Certain studies have shown that height is a factor in overall health while some suggest tallness is associated with better cardiovascular health and shortness with longevity. Cancer risk has also been found to grow with height. Moreover, scientists have also observed a protective effect of height on risk for Alzheimers disease, although this fact could be a result of the genetic overlap between height and intracraneal volume and there are also genetic variants influencing height that could affect biological mechanisms involved in Alzheimers disease etiology, such as Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1).Nonetheless, modern westernized interpretations of the relationship between height and health fail to account for the observed height variations worldwide. Cavalli-Sforza and Cavalli-Sforza note that variations in height worldwide can be partly attributed to evolutionary pressures resulting from differing environments. These evolutionary pressures result in height-related health implications. While tallness is an adaptive benefit in colder climates such as those found in Europe, shortness helps dissipate body heat in warmer climatic regions. Consequently, the relationships between health and height cannot be easily generalized since tallness and shortness can both provide health benefits in different environmental settings. In the end, being excessively tall can cause various medical problems, including cardiovascular problems, because of the increased load on the heart to supply the body with blood, and problems resulting from the increased time it takes the brain to communicate with the extremities. For example, Robert Wadlow, the tallest man known to verifiable history, developed trouble walking as his height increased throughout his life.
"Mean Body Weight, Height, and Body Mass Index, United States 1960–2002" (PDF). Advance Data from Vital and Health Statistics (347): 1–17. PMID 15544194. "Health Survey for England – trend data". Department of Health and Social Care. Archived from the original on 10 October 2004. Bilger, Burkhard (29 March 2004). "The Height Gap". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 2 April 2004. A collection of data on human height, referred to here as "karube" but originally collected from other sources, is archived here. A copy is available here (an English translation of this Japanese page would make it easier to evaluate the quality of the data...)
"Americans Slightly Taller, Much Heavier Than Four Decades Ago". National Center for Health Statistics. 27 October 2004. Aminorroaya, A.; Amini, M.; Naghdi, H. & Zadeh, A. H. (2003). "Growth charts of heights and weights of male children and adolescents of Isfahan, Iran" (PDF). Journal of Health, Population, and Nutrition. 21 (4): 341–346. PMID 15038589. S2CID 21907084. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 September 2018. 6. Celostátní antropologický výzkum dětí a mládeže 2001, Česká republika [6th Nationwide anthropological research of children and youth 2001, Czech Republic] (in Czech). Prague: State Health Institute (SZÚ). 2005. ISBN 978-8-07071-251-1. Bogin, Barry (2001). The Growth of Humanity. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Liss. ISBN 978-0-471-35448-2. Eveleth, P.B. ; Tanner, J.M. (1990). Worldwide Variation in Human Growth (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-35916-0. Miura, K.; Nakagawa, H. & Greenland, P. (2002). "Invited commentary: Height-cardiovascular disease relation: where to go from here?". American Journal of Epidemiology.