Could height be related to cancer? As absurd as this hypothesis seems, scientists are getting closer and closer to an affirmative answer. According to an analysis published in Cancer, Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, tall adult height may be associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer and colorectal adenoma. How it’s possible?
- Prof. Gerard E. Mullin discovered the link between growth and the risk of developing colorectal cancer while watching sports games
- One of the contestants was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. The researcher was struck by the fact that he was a young, fit and healthy man. So why did he get cancer?
- Research led him to research that high stature was a risk factor for colon cancer in a similar way to smoking or poor diet.
- More information can be found on the Onet homepage
«Sports» discovery
Prof. Gerard E. Mullin, director of the Johns Hopkins Hospital Integrative GI Nutrition Services at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (Baltimore, USA), who is one of the authors of the study, he discovered the link between growth and cancer risk many years ago by accident, while attending a… baseball game.
The doctor noted that the New York Yankees were playing without one of their key players: 36-year-old Darryl Strawberry. The New York City law enforcement officer was not called up due to health problems. As it turned out later, the athlete was diagnosed with colon cancer.
Mullin was surprised. «I saw him in a vegan restaurant (…) and he looked healthy and fit. So it wasn’t about his diet. I was wondering if it might be his height. I started looking for links in the literature and found information that there are studies linking this factor with cancers of the gastrointestinal tract ».
The researcher was struck by the fact that many modifiable factors are taken into account in determining the risk of developing cancersuch as poor diet, alcohol abuse or smoking, but parameters beyond our control, such as growth, are not.
The professor, together with his colleagues, searched the scientific databases for research on the relationship between adult growth and colorectal cancer or adenoma of this organ. They managed to find 47 works covering 280 thousand. 644 cases of colorectal cancer and 14 cases 139 cases of colorectal adenoma. They also collected the results of the Johns Hopkins Colon Biofilm study, in which 1459 people after colonoscopy took part.
The rest of the article is available under the video.
Growth as an independent risk factor for cancer
It turned out that in people 10 cm taller than the average height in the study, the risk of developing colorectal cancer or adenoma was 1,14 (compared to 1,09 in the general population).
In addition, 26 studies included data comparing the incidence of colorectal cancer between people in the highest and lowest percentiles of height. Here, too, there was a difference in the amount of risk (1,24) in relation to the average overall risk (1,07).
«The risk was comparable to the risk of frequent consumption of processed red meat, smoking, or moderate alcohol consumption»Said Mullin. “We checked many of the risk factors for colorectal adenoma and cancer, such as family history, inflammatory bowel disease, and even diet, and found height to be an independent risk factor.”
The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine professor called for height to be considered a risk factor in colon cancer screening. In his opinion, this may help in the early diagnosis of cancer. At the same time, he suggested conducting research on the use of stool DNA for neoplasia in tall people and comparing the possible positive result with an age-matched control group.
“It would also be interesting to see if there is a factorial interaction of growth with modifiable factors such as diet and / or non-modifiable factors such as genetic load,” said Mullin.
Being aware of being at risk of developing cancer is a key element of cancer prevention. You can do the risk test yourself at home, checking, for example, the level of the M2PK enzyme. You can order such a test at Medonet Market.
We encourage you to listen to the latest episode of the RESET podcast. This time we devote it to ecology. How to be eco and not go crazy? How can we care for our planet on a daily basis? What and how to eat? You will hear about this and many other topics related to ecology in the new episode of our podcast.