(Image source from: Short men win in longevity race})
Tall men take it all, is an oft repeated phrase. They get the best girls to take out for a date, they get a job more easily, they are winners in most sports and even in politics the tall ones are in demand. But wait, short men are winners when it comes to life span.
Studies have revealed that short men are at an advantageous position when it comes to mortality. Short men have been found to be living longer than their taller counterparts. So society can laugh as much as it wants to at the diminutive dudes but when it comes to longevity they clearly rule.
For generations tall men have been rewarded with prominence in sports like basketball or to help in the kitchen by reaching the jar in the top self. Studies have also been published related to how tall men earn more money, get more respect, and placed at a higher stature compared to short people. Research has also shown that voters prefer taller presidents than the shorter ones.
However, there is something to smile for the short dudes. Researchers at the University of Hawaii's John A. Burns School of Medicine, conducted a study on the relation between mortality and height. The research was done on a sample of 8,000 Hawaiian men of Japanese ancestry, who were born between 1900 and 1919.
They split the sample into two groups - men 5'2" and shorter, and 5'4" and taller. The analyzed data revealed that "The taller you got, the shorter you lived," according to lead researcher Dr. Bradley Willcox.
Willcox and his team were not out to scare tall people. Willcox, specialising is geriatrics, has been studying a gene called FOXO3. In a previous research he had found an association between a variant of FOXO3 and increased longevity in humans.
His current study aimed to find a relationship between height, the longevity-promoting FOXO3 gene variant, and age at death. And his new finding showed that the shorter a man was, he would be more likely to have the longevity-promoting variant of FOXO. The particular gene was responsible for better insulin regulation, tumor suppression, and DNA repair.
According to Willcox the study shows that body size is linked to FOXO3 gene.
(AW: Pratima Tigga)
