According to scientists, having black strands inside the ear may indicate a heart attack. What brought to this idea was the study done by Dr. Sanders T. Frank and his team and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, suggesting that a diagonal earlobe crease may be a sign of artery disease. CAD is an issue where accumulation of wax builds up inside the arteries and leads to atherosclerosis.
Interested in this ear-heart relation, scientists teamed with dermatologist to find the answers. According to a 1984 letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine, there is a strong link between the ear canal hair and coronary artery disease. The study involved 43 male participants and 20 female participants, 90 of which had a diagonal earlobe cease and experienced cardiac failure.
The group of physicians, including Richard F. Wagner of Boston University Medical School, assumed that the cause of clots in the arteries may be the long-term exposure to androgen, a male hormone.
In 1989 another article on the topic appeared, this time in the Indian Heart Journal. This article outlined the results of a study done on 215 Indian patients, dealing with the link between earlobe creases, ear hair, and coronary artery disease. According to the authors, “A significant difference was also observed between men with and without CAD in the presence of ear-canal hair with age matched group.”
In June, 2006, Edston E. published his study in the American Journal of Forensic Medical Pathology. He examined 520 autopsies and measured the ear hair, earlobe crease, baldness, thickness of abdominal fat, spleen weight, cause of death, BMI, etc. “It was found that ELC (earlobe crease) was strongly correlated with CAD in both men and women (P < 0.0001) but with sudden cardiac death (SCD) only in men (P < 0.04).” The younger the patient, the higher was the positive predictive value.
Even though the relation between ear hair and heart attacks remains unclear, they are good fellows after all. Some people believe that testosterone supplements may be the culprit while others think that people get hairy and obese over time, and die from the latter.
Source : www.beextrahealthynow.net
