What your height means for your health

Research shows taller guys benefit in the boardroom (by making more money) and the bedroom (by having more sex). But how does your height affect your body? Here’s the science.

Tall Guys Have Healthier Hearts

According to a new review in the journal The Lancet: Diabetes & Endocrinology, every additional 2.5 inches in height cuts your risk of dying of heart disease by about 6 percent. So a guy who stands 5’10” would have a 6 percent lower risk than his friend who is just over 5’7”.

Related: Five ways to burn fat while you sleep

One reason: Taller people naturally tend to have stronger lungs and bigger blood vessels. This helps reduce the plaque buildup responsible for heart disease and heart attacks.

Another potential link happens much earlier in life, says study author Matthias Schulze, Dr.P.H., of the German Institute of Human Nutrition. If moms and babies get enough nourishment during pregnancy and throughout development, kids grow faster and earlier.

This leads to hormonal shifts that boost levels of a compound called insulin-like growth factor 1, or IGF1. The more IGF1 you have, the better your body uses the hormone insulin to control blood sugar.

Over time, this reduces your risk of diabetes, high cholesterol, and heart problems, Schulze says.

New evidence also suggests that if your growth is stunted by poor nutrition during development, you might end up with what scientists call a “thrifty phenotype.” That means you’re more prone to storing calories and fat.

So if you ate a high-fat, high-calorie Western diet growing up, you’re extra susceptible to obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and all the problems that come with them, says William Leonard, Ph.D., chair of anthropology and director of global health studies at Northwestern University.

But Tall Guys Might Have a Greater Cancer Risk

Now here’s the flipside: The same extra 2.5 inches of height that reduces heart dangers boosts your cancer risk by 4 percent, finds the research in The Lancet.

Another recent meta-analysis says guys taller than 6’0” have an 11 percent greater risk for prostate cancer than men who stand about 5’8”.

The reason may come down to competing causes of death, according to researchers. In other words, something has to kill you; if you survive heart disease, then you’re more likely to succumb to cancer.

Related: The ten best knee-friendly exercises

And the same over-nutrition, early growth spurts, and IGF-1 levels that protect your heart may make you prone to fast-growing tumors.

These factors encourage your cells to divide more quickly as a child. But researchers speculate that as your cells keep dividing as you age, it may make a cancer mutation more likely.

Factor in a few years of excess hormone exposure that comes from hitting puberty earlier, and you’ve created a recipe for a higher cancer risk, says Leonard.

Plus, tall people simply have more cells. And the more your cells divide over a lifetime, the greater the chance of some cells growing out of control, the study authors say.

You Can’t Change Your Height, So What Can You Do?

Despite the recent analysis, the fact remains the same: You can’t make yourself any taller (or shorter).

So when it comes to heart health, a tape measure probably proves more useful than a yardstick.

Guys with guts of 40 inches or larger have more belly fat, which increases heart risk at any height, says Wright.

As for cancer, there isn’t any evidence that tall guys should undergo more screenings or take any other specific measures, Schulze says. But you can lower your cancer risk by following the usual advice: Quit smoking, maintain a healthy weight, and drink alcohol in moderation.