Not A Compliment And Not Healthy: Looking Old For Your Age

I was listening to NPR yesterday, and after spending most of the newscast on post-election deconstructing and analysis, out came this little story about a link between "looking old" and some specific physical characteristics, and an increased risk of having a heart attack.

Here are the main signs you want to avoid, according to this study.

1. A bald patch on the top of your head
2. A small vertical crease in your earlobe
3. Receding hairline
4. Fatty deposits on the eyelids


Um, this does not bode well for a majority of men over 40.

Here's the story:


Can looking old for your age increase your risk of getting heart disease?

Having baldness, receded hairline, crease in earlobes and fat deposits on eyelids increases your risk of developing heart disease.

By Joseph Brownstein, MyHealthNewsDaily

A bald patch on the top of your head or a small vertical crease in your earlobe may seem likerelatively harmless signs of aging, but a new study says signs like these may signal an increased risk of heart disease.

Danish researchers found that people were 39 percent more likely to have heart disease, and 57 percent more likely to have a heart attack, if they had at least three of these four signs: baldness on top of the head, receded hairline, a crease in the earlobe, and fatty deposits on the eyelids known as xanthelasmata.

The researchers accounted for people's ages in their results.

Therefore, the study shows "looking old for your age, by [having] these aging signs, marks poor cardiovascular health," said study researcher Dr. Anne Tybjaerg-Hansen, a professor and chief physician in the department of clinical biochemistry at Copenhagen University Hospital.

While the exact reason for the links between these signs and heart disease risk remains unclear, the study "validates the common clinical practice that the clinician examines the patient, and often looks at whether a person looks older or younger for her age," Tybjaerg-Hansen said.

The researchers used data from the Copenhagen Heart Study, which included 10,885 people who were over the age of 40. Over the 35-year study, 3,401 participants developed heart disease, and 1,708 had a heart attack. Researchers examined six physical features associated with aging, but found that two — gray hair and wrinkles — did not appear to be linked with increased risk of heart problems.

The study included 5,828 men and 5,057 women. When the researchers considered the genders separately, they found that hair loss in women was not linked with an increased risk of heart disease. However, among the 737 men who had a receding hairline, 82 suffered a heart attack, meaning there a 40 percent higher risk in men with hair loss than those without.

Previous research has looked at whether hair loss may be a warning sign of heart disease, but results have been conflicting. Some studies have linked the severity and type of baldness with the risks of heart disease or heart attacks to varying degrees, but others have found no connection. Because the risk of both heart disease and baldness rise with age, it can be difficult for researchers to separate the two in studies.

Tybjaerg-Hansen said the four signs identified in the new study should give clinicians greater incentive to treat patients who have them. "The suggestion is that lifestyle changes and lipid-lowering therapies should be intensified, because their risk is higher," she said.

However, the area needs more research, because "it would be nice to know why these [varying factors] would be associated with increased risk," she said.

Tybjaerg-Hansen said, for example, that hair loss is linked with levels of testosterone in the blood, so the new study suggests the hormone also plays a role in heart disease, but there's "no hard data there at all, [it's] only speculative."

She said the group for whom the new results would raise the greatest concern is men between ages 70 and 79. In this group, 45 percent of those with all four aging signs developed heart disease, versus 31 percent of those with none of the four.

"This study underscores the importance of doing a good physical exam, in addition to any testing we're going to do for risk for heart disease," said Dr. Nieca Goldberg, director of the NYU Center for Women's Health and American Heart Association spokesperson, in a statement in response to the study.

While the researchers adjusted their results to account for other risk factors for heart disease, Goldberg noted that, for example, xanthelasmata is a sign of high cholesterol levels, a traditional risk factor for heart disease.

Goldberg concluded that while the length of the study made the results compelling, doctors "need to continue to monitor our standard testing for heart disease risk, such as measuring cholesterol, blood pressure, glucose for diabetes."

The researchers are presenting their findings today (Nov. 6) at an American Heart Association research conference. The findings have not been published in a scientific journal.

Pass it on: Four signs of aging may be linked with heart disease risk.

Election Withdrawal

Most people today are thrilled that the election is over. No more attack ads, debates, polls, phone calls, or, in the case of Linda McMahon, burying the general public in your obscene propaganda, but that's just one guy's opinion.

Not me. It's only one day later, and I already miss it. I feel an acute sense of emptiness. Today, I'm going through Election Withdrawal.

Don't get me wrong, there are some things about an election cycle that get annoying, such as the proliferance of obnoxious political yard signs, peoples' continous posts on facebook. Apparently, some people think that an excessive number of posts for one side or the other is going to result in changing the minds of their friends.

One or two posts is enough.

But I will miss the - even I can't believe I'm saying this - media coverage of the presidential campaigns. While the best candidates often do not reach the general election ( the richest usually do), how people do not get excited about the process of electing a president and Election Night itself is beyond me. We do live in a democracy, despite the fact at the Electoral College is out of date, and it's simply inspiring that we live in a free society in which we elect our president and other public officials.

Watching presidential debates, for me, is like watching the World Series - this year even more so, given the teams playing in the World Series. I could have easily watched two or three more debates. In what other scenario do the final two candidates for the nation's highest office grapple over our
most important issues? Even if they stand on the stage and don't answer questions, that tells you a lot about these guys. On its lowest level, it's pretty entertaining.

This campaign was unexpectedly compelling. Who would have thought Romney would put the late charge that he did? Who foresaw Obama's terrible first debate?

Four more years for the president, and hopefully they will be prosperous ones for America. Until then, we will all wait to see who will emerge as the nominees in 2016. And while I will miss this year's campaign coverage, I'll welcome the break, at least for tonight, and go to bed early.

On the overwhelming need for a child to be first

I have a seven year old son, which means that for the last year, besides LEGOs and baseball cards, something that matters a whole lot in his world is being first. The other day, he announced that he was the first kid IN HIS SCHOOL in the morning. He supposedly beat everyone.

I guess that, developmentally, a child in first or second grade really values this premise. Winning, too, is incredibly important at this age. So is racing to places. During a basketball practice a few weeks ago, when the coach said not to run while dribbling, of course half of the kids sprinted. And my son was right in front, trying to be first, cutting the corners, even cheating a little.

And even though there is NO GOALIE and no one keeps score while playing Grade 1/2 soccer, a few of the kids privately keep track and tell their parents what the score really was on the ride home.

I remember some of this from my childhood - racing my friend to the car when my mother picked us up from school and bragging about who won. Counting the number of home runs we hit when playing baseball in the neighborhood. When I was in elementary school, the bus stop was right in front of my house, and a bunch of us used to try being the first one on the bus every day. It got so bad that my mother had to create a rotating order so that each of us had a chance to be first.  I recall seeing the list on the refrigerator door.

Is this need to be first and constantly have to win due to an evolutionary survival skill? Our way of adapting to our society's culture of competitiveness? Or is racing/ winning/ being first while doing things that are not innately competitive a child's way of bragging, feeling good about themselves, a raising of the ego, because they know that no one likes a loser?

I'll have to ask my son about this the next time he tells me he comes in first - or how he feels if he comes in second.