That's Enough to Give You Gray Hair

Going grey early increases heart attack risk

Going grey early means you are at an increased risk of suffering a heart attack, a new study shows.

Scientists have discovered that hair whitening can indicate an increased risk of damage to arteries supplying the heart with blood.

Appropriately enough, Lady Death

A good example of a "wet streets cause rain" headline. However, the article itself makes it pretty clear that while prematurely graying hair may be statistically associated with increased risk of heart attack, it's a statistical relationship that only suggests that during the aging process, factors that cause heart disease and graying may share some underlying biochemical process:

The findings could pave the way to identifying patients most at risk of heart disease just by looking at their hair colour.

Dr Irini Samuel, a cardiologist at Cairo University in Egypt, said: "Atherosclerosis (artery disease) and hair greying occur through similar biological pathways and the incidence of both increases with age.

"Our findings suggest that, irrespective of chronological age, hair greying indicates biological age and could be a warning sign of increased cardiovascular risk."

Just how early and how much gray constitute a risk?

Wombat-socho finally gets around to the long awaited "Rule Five Wednesday: Double-Dip Easter Edition."