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Women's health is significantly pre-determined by height according to Harvard researchers. Taller women fare better in "healthy aging" as compared to shorter women.

A woman's height is a vital indicator of her overall health. This is because height captures several health factors like genetics, social circumstances and economic conditions. Taller women are believed to benefit from good genes nurtured by good nutrition and positive social settings.

Tall women have been found to have lesser body fat and are more likely to follow a healthy lifestyle. Shorter women, on the other hand, may suffer from inferior genes coupled by malnutrition. In many circumstances, the socioeconomic condition of children has an effect on how tall they will be as adults.

A new study presented by researchers from Harvard University at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions discovered that height is closely associated to "healthy aging" as reported by Live Science. Wenjie Ma is the study author and a doctoral student at the Harvard University's School of Public health.

Ma's team of researchers looked into the data of 68,000 women who were enrolled in Nurse's Health Study. The team took into consideration the BMIs, smoking status, physical activities and diets of the women. The data on women's health was recorded in 1980 and the average age of the women is 44 years old.

Ma identified the "healthy agers," which are women who have no reported mental and physical problems or limitations, free from chronic ailments, cancer, Type 2 Diabetes and kidney problems. The healthy agers were divided into five groups according to their median height with the highest, 68 inches (172.2 cm) and the lowest, 62 inches (157.5 cm).

The taller women fared better in meeting the requirements of healthy aging as compared to shorter women. The figures did not change when taking in other factors like ethnicity, marriage and menopause status, and family background.

However, previous studies have discovered a few benefits to being short when it comes to having cancer. Tall women are more prone to cancer possibly because they have bigger organs. With every additional 4 inches in height, the risk increases by 17 percent in getting breast cancer as reported by Reader's Digest.

As of now, there is no solid medical evidence to explain why women's health is impacted by a woman's height. Clearly, more research is needed to further investigate this important piece of discovery.