Report: Women with Short Legs May Suffer From Liver Damage

Filed in archive General Health on December 17, 2007

Short women get a bad rap. It's hard for them to find great jeans (without shopping at a petite store), they can't wear capri pants, and long boots are almost a no-no. Now, we learn that short legged women who face a health risk.

A recent study, conducted by Abigail Fraser of University of Bristol, found that women with short legs may face a higher risk of liver disease. Over 3,600 women were studied and showed that those with shorter legs was more likely to have signs of liver damage.

"Adult liver function is affected by early life environmental exposures as reflected in leg length, and this may suggest common childhood influences on liver development and adult risk of diabetes and coronary heart disease," they wrote.

Fraser's team looked at women aged 60 to 79 who were taking part in a larger health study. They measured their leg length as compared to trunk length and also measured four liver enzymes: alanine aminotransferase, gamma-glutamyltransferase, aspartate transaminase and alkaline phosphatase.

"Each of these markers reflects a different aspect of potential liver damage," they wrote in their report, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Leg length can point to how well a person was nourished in early childhood. "In particular, evidence shows that breast-feeding, high-energy intake at four years and childhood affluent socioeconomic position are all associated with longer adult leg length," Fraser's team wrote.

The findings held even when Fraser's team took into account smoking, drinking and other behaviors that can damage a person's liver.