Longtime Link Seen for Height and Longevity

The taller you are the longer you are likely to live, even if you were born 1,000 years ago, according to British researchers.

Scientists know tall people nowadays tend to have a greater life expectancy than their shorter counterparts, but they had not been sure if that was also true for earlier generations.

Anthropologist David Gunnell of Bristol University in southwest England and his colleagues studied 490 adult skeletons to determine the historical link between height and longevity. The skeletons dated from the 9th century to about 1850. After measuring the bones of each individual and determining the sex and age at death, they reported in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health that people with shorter bones tended to die younger.

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Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II