Well, those short people are putting a burden on our health care system. They should do their utmost to gain height. All it takes is early intervention and proper nutrition. No caffeine or other stimulants to stunt your growth either! Just stop pouring that coffee and diet coke down your gullet! I have no sympathy for people who just stand around being short.

Yes, I'm being ironic. If we were to find a magic bullet today that eliminated fat, and everyone took it, it would only be a matter of time before some other group was villified and assigned every other negative quality that fat people are now; ie; lazy, selfish, stupid, etc. I really wish they would start focusing on healthy behavior and ways to prevent disease, rather than focusing on who is at risk and blowing it up into a panic. OMG you're short! OMG you're fat! OMG etc. How about a nice study on how people who swim every day live longer than people who don't... oh yeah, they did that study, but nobody cared because there's no one to point at and hate on.

When my insurance company refuses to renew my policy because I'm five feet, one and a half inches, I'm going to sue Maria Cheng and AP's collective asses for printing such a stupid article.

Every day there's another "scientific" finding that gives insurance companies an excuse to tailor-make premiums to fit a specific group of people who have absolutely no control over their certain aspects of their bodies.

I did a study myself. I found out that tall people are 50% more likely than short people to hit their heads when passing under objects that are less than five feet six inches from the ground. How about THEM apples?

This is a bunch of baloney. All the women in my family are short and going back several generations the women in our family all lived to be in their 90's. My mother was 98 when she died and she was only a little over 5 ft. tall and so am I. I have two sisters who are 88 and 85 and I just turned 82. We are all "short" and in good health so you should do a little more research on this topic.

It's amazing how much crap passes for *science* these days, and what's even worse is the breathtaking stupidity of the reporters too willing to pass this on to the rest of the country as useful information.

Oh no, here comes the midget lawsuits! Im short compared to an NBA center so I guess Id better lawyer up...

i take offense to the article's conclusion that short people have been malnourished due to a sub standard living condition thus causing heart conditions. Does this mean that only tall people have been allowed to succeed in the world, I would hope not. OOPS better give success to a tall person.

omg what is the link between being poor and being short i thought height was a genetic factor not a money factor. How can anyone even print junk like this.

"people of small stature could be undernourished and vulnerable to health problems in general."

So, most people I know are short and fat ! How does that figure/jive. This article must be based on results from a no-show job study - forget it !

Great, I'm 5'1", my Dad is 5'6', (or was until he started shrinking due to old age.) and he is a both a heart and cancer patient. I see a positive future.

I just thought of that old Randy Newman song, "Short People." Sigh. I'm the shortest one in my family...:(

the magic bullet is fructose free gluten free diet with raw organic milk organic boiled beef, raw organic egg yolks and organic raw or lightly streamed  vegetables  that is it

anything else is a poison

This story is so full of cr-p! How many tall people do you know who are over age 80? Every very elderly person I know is short! And look at all the freakishly tall athletes who die young of heart problems.

What nonsense.  By looking at results from around the world, these researchers actually prejudiced the study since in certain areas people are genetically taller or shorter (e.g., Holland v. China) Therefore, the Chinese have 1.5 times the MI's of the Dutch.  Nonsense.  The Chinese are all are poorer (less successful???) and therefore undernourished because they are short?   And where is the anatomical data from autopsies showing that tall people's arteries are larger in diameter (as opposed to being longer)?  (And everyone >5'9" is tall!  Smells like a height picked to fit the author's theory, rather than derived from data.)

This reminds me of a friend doing a paper on dog bite infections using only from culture results from ER dog bite cases and never going to the Vet School to find out what bacteria a dog normally has in its mouth!

And of what use is this information, if true?  Well, just tell everyone to grow to at least 5'9" and cut MI's by 33%!

Everyone lie down, look and see who is the tallest (fattest) when lying down. See, its clear that its taller people who have a higher risk of heart related death than short people.

It just depends how you present the statistics.

How old is Dr. Ruth? How old was George Burns when he died? Mother Theresa lived to be what? This study is full of short!

Being short might be a result of being poor.

what?

seriously?

i want to see THAT study.

It's another study that ignorant people will believe. I am on the short side, what is this going to help? If I end up with heart problems, I couldn't care less if it was because of my height! That won't help me! There isn't anything we can do about our height! It's as if they are telling me I'm "doomed" to have heart problems! Was this study to make short people aware that they may be at higher risk of developing or having heart problems? Or is it more mindless propaganda? Either way, I won't fall into the trap of many ignorant, naive people who get sucked into these studies and believe what they read, see, or hear, because some "researchers" said so.

I am sick & tired of paying for the health care of illegal immigrants, lazy welfare recipients and self indulgent addicts (from food to work, to tobacco and back). Now I've got to cover the cost of short people too??

Enough already !

I guess I'm lucky to be 5' 9"(and a half. lol), since the studies consider "short" people as 5' 3" and under.

I've read in the past(can't remember where), that extremely tall people(6' 7" and over) are more likely to have health problems(heart/circulation/bone/joint), than people of average height. It would make sense, since the same size heart has more distance to circulate blood through(longer legs, arms and torso), and has to work harder.

Who cares, who cares, who cares-- what a waste of money to do these studies.

...This just in! Tall people have a greater risk of falling over! Wow...who knew?

whachoo takin bout willis!

And we taxpayers are paying for these dumb research?

Best college class I ever took was one about statistic, and talked about this kind of studies. Bottom line: unless the cause is known, the relationship is meaningless! For all we know since short people are generally speaking "getting the shaft" no surprise they got more problems. I want my tax$ back.

And money is spent on these types of studies ?

I cant wait to see the next ones. People who dont wear socks live half as long as those who do.

People who get up on the wrong side of the bed have a greater risk of heart attack then people who do get up on the right side of bed..

Gimme a break

This is a retarded study. Sorry, but it is. I have known short people who lived well into their 90s and upwards, and I've seen a lot of tall people not make it past 50.