# Tall people have short lives? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 15, 2003, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tall-people-have-short-lives/148639 "2003-01-15T00:47:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fuel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@Fuel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuel)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tall-people-have-short-lives/148639/1 "2003-01-15T00:47:09Z")
is this true? my friend just quoted me a statistic that said people over 6’5" don’t live as long. is this true and why? ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tall-people-have-short-lives/148639/2 "2003-01-15T00:57:14Z")
I dunno about people only six foot five. Hell, my FATHER is six foot five, and he’s as hale and hearty as ever. I do know that once you start getting up over the seven-foot mark, you’re quite possibly in for a host of foot, muscle, knee, hip, and bone ailments that come with there being quite so much of you drawn out over such a length, particularly as you get older. Ask any basketball player. ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tall-people-have-short-lives/148639/3 "2003-01-15T01:06:06Z")
If we don’t live as long, it’s because our lives are so much more action-packed and exciting than those of other people. (looks around) Aw, nuts. ---
**Author:** ![HighSoci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@HighSoci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HighSoci)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tall-people-have-short-lives/148639/4 "2003-01-15T01:37:49Z")
I too have had this question because I don’t see very many tall people that are really over the age of 70. Then I sit and thought a little (something I try not to do too often) then realized that when people get older, their bones tend to bend more and gives them that humped over look. This would make them shorter. Also the blood has further to travel and their chances for heart failure could be greater too. I could be way off, but this is just my opinion on it. ---
**Author:** ![greenteeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@greenteeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greenteeth)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tall-people-have-short-lives/148639/5 "2003-01-15T03:45:17Z")
[Is Shaq doomed to die young?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=119525&highlight=shaq) ---
**Author:** ![aeropl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f05b48/32.png) [@aeropl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aeropl)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tall-people-have-short-lives/148639/6 "2003-01-15T05:46:36Z")
Robert Wadlow, supposedly the world’s tallest man, died at age 22. Interpret that however you want. As a counter-example, a wonderful man named Elden Auker comes into our work all the time. He’s about six and half feet tall, and used to play major league baseball. He’s 92 years old and is still very active. ---
**Author:** ![dauerbach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c2a13f/32.png) [@dauerbach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dauerbach)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tall-people-have-short-lives/148639/7 "2003-01-15T06:28:20Z")
I would imagine that being over 6’5" is rare enough that a high enough percentage of these people would have a medical abnormality such as Marfans syndrome or pituitary gigantism that would tend to make them die younger. Because of this it would artificially lower the statistical life expectancy of healthy people destined to be tall. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tall-people-have-short-lives/148639/8 "2003-01-15T06:33:07Z")
I’m 6’4"+ and am prone to extreme acts of clumsiness (banging my head on things, tripping, losing my balance). Sort of like Kramer without the laughtrack. Maybe the high-center of gravity and clumsiness helps in knocking us trees off in higher numbers than average-sized folk, thus lowering the average age of death for tall people. Happy ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tall-people-have-short-lives/148639/9 "2003-01-15T06:42:56Z")
John Kenneth Galbraith is 6’7" IIRC and he’s going to be 95 this year. I’ve also met Eldon Auker and he is indeed tall and for a man his age has incredibly good posture. Shames me, because I’m 6’5" and very slump-shouldered. Another economist, Paul Volcker is pretty tall and he’s 75. So there’s hope for me! ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tall-people-have-short-lives/148639/10 "2003-01-15T07:48:11Z")
In the case of [Robert Wadlow](http://www.altonweb.com/history/wadlow/) (8’11") > [@](#): > > As a youth, Robert had enjoyed good health, but his large feet had troubled him for many years. He had little sensation in his feet and did not feel any chafing until blisters formed. While making an appearance in Manistee, Michigan in July 1940, a fatal infection set in when such a blister formed. On July 4th, doctors had Robert confined to a hotel bed, unable to find suitable accommodations at the local hospital. Days later, after emergency surgery and blood transfusions, the infection lingered and his temperature continued to rise. At 1:30 a.m., on the 15th of July, Robert Wadlow passed away in his sleep. So his early death was related to his height, albeit indirectly. ---
**Author:** ![Rico](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rico/32/3582_2.png) [@Rico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rico)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tall-people-have-short-lives/148639/11 "2003-01-15T08:18:27Z")
As a past president of one of the chapters of [Tall Clubs International](http://www.tall.org) and a man of tall stauture myself (6’ 7"), one of the causes I’ve been involved in for years is the [National Marfan Foundation](http://www.marfan.org/). One of the symptoms of Marfan Syndrome is excessive height. That’s why Tall Clubs International has made the Marfan Foundation our major project. Thank you **dauerbach** for recognizing Marfan. Several people I knew in the Tall organization had the syndrome, which is a genetic defect. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tall-people-have-short-lives/148639/12 "2003-01-15T15:05:03Z")
[http://www.hhp.ufl.edu/keepingfit/ARTICLE/heightlife.htm](http://www.hhp.ufl.edu/keepingfit/ARTICLE/heightlife.htm) …just the opposite may be true. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tall-people-have-short-lives/148639/13 "2003-01-15T15:06:20Z")
Tall = longer life , Studies reveal… [http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/living/dailynews/bones010614.html](http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/living/dailynews/bones010614.html)