a lot about your health just by using a measuring tape.
If you play basketball, tall can be terrific.
For jockeys, short can mean success.
And now, some doctors say your physique may not only influence your athletic performance, it can reveal a lot about your health.
For instance, women over 5 feet 9 inches tall may be more likely to develop breast cancer… and to die from it.
One possible explanation is that the same hormones that affect height may also increase the amount of milk duct tissue in the breast – the site of many breast tumors.
Dr. Donna Hoban is director of medical services at Beaumont Grosse Pointe. She says there is a hypothesis, a theory, and a link between size and disease. But, unfortunately before they’re accepted in the medical community, more study needs to be done.
Doctors are continuing to do research on the topic.
And they say if you’re shorter – you may be more at risk for heart attack, stomach cancer or high blood pressure
Dr. Hoban says there is a connection “between health and body type in general and there are a number of items we can change. We know for instance, that central obesity is an increased risk factor for diabetes. So therefore we can have a huge impact on our patients by telling them to lose weight and exercise to get rid of the central obesity.”
People with short legs are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes. This could be because leg length is an indication of early childhood environmental circumstances – especially nutrition.
According to Dr. Hoban, “We know that poor nutrition can be linked to diabetes later in life.”
Tall men – those over six feet – may have an increased risk of prostate cancer.
Also, tall men and women – over 6’1” for men and 5’6” for women may have a higher risk of developing pancreatic cancer.
The bottom line, says Dr. Hoban, “Some of these things may be very interesting, things to keep in mind. But there are so many other things that we need to control. Many more known risk factors for all of these diseases that we need to control and that’s where our emphasis is as physicians.
As adults, there’s little we can do to change our height or leg length. And heredity does play a role in determining our size. But these factors can also be an indication of childhood health and nutrition-- a reason we should all be concerned about our children’s diets.
