hawthorn at waikato.ac.nz wrote:
: In article <tFZTxAUJBh107h at chambers.ak.planet.co.nz>, steve at chambers.ak.planet.co.nz (Steve Chambers) writes:
: > This by-line headed an article in yesterday's local rag. Not much detail -
: > but a Donna Parker of Memorial Hospital in Rhode Island was quoted and
: > a German study was also mentioned in passing.
: >
: > Anyone know any more detail? These results seem counter-intuitive to me
: > given established relationships between mortality and size, calorie
: > restriction and lifespan increase etc.
: Short men are usually smaller over all, which means smaller diameter blood
: vessels. These are more easily clogged than larger diameter ones. So it
Assuming this were true, wouldn't capillaries (the smallest arteries)
get clogged first? Also, wouldn't rabbits be less likely than mice
(rather than more) to develop cardiovascular disease?
I had assumed that the correlation between shortness and heart disease
was due to the differences in the kcal/kg requirements between short
people and average people. Realize, there are very strong social
pressures for people to eat ~1700-2700 kcal per day. Both dieters
(like me) and body builders are under social pressure from the normal
people they frequently eat with to eat closer to the ~2200 kcal mean.
Also, numerous studies have suggested that height is largely
determined by the quality and quantity of pre-pubescent protein
intake. Thus, on the average, short people: (a) used to eat a
relatively imbalanced diet and (b) used to eat a relatively low number
of calories (assuming caloric intake is crudely correlated to protein
intake). Since the basical metabolic rate is roughly constant after
puberty, (b) alone implies that short people, if subjected to social
norms or personal freedom not experienced as children, would overeat
relative to their kcal/day set-point. In this case, their mean
triglyceride levels would be higher than the mean of average
height people.
I had thought this to be sortta obvious really. I'd think that many
short women hate to order just because they can't finish any normal
meal on their plate without worrying about getting fat. It's catch-22
because they don't want to order just a salad because it would bring
up the issue. I'd say that men and tall women are much less likely to
feel uncomfortable about eating with others, especially in
restaurants.
Funny thing is, these people have probably have a much greater maximum
life span parameter (see my website for def) if they practiced CR.
This only makes the effect stronger, since they are less likely to die
of other causes, such a lung disease.
--Jason
______________________________________________________________________________
Jason Taylor, Greenbelt, MD USA|"Doctor, don't cut so deep! That's the third
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~theoblit| operating table you've ruined this week!"
