I have studied the relationship between height, chronic diseases, and longevity for almost 40 years. One of my papers appeared in the Indian Heart Journal (2013) that summarized worldwide findings showing shorter people have inherently lower heart disease.  In 2014, I had a paper published in the Journal of Scientific Research & Reports that summarized key findings showing shorter people live longer. If tall people had inherently better hearts, then why do today's taller Americans have more coronary heart disease (CHD) compared to the early 1900s when we were a few inches shorter?  Also women are shorter than men and have less CHD.  

Studies from the 20th C found that many populations were free of CHD and stroke. Yet, these people ranged from less than 5 feet to about 5 feet, 4 inches. These populations included Fiji, Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Kalahari Bushmen and the Congo pygmies. I know of no modern population that is free of CHD. Unfortunately, CHD has gone up sharply in Fiji over the last 60 years. (Major food changes and increased height have occurred over the last few decades).

In 2007, The World Cancer Research Fund reported that until recently, CHD was rare. However, in parallel with industrial development, we have seen increases in height, weight and chronic disease (which includes CHD).

Of course, both tall and short people can reach advanced ages without CHD. Many other factors are involved, such as genetics, diet, exercise, smoking, weight in relation to height, income level, etc. I found that height represents about 10% of the total longevity picture.

Unfortunately, when it comes to human health and mortality, conflicting studies abound. However, confidence in a study's findings should be based on support from different types of studies (e.g., ecological, longitudinal, cross-sectional) that provide consistent results and include populations from different parts of the world and different ethnic groups.

In 2014, a study also found that shorter people live longer (He, et al.) A 2012 study
Also found shorter men lived longer (Salaris, et al.)

I have reported scores of examples showing that non-Western shorter people have less CHD than taller Westerners. See www.humanbodysize.com for a listing of over 45 papers, book chapters and books expanding on what is discussed here.  Some papers and a book related to height and CHD are listed below.

Reference sources:

Samaras TT. Shorter height is related to lower cardiovascular disease risk—A narrative review. Indian Heart Journal 2013; 65: 66-71.

Samaras, TT. Is short height really a risk factor for coronary heart disease and stroke mortality? A review. Med Sci Monit 2004; 10(4): RA63-76.

Samaras TT. Evidence from eight different types of studies showing that smaller body size is related to greater longevity. Journal of Scientific
Research & Reports. 2014: 3 (16): 2150-2160, 2014; article no. JSRR.2014.16.003.

Samaras TT. Human Scaling and Body Mass Index. In: Samaras TT (ed): Human Body Size and the Laws of Scaling: Physiological Performance,
Growth, Longevity and Ecological Ramifications. New York: Nova Science Pub; 2007: pp 17-32.


He Q, Morris BJ, Grove JS, Petrovitch H, Ross W, Masaki KH, et al. Shorter men live longer: Association of height with longevity and FOXO3
genotype in American men of Japanese ancestry.  Plos ONE 9(5): e94385. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0094385.

Salaris L, Poulain M, Samaras TT.  Height and survival at older ages among men
born in an inland village in Sardinia (Italy), 1866-2006. Biodemography and Social
Biology, 58:1, 1-13.