Health Concerns - The Tall Street Journal

Diagnostic Criteria for Marfan Syndrome Have Been Revised

2010-07-02T00:57:38.179Z

I haven't pored over every detail of this update yet to determine whether the new criteria are better or worse than the old ones, but I would imagine some folks who previously just missed the diagnosis will now be within the fold:

http://www.marfan.org/marfan/4265/2010-Revised-Ghent-Nosology

This is a great website to share with your doctors if you are a tall person seeking medical treatment for eye, heart, or spine problems.

Exercise for tall people

2010-01-24T17:39:45.692Z

I put together a blog post on exercise for tall people. Some of this requires that you talk with a doctor and preferably someone who knows sports medicine, but exercise is a great way to build your back and protect yourself from back pain.

Tall People - Do you have back pains?

2009-02-11T12:57:56.005Z

* Do tall people suffer back problems, from the reason that the world around us built for short and little people?

* Lower back huh? :-)

Skin Cancer, Taller Women Face Greater Risk

2008-07-22T13:31:48.315Z

The Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Brisbane, Australia, reported in the August 2008 issue of Self, that women standing less than 5ft 6in are 30% less likely to develop skin melanoma than taller women.

This blog talks about some of the reasons why this may be the case, but either way, you might as well sun block up.

http://futurederm.wordpress.com/2008/07/18/do-tall-women-need-more-sunscreen/

What are your experiences with skin cancer either through study or personal experience with you or a friend?

Marfan Syndrome - A Tall Disorder

2008-06-17T22:21:16.681Z

Marfan is a disorder that probably all relatively tall people should be aware of, whether it effects them or not. There is a great organization called The National Marfan Foundation (www.marfan.org) and there website with greater detail, but here is a basic run-down from their site recapping the characteristics of Marfan.

Skeleton - People with the Marfan syndrome are typically, but not always, very tall or taller than unaffected people in their family, slender and loose jointed.

Eyes- More than half of all people with the Marfan syndrome experience dislocation of one or both lenses of the eye.

Heart and blood vessels (cardiovascular system) - Most people with the Marfan syndrome have problems associated with the heart and blood vessels.

Nervous system - The brain and spinal cord are surrounded by fluid contained by a membrane called the dura, with age this often weakens and stretches, then begins to weigh on the vertebrae in the lower spine and wear away the bone surrounding the spinal cord.

Skin - Many people with The Marfan syndrome develop stretch marks on their skin, even without any significant weight change or pregnancy.

Lungs - Restrictive lung disease, primarily due to pectus abnormalities and/or scoliosis, occurs in 70 percent of persons with MFS.

If you or anyone you know may fall within these conditions, I'd highly encourage checking out the National Marfan Foundation website (NMF) and ask your healthcare provider about it as well.

Human Heart Problems, Palpitations and New Research

2008-06-17T21:35:01.466Z

Growing up I regularly had heart palpitations, aka just beating really hard in my chest, even if I was just laying around. Of course, this was of great concern, and finally one day I went to the Georgia Tech Health Center. Unfortunately, they got an irregular EKG (heart monitoring machine reading) back on my report. They immediately sent me to Emory to get further testing. For a month I had to wear a heart monitor, record its patterns when it went crazy and then phone them into the hospital. At the end of the ordeal, they had no idea what the problem was.

I found out later in life, my uncle also experienced something similar growing up and so have other tall people I've asked about it. Then a few months ago a friend of mine, Marge Tamas, who is a medical writer at my company passed on some new information regarding the QT Interval.

The QT Interval represents the conduction delay between the time that the ventricles fire off and the heart muscle recharges. Basically, its a timing mechanism and longer intervals in the EKG tell healthcare professionals something could be wrong. Well, in a recent study, they have discovered that people with bigger hearts (aka taller people and athletes) will naturally have longer QT intervals because the heart is bigger.

This is by no means to say not to worry if you are having heart problems, definitely see your physician. However, at the time I was diagnosed with what I suppose was a longer QT, I was told by a crying nurse that I could die at any minute. Now that may be a bit overboard and tramatic to a 19 year old trying to play college basketball at the time.

Here is the article
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTON40532920080124

Any other stories on heart and cardio stuff some may care to share?