Heart disease can be predicted from our forehead wrinkles

A new study has found that people with deep forehead wrinkles than normal for their age could be at risk of heart disease.

People who have a lot more deep forehead wrinkles than is typical for their age may be at a higher risk of dying of cardiovascular disease, a study has found.

Risk of heart disease increases as people age, but lifestyle and medical interventions can mitigate the danger. The challenge is in identifying high-risk patients early enough to make a difference. The study investigated horizontal forehead wrinkles to see if they had any value in assessing cardiovascular risk in a group of 3,200 working adults.

Participants, who were all healthy and were aged 32, 42, 52 and 62 at the beginning of the study, were examined by physicians who assigned scores depending on the number and depth of wrinkles on their foreheads. A score of zero meant no wrinkles while a score of three meant “numerous deep wrinkles.

The study participants were followed for 20 years, during which time 233 died of various causes. Of these, 15.2% had score two and three wrinkles. About 6.6% had score one wrinkles and 2.1% had no wrinkles. The researchers found that people with wrinkle score of one had a slightly higher risk of dying of cardiovascular disease than people with no wrinkles. Those who had wrinkle scores of two and three had almost 10 times the risk of dying compared with people who had wrinkle scores of zero, after adjustments for age, gender, education, smoking status, blood pressure, heart rate, diabetes and lipid levels. The higher our wrinkle score, the more our cardiovascular mortality risk increases.

FROM AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR DR GOVIND SHUKLA, NUTRITION EXPERT

Govind Shukla, Specializes in Pharmacology, Toxicology, Nutraceuticals & Herbal Drugs has published More than 100 research papers in National & International Journals. He is also a reviewer of International Journal of Pharmacology & pharmacotherapeutics, Chief editor of IJPNR Journal & Freelance Medical Writer for Different publication Groups including Lambert Academic Publishing Saarbrucken, Germany.

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