Tall people are less likely to have a heart attack because their arteries aren't so clogged

Tall people are less likely than short people to have a build-up of plaque

Plaque build-ups in the arteries can trigger heart attacks

The tallest people have as much as 30% less plaque than shorter ones

No one knows for sure why this is



Tall people are less likely to have furred up arteries meaning they are less prone to heart attacks, new research suggests

Taller people have a towering advantage when it comes to heart disease - they are less likely to have furred up arteries.

New U.S. research reveals height can be good for your health because it cuts the risk of having a build-up of plaque which can trigger heart attacks.

CT scans show there may be as much as 30 per cent less plaque build-up in the tallest men and women, suggesting they are at lower risk of heart disease.

Michael Miedema, a research cardiologist from the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation, carried out research involving 2,703 patients from the Family Heart Study.

He said: ‘A potential link between height and coronary heart disease has been shown in several studies but the mechanism of this relationship has not been clear and our study suggests the relationship is mediated by plaque build up in the coronary arteries.’



The study used CT scanning to examine the presence of coronary artery calcium (CAC), a direct marker of plaque in the arteries that feed the heart, in study patients.

Coronary artery calcium is a strong predictor of future heart attacks with a nearly 10 fold increase in the risk of coronary heart disease in patients with raised levels of CAC.



It found taller adults tended to have lower levels of plaque, and thus, a lower risk of heart disease.

There was a lower risk of up to 30 per cent in plaque build-up in the top quarter of tallest adults compared to the bottom quarter.

The results had to be adjusted for gender, given the differences in height between men and women, but the relationship was consistent in both men and women the link persisted even after accounting for standard cardiovascular risk factors such as age, smoking, high cholesterol, and diabetes.

The research was published by Circulation - Cardiovascular Imaging, a journal of the American Heart Association.

The study is the first to examine the relationship between adult height and CAC in a large population.

Tall people may have as much as 30 per cent less plaque build-up that shorter people

‘Some studies suggest that taller people have favourable changes in their blood pressure due their height but these changes are quite small and unlikely to be the sole cause of this relationship,’ said Dr Miedema.

‘It may be more likely that this relationship is mediated through a common link, such as childhood nutrition or other environmental factors during childhood, which may be determinants of both adult height as well as future coronary heart disease.’



A previous review of 52 studies of over three million people found that shorts adults were 1.5 times more likely to develop cardiovascular heart disease and die from it than were tall people - a finding made for men and women.

It also found short men were one-third more likely to die from any cause in a given time period compared with tall men, and short women were 5.5 per cent more at risk of premature death from any cause.