Advantages of Shorter Height
- Physical advantages of shorter height
Shorter people of the same proportions as taller people have
many physical advantages based on the laws of physics, and these
advantages are supported by many researchers. Shorter people
have faster reaction times, greater ability to accelerate body
movements, stronger muscles in proportion to body weight,
greater endurance, and the ability to rotate the body faster.
They are also less likely to break bones in falling. As a
consequence of these physical attributes, shorter people can
excel as gymnasts, divers, skiers, martial artists, rock
climbers, figure skaters, rodeo riders, soccer players and long
distance runners. Within their weight classes they are excellent
wrestlers, boxers, and weight lifters.
Shorter people are also less likely to require surgery for
herniated spinal disks. In addition, shorter people are less
likely to break a hip from falling. Another advantage of smaller
people is that they are less likely to die in auto crashes. One
study found that people weighing less than 132 pounds had the
lowest risk of dying or suffering serious injuries compared to
bigger people. Although height data weren't provided, it is
known that height and weight tend to be correlated. Thus,
lighter weight people are more likely to be shorter than heavier
people. No adjustments for air bag deployment were made,
although other studies have found them to negatively affect
short people.
- Increased longevity of shorter, smaller people
An early paper illustrating the greater longevity of shorter
people appeared in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization
in 1992. Since then we have presented substantial findings
showing that shorter, smaller people live longer. The reason for
this is that bigger bodies have more cells and these cells are
subject to replacement due to wear or damage. Hayflick pointed
out many years ago that most human body cells have limited
capacity for duplication. Since bigger people require a larger
number of duplications to reach maturity, they have fewer
potential cell doublings left to replace defective or dead
cells. Thus, the functional capability of vital organs declines
with advanced age because damaged cells can't be replaced. A new
study also showed that oxidative damage to cells increases at a
higher rate with increasing height; e.g., an 18% increase in
height leads to an 83% increase in cellular damage. Current
gerontological thinking is that oxidative damage leads to aging
and death.
A few years ago, a comprehensive study of about 300 height
and cancer papers, concluded that taller people had a 20 to 60%
higher incidence of cancer compared to shorter people. More
recently, breast, testicular, and prostate cancer studies found
taller women and men suffered from substantially higher cancer
rates.
Short people are not immune to death from heart disease,
cancer, and other causes. Failure to control diet, physical
inactivity, overweight, depression, and anger can lead to
serious health problems. Therefore, poor health and mental
practices can lead to reduced longevity for people of any
height.
- Reduced risk of cardiovascular disease of shorter
people
In 2004, we published a paper in the Medical Science Monitor.
The paper reviewed published data showing that shorter people
have lower cardiovascular disease. Data from Europe, California,
Native American tribes, Japan, Okinawa, Papua New Guinea,
Pakistan, and India show large increases in coronary heart
disease with increasing height. Our report was based on millions
of deaths as well as both heterogeneous and homogeneous
population samples.
Earlier studies by other researchers found shorter people
have more cardiovascular disease than taller people or that
there is little difference between tall and short people. A
recent large study in Korea found no significant relation
between height and heart disease. In recent years, researchers
have also reported that increased risk of heart disease in short
people may be due to higher levels of cholesterol and body
weight.
Many studies from traditional societies have found very
little to no cardiovascular disease among these populations
which are almost always quite short and light. We believe
Western studies that conflict with ours are corrupted by several
factors: accelerated growth of small babies, being overweight
during childhood and adulthood, lower socioeconomic levels, and
bad diets. Many studies that conflict with our findings are
based on small population samples involving a small number of
deaths. In addition, low birth weight children that experience
accelerated growth have increased risk of adult coronary heart
disease and diabetes. Thus, the practice of promoting catch-up
growth or overfeeding of low birth weight children can increase
adult mortality of some shorter people. Another potential
problem is that most researchers compare leaner tall people to
shorter, stockier people, which can favor taller people and
provide misleading results.
- Reduced negative impact on the environment, water
needs, and resource consumption
A population of 6 billion people averaging 6' and 190 pounds can
impact human survival by creating more pollution and depletion
of resources, such as water, energy, minerals, farm land, and
oil. The reason for this is that a 6' person weighing 190 pounds
is 73% heavier and has 44% more surface area than a 5' person
weighing 110 pounds. (The weight difference is based on tall and
short people having the same proportions.)
If the future US population increased by 20%, we would need
additional 1.5 billion tons of minerals, plastics, and metals;
86 trillion additional gallons of fresh water; 180 million
additional acres of farm land; and 80 million added tons of
garbage. We would also produce 3 billion tons of additional
carbon dioxide which is involved in global heating. And
virtually everything else we use in modern society would
increase since things are usually scaled to average human size.
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