It’s nice to be tall, right? Sure, it’s great… unless you want to become an astronaut, or a horse jockey, or an old man.
Ok, I’m joking on the last point. But a new study found an inverse link between height and longevity, finding that shorter men are more likely to live longer.
The study concerned a group 8,006 Japanese-American men in Oahu, Hawaii, who scientists have kept tabs on for more than 40 years. These men were born between 1900 and 1916 and are “genetically and culturally homogeneous,” allowing researchers to make some interesting findings they wouldn’t be able to ferret out in a more diverse group.
The gene’s effect on longevity may relate to its role in regulating insulin.
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They found that shorter men were more likely to have a protective version of the gene FOXO3, which previous research has linked to a long life.
Read the full, original story: Shorter Men Live Longer, Study Says
