Being Tall Increases Cancer Risk, Major Study Shows

Health experts said tall people should not be alarmed by the results, as height is likely to have only a small effect on their overall cancer risk.

They discovered that for every 10 cm increase in height, cancer increase by 11% among men and 18 percent among women.

Another is that taller people simply have a larger number of cells in their bodies which could potentially transform into cancer.

Although a relation between cancer and tall people has been conducted by previous study, the lead author believed it was a major study conducted on linkage between cancer and height.

The team, from the Karolinska Institutet and University of Stockholm, both in Sweden, followed 5.5 million Swedish men and women between the years 1958 and 2011, or from the age of 20 up until 2011.

It found that for every extra 10 cm, a woman had a 20-per cent higher risk of breast cancer, while there was a jump of 30 per cent for every 10 cm in melanoma risk for both genders.

For example, in Sweden a typical woman is about 5ft 7ins tall.

We’re all told how diet, our environment and other lifestyle factors can increase the risk of cancer.

The taller one is, the greater the likelihood of developing cancer, according to a new study presented at the 54th Annual European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology Meeting in Barcelona, Spain.

Dr. Benyi said there may a number of plausible explanations. An earlier study showed that people with genetic dwarfism had very little cancer.

Scientists do not yet know if their hypothesis holds true for non-Swedish people.

“In humans growth hormone stimulates cell growth in general and blocks cell death”.

‘So the level of growth hormone someone has could affect cancer risk by pushing up cell numbers.

“It should be emphasized that our results reflect cancer incidence on a population level”, Benyi said in a statement. This study should add important further confirmation in a population-based setting. The link between increased height and increased risks of suffering from cancer appears to be quite substantial. Previously, intake of caloric has been linked to cancer.

Between 1990 and 2013 the proportion of deaths caused by cancer increased from 12 to 15 per cent.

Taller people have higher risks of developing mutant cells. A recent Swedish study has found at least one area, however, where tall people get the short end of the stick.

If you are tall, you may have the risk of developing cancer.

Professor Mel Greaves of the Institute of Cancer Research in London said that for cancers such as breast and skin cancer other factors such as family history, reproductive patterns and obesity have a much greater impact in the risk of developing the diseases compared to height.