Height of a person determines his/her intelligence. Exposing this fact, scientists found that IQ levels of a person declined with a reduction in height.
Discovery of genes that influence height and IQ mainly led to this ground breaking revelation, Daily Mail reported.
During the five-year-study, researchers from three universities in UK- Edinburgh University, Aberdeen University and University College London- looked at DNA markers of 6,800 people, part of the Scottish Family Health Study.
Participants, who were unrelated, underwent tests that measured their ability to recall, language skills and reaction time.
Results proved that shorter people had lower IQ compared to the taller participants.
"We tested whether DNA-based genetic similarities among people related to their similarities in height and intelligence," Riccardo Marioni, from Edinburgh University's Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, told Daily Mail.
"Previous studies have used twin or family data to examine similarities between height and intelligence, whereas ours was the first to examine this using actual DNA markers in unrelated people. What we found was a small association between height and intelligence, such that people who are taller tend to be smarter."
Genetics (70 percent) and environmental influences (30 percent) play major roles in this occurrence, researchers wrote in journal Behavior Genetics. They hoped that this genetic correlation between the two can be used to determine a person's health.
Countless studies in the past have found a direct link between height and health of a person.
A study reported in the European Heart Journal looked at 3 million people and found 50 percent additional risk of heart disease associated with a short stature.
Apart from this, short stature also has long been linked to stroke, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease.
Like short stature, studies have also linked height to cancer. A study published in the American Association for Cancer Research's journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention reported 13 percent increased risk of cancer (breast, ovary, colon, endometrium, kidney, rectum, thyroid, multiple myeloma and melanoma) with every 3.94 inches increase in height.
