Healthy Discoveries: Hair may foretell heart attacks

Healthy discoveries

Canadian researchers in the journal Stress said that high levels of the stress hormone cortisol in hair may be a sturdy predictor of heart attacks months in anticipation.


New research shows that increased levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the hair shaft -- a sign for chronic stress -- increase the risk of heart attack.


Levels of cortisol have formerly been measured in saliva, urine, and blood, but these measurements only provide a snapshot of stress at the moment. Hair cortisol, however, can provide a longer-term valuation of stress levels. Hair grows about 1 Cm a month, so a 3-Cm hair sample, for example, is a marker for stress over three months.


In the new study show that hair cortisol levels were indeed a more important predictor of heart attack risk than other known heart sickness risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and smoking.


"Traditionally, cortisol has been measured in blood, saliva, and urine. All of these matrices measure cortisol levels in the last hours to days and, therefore, don't react the stress restraint over long period of time," said study authors Stan Van Uum and Gideon Koren of the University of Western Ontario.


The researchers looked at hair samples from 56 men hospitalised for non-cardiovascular health issues And compared these to hair samples from 56 men admitted for heart attacks to the Meir Medical Centre in Kfar-Saba, Israel .
The patients with heart attack were found to have higher cortisol levels in their hair.


And after counting for familiar risk factors such as smoking , hypertension, diabetes and a family history of coronary artery sickness, "hair cortisol content emerged as the strongest predictor of sharp myocardial infarction," the study concluded.

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