Add enhanced risk of premature balding to the list of illnesses and indignities faced by diminutive men of European descent, according to a new study.

"It seems that men with a relatively shorter body height have a higher chance of losing their hair," University of Bonn professor Stefanie Heilmann-Heimbach, lead author of the study, told AFP. Her team's research appeared on Wednesday in Nature Communications.

"Our data indicates that some of the genes involved in baldness are associated, on average, with shorter stature."

Earlier research has shown that men with so-called male pattern baldness are also statistically more likely to suffer from heart disease and prostate cancer, though the added risk is slight.

Reduced body size and early onset of puberty are also linked with loss of hair for men.

Some of the same genes that regulate human height, it seems, also play a role in the emergence of these conditions and diseases.

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