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Answer to Deng's longevity

BEIJING: China may have the answer to the longevity of paramount leader Deng Xiaoping. He's short.

Shorter people tend to live longer than the tall, the official Xinhua news agency on Friday quoted the China Information News as saying.

The taller people grow, the heavier their bodies become, putting added burdens on their hearts, which means shorter people have a better chance of a longer life, it said.

Deng Xiaoping, who stands 1.5 metres (5 ft) in his socks, turns 91 next Tuesday.

A 1993 survey showed China's longest living man and woman were both dwarfs, and that more than half of its centenarians were only around 1.5 metres tall and weighed about 40 kg (88 lb).

Gong Laifa, who had been China's longest-lived man, died this year at the age of 131 in the southwestern province of Guizhou. He was 1.4 metres (4.6 ft) tall and weighed less than 40 kg.

Kong Ying, who died at 122 in Guangdong province in the south, was 1.3 metres (4.3 ft) tall and weighed 30 kg (66 lb).

Chinese experts say the constant increase in human height will cause problems not only for living longer but for economic growth, Xinhua said.

The number of airplane passengers has had to drop by 10 percent because of an increase in people's height and weight, it said, while clothesmakers complain of increasing costs for fabric and time required for sewing.

The report quoted medical experts as saying that when a person's height increases five percent, the skin surface will increase by 10 percent, weight will increase by 16 percent, and blood vessels will have a 10 percent increase in length.-Reuter