Tall tales

[Kent2007]

New Scientist, 11th November edition (p18) has an interesting article. Researchers at Uni of Bristol examined records of 454,000 adults and found that "... taller people have a greater risk of having irregular heart rate." Further, that those "... taller than average at age 10 were more likely as an adult to develop atrial fibrillation". They also suggest that tall people have a lower risk of stroke. Interesting but correlation is not causality and I don't suppose there's much one can do about it. For the record though, I'm 6ft/182cm.

[jeanjeannie50]

Well I'm tall and always have been. Oddly at age 10 I was told that in the playground I looked more like the teacher because of my height. I'm 5ft 7in now.

I have to say that I know quite a few people with AF who are short.

Jean

[Gumbie_Cat]

I will be the exception to prove the rule, at 5ft 3in 😂

[Rainfern in reply to Gumbie_Cat]

Ditto 😀

[Gumbie_Cat in reply to Rainfern]

I shall add it to my list of things I get that don’t fit the usual picture 😂 (Over the years - dislocated kneecap, usually young lads playing football. Pain from iliotibial band, usually runners. Blinking raised GGT liver enzyme, usually drinkers. )

[dedeottie in reply to Rainfern]

And Ditto. 5’3’’ and going down…,

[Auriculaire in reply to dedeottie]

You have little to grumble about. I have lost an inch off my already inadequate 4'11"! 5'3" seems quite tall to me.

[dedeottie in reply to Auriculaire]

😂 precious things come in small packages. X

[Auriculaire in reply to dedeottie]

My Mum used to say that to me when I used to grumble about my height!

[Redders in reply to Gumbie_Cat]

Ditto 5ft 2

[Cha275rL in reply to Gumbie_Cat]

Another ditto 😳

[TopBiscuit in reply to Gumbie_Cat]

5' 2" here! 😀

[Rainfern]

A third of Irish Wolf Hounds suffer arrhythmias, and they’re quite tall!

[Finvola]

I remember reading about being tall having some correlation with arrhythmias but the stroke info is new to me.

I was tall as a kid and am a 5ft 10in adult

[Omniscient1]

Not a new thing apparently... (This from 2012). ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl....

[Mainman]

I'm 6ft 5ins with occasional AF - sadly there is also an American study that shows that tall people don't live as long as shorter people.😱

[pusillanimous]

What is considered tall by today's standards given that people are getting taller and larger?

[Crumble2 in reply to pusillanimous]

Exactly. I was taller than my classmates all the way through school, and I’m taller than most people in my age group… 74. But I am tiny against my children and grandchildren.

[Desanthony in reply to pusillanimous]

I was just about to say that. I am amazed by the height of the young women and girls who use our gym these days. Many reaching up to 5'12 and 3/4" - as my second wife's late Mother used to term herself as a "lady" was never 6' tall! Her family were all tall with one of her Uncles reaching 7 ft. and her Mother born in 1903 also being 5' 12 and a 1/2" My little wife didn't get that gene! My son is 6'5" I shall warn him about AF - something else to warn him about as well as the cancers rife in my late first wife's family. All my family are sort of average height for the time they were born and would be considered under average height now. I was the tallest at 5'10" think I am down to 5'7" but glad to have lived to the age I am.

[oscarfox49]

Rather like making sure you have healthy parents with good genes, we must now make sure we are below average height! 😂 If you are short you can wear platform shoes, but what do you do to reduce your height!

Actually I am only 5ft 8 ins (which once upon a time was 'average height') but I have still had AF since at least 1995! 😂

[Silvasava]

5'10" here, stroke and Afib

[Sally_Scott]

Interesting. I was a tall girl and am 5’7 as an adult v

[Ppiman]

I read about this a few weeks ago. I'm also over 6 feet and have read that height might well predispose us to a range of issues. I seem to have most of them!

In terms of the heart, I gather being tall, like being overweight, means that the heart is larger, and a large heart has its atrial cells more stretched, making them more prone to arrhythmia. There's some evidence that when overweight people lose weight, their heart can shrink back to a smaller size and become less arrhythmic; sadly, we can't do much about our height. I do keep my weight down, though, as I fear a combination of the two can't be good. I enjoy my food and a glass of wine with it rather too much though to get myself healthily stick-like!

Steve

[Jmc43 in reply to Ppiman]

You are mostly correct when you say ‘we can’t do much about height’..but it seems I have shrunk by an inch or two the last 10 years or so…😅.

[Autumn_Leaves in reply to Jmc43]

Haha! I don’t think old age shrinkage counts! That’s just the cartilage beteeen the vertebrae shrinking. 😢

[Auriculaire in reply to Autumn_Leaves]

That is an optimistic outlook that I will adopt! Do you think they count it for BMI?

[Ppiman in reply to Autumn_Leaves]

My wife’s aunt lived to 94 and shrunk almost six inches in her dotage.

Steve

[Ppiman in reply to Jmc43]

I don’t know your age but I’m 70 and was shocked to be told at my recent health check for anticoagulants that my near to 6’4” height since I was 18 is now only 6’ 2”!

[jeanjeannie50 in reply to Ppiman]

I told the nurse off measuring my height who said I was 5ft 6ins. I said I'm 5ft 7ins, in fact probably 7.5ins. Maybe she was right and I've shrunk. I made her do it again and she then said 5ft7ins (probably to shut me up).

[Ppiman in reply to jeanjeannie50]

You're as tall as my wife who is (still!) 5'8" but has always said if asked, "I'm five feet seven and three quarters!"

Steve

[Thomas45]

I'm 78 and the same height as I was when I was 18, that's 6'6.5"

[Ppiman in reply to Thomas45]

It’s always lovely to hear from another tall ‘un. There aren’t enough of us around! We tend to have good lungs, I gather. I put that down to the air being cleaner higher up!

Steve

[Thomas45 in reply to Ppiman]

Sadly I've been asthmatic for 49 years.

[Ppiman in reply to Thomas45]

Actually, as I wrote that, I did think of a friend who is just over six feet tall and also has asthma, along with, now, poor chap, COPD to add to his troubles,

Steve

[Mugsy15]

Excellent choice of headline, 'tall tales' 🤣

The kind of report that elicits a response of: "yeah, yeah" before moving on to the next 'study' showing people with dark hair are more prone to gout. Or whatever.

[Jajarunner]

I've heard that before too. I'm 5'10". Female

[Autumn_Leaves]

I’m tall

[fibnum]

I saw a report that showed that people over 6'8" get more head injuries.

[Gumbie_Cat in reply to fibnum]

If only doorways were higher…

[Sixtychick]

I have paroxsysmal AFib and I’m 5ft tall and my Mum, who had persistant AFib was only 4ft 10”, but hopefully, now I’ve had my ablation,my AFib will be no more.