Signs of ageing linked to heart risk
They say personality before appearance, but now may be a good time to start paying more attention to what you see staring back at you in the mirror. New research reveals if you look old, your heart may be at risk. Danish researchers say those who have three to four ageing signs, such as receding hairline at the temples, baldness, earlobe crease, or yellow fatty deposits around the eyelid, have a 57% increased risk for a heart attack.
They say personality before appearance, but now may be a good time to start paying more attention to what you see staring back at you in the mirror.
New research reveals if you look old, your heart may be at risk. Danish researchers say those who have three to four ageing signs, such as receding hairline at the temples, baldness, earlobe crease, or yellow fatty deposits around the eyelid, have a 57% increased risk for a heart attack.
Researchers analysed 10,885 participants 40 years and older in the Copenhagen Heart Study. Of these, 7,537 had frontoparietal baldness (receding hairline at the temples), 3,938 had crown top baldness, 3,405 had earlobe crease, and 678 had fatty deposits around the eye.
In 35 years of follow-up, 3,401 participants developed heart disease and 1,708 had a heart attack.
Individually and combined, these signs reportedly predicted heart attack and heart disease independent of traditional risk factors. Fatty deposits around the eye were the strongest individual predictor of both heart attack and heart disease.
Heart attack and heart disease risk increased with each additional sign of ageing in all age groups and among men and women. The highest risk was for those in their 70s and those with multiple signs of ageing.
According to the study’s senior author, Anne Tybjaerg-Hansen, from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, visible signs of ageing reflect biological age – not chronological age.
“Checking these visible ageing signs should be a routine part of every doctor’s physical examination,” she claims.
