A study by health experts has revealed that men who lose their hair or go grey between the ages of 20 and 40 are five times as likely to suffer from heart attack.
Experts suspect premature balding and grey hair are red flags that the body is ageing too fast.
They believe some people’s ‘biological age’ accelerates faster than their real, or chronological, age. This happens when DNA starts to deteriorate, damaging the cells of the body.
Such a process harms the heart but also damages the hair follicles, which is displayed in grey or bald hair.
The researchers also discovered it was an even bigger risk factor than obesity, which raised the risk of early heart disease four times.
The study compared 790 men who had heart disease before the age of 40 with 1,270 healthy men of the same age.
Participants were given scores for increasing levels of baldness and hair whitening.
Young men with heart disease were significantly more likely to be prematurely grey or bald than the healthy individuals.
Lead researcher Dr. Sachin Patil, from the UN Mehta Institute of Cardiology and Research Centre in Gujarat, India, said: “The incidence of coronary artery disease in young men is increasing but cannot be explained by traditional risk factors."
“Premature greying and androgenic alopecia (baldness) correlate well with vascular age, irrespective of chronological age and are plausible risk factors for coronary artery disease.”
Associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, Dr Mike Knapton, said: “At the moment doctors and nurses work hard to identify people who are likely to go on to develop heart disease or suffer from a stroke."
“This study suggests that identifying men with premature hair loss and greying may help identify those with an increased risk of developing heart disease."
“However, this isn’t something that people can change, whereas one can modify his lifestyle and risk factors such as high cholesterol and blood pressure. There are far more important things to consider.”
