Link Between Baldness and Clogged Artery Risk Identified

Bald men are more likely to develop coronary heart disease, says recent study, but only if the hair is lost at the crown.

Men who bald from the front appear to carry no significant added risk for the clogged artery disease that can cause heart attacks, said a report in the online journal BMJ Open.

Hair Loss in Men
A few men are only in their twenties when they begin to lose hair, but by the time men reach their fifties, more than 50% of them have what doctors would call ‘significant hair loss’.

Researchers from the University of Tokyo's Department of Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases analysed six studies on male pattern baldness and coronary heart disease conducted between 1993 and 2008 with nearly 40,000 participants in the United States and Europe.

They showed that men who had lost most of their hair were more than a third more likely to develop coronary artery disease than those with hair.

The severity of baldness influenced the degree of risk, but again, only if the balding was at the crown, or vertex.

What is a heart attack / How to prevent heart attacks
Heart attack is the death of the heart muscle due to loss of blood supply. Simple guidelines to avoid heart attack are listed.

"These findings suggest that vertex baldness is more closely associated with systemic atherosclerosis (coronary heart disease) than with frontal baldness," said the study.

"Thus, cardiovascular risk factors should be reviewed carefully in men with vertex baldness, especially younger men, and they probably should be encouraged to improve their cardiovascular risk profile."

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They also urged further studies to confirm the findings.

The study said about 30 to 40 percent of adult men suffer from male-pattern baldness -- and up to 80 percent by the age of 80.

Animation of heart attack symptoms
Heart attack can cause symptoms such as Chest pain or discomfort, Shortness of breath and pain in neck, back, arm, or shoulder and is due to blockage of blood supply to the heart muscles

The reasons for the association were unclear, but the authors pointed to previous links drawn between baldness and insulin resistance, diabetes, chronic inflammation or sensitivity to testosterone -- all of which may lead to cardiovascular disease.

Source-AFP