Study Links Graying Hair to Heart Disease Risk
Gray hair is associated with increased risk of heart disease in men, independent of chronological age, according to the results of a recent study.1
In order to test their hypothesis that hair graying was associated with risk of coronary artery disease (CAD), researchers conducted a prospective observational study of 545 adult men who underwent mutli-slice computed tomography coronary angiography to test for CAD. The participants were grouped based on whether or not they had CAD and by the amount of gray/white hair they had, measured by a hair whitening score from 1-5.
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Overall, 80% of the study population had CAD. Individuals with a high hair whitening score (3 or greater) were significantly more likely to have CAD than those with lower scores (60.1% vs 32.1%). The association was independent of chronological age. In a multivariate regression analysis, the researchers found that age, hair whitening score, hypertension, and dyslipidemia were all independent predictors of atherosclerotic CAD.
“Atherosclerosis and hair greying occur through similar biological pathways and the incidence of both increases with age. Our findings suggest that, irrespective of chronological age, hair greying indicates biological age and could be a warning sign of increased cardiovascular risk,” the researchers concluded.2
—Michael Potts
Reference:
- Elfaramawy A, Samuel I, Darweesh R, Shehata A, Farouk H, Hossam K. The degree of hair graying in male gender as an independent risk factor for coronary artery disease, a prospective study [paper presented at EuroPrevent 2017]. Malaga, Spain. April 8, 2017.
- Grey hair linked with increased heart disease risk in men [press release]. European Society of Cardiology. Malaga, Spain. April 8, 2017. https://www.escardio.org/The-ESC/Press-Office/Press-releases/grey-hair-linked-with-increased-heart-disease-risk-in-men?hit=wireek#.