Recently a cardiology team from India found that early graying and baldness predict heart disease. These two risk factors are on top of the conventional risk factors. The ones that are known already are high cholesterol, obesity, smoking, high blood pressure and physical inactivity.
Clinical trial showing that early graying and baldness predict heart disease
790 young Indian men aged less than 40 were at the core of the study that correlated heart disease with early graying and early balding. The study also included 270 age-matched controls. All subjects of the study underwent EKG’s done, echocardiograms, blood tests and coronary arteriograms. Researchers quantified male pattern baldness, and a scale determined the degree of graying. Research decided on 5 graying categories. No.1 was pure black, no. 5 pure white. Category 2 was black greater than white, category 3 was when black equaled white. In category 4 white was greater than black.
Findings of study
The researchers found that young men with coronary artery disease had 50% premature graying while controls had only 30%. Similarly, 49% of young men with coronary artery disease had male-pattern baldness versus only 27% in controls.
When researchers adjusted the data for age and other cardiovascular risk factors, they could calculate the following risks. Male-pattern baldness had a risk of 5.6-fold in connection with coronary artery disease. Premature graying was showing a 5.3-times greater risk than controls to develop coronary artery disease.
Obesity showed a risk increase of 4.1-fold compared to non-obese controls. All the other predictors of coronary artery disease were lower than male-pattern baldness and prematurely graying hair in men younger than age 40. The other risk factors were diabetes, high blood pressure, and family history of premature coronary artery disease, lipid abnormality or smoking.
Early Graying And Baldness Predict Heart Disease
Conclusion
A study from India found that there are other risk factors than the traditional ones for developing cardiovascular disease. Male-pattern baldness had a risk of 5.6-fold in association with coronary artery disease. Premature graying showed a risk of 5.3-times the risk of controls to develop coronary artery disease.
In comparison, obesity only had a risk of 4.1-fold compared to non-obese controls. All the other established risk factors for developing coronary artery disease are much smaller than the ones discussed.
Cardiologists found the new risk factors for coronary artery disease interesting. They commented that these high-risk people would need closer monitoring to minimize the risk of developing heart disease.
