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Earlobe creases and heart disease

BerryH
BerryH Posts: 4,698 Member
edited October 2024 in Social Groups
Several studies have shown a link between a diagonal crease in the earlobe and heart disease. I believe it was first observed by a coroner who noted that nearly every person who died of a heart condition also sported an earlobe crease.

So accepted is the theory that in the British Museum's Hadrian exhibition they pointed out he probably suffered from heart disease as all his statues depict a very pronounced crease! The museum's theory was high cholesterol caused the delicate earlobe blood vessels to collapse.

After my dad's angina got so bad he needed a bypass, I noticed he had pronounced creases, but to be honest I couldn't guarantee they hadn't been there beforehand.

Recently I've noticed my otherwise flawless earlobes now sport distinct creases. Sometimes they even hurt from having been folded under me when I lie on my side, which never happened before! They certainly haven't been there forever, but I've no idea when they appeared as I only recently got my hair cut short! I'm now worried I could be at risk, and I'm wondering whether I should take further steps beyond my MFP-friendly goals of losing weight and exercising more.

There's a relatively recent study here, but this rejects the 'Hadrian' theory as there was no link found between high cholesterol and the crease:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1473944
Two hundred and forty seven consecutive patients admitted to an acute general hospital were studied. The presence of an association between the ear lobe crease (ELC) and ischaemic heart disease, hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia, peripheral vascular disease, cerebrovascular disease and smoking was investigated. The association between an ELC and coronary heart disease was found to be significant. There was no significant difference between the prevalence of ear lobe creases in males versus females and no correlation between ear lobe creases and smoking, hypercholesterolaemia, hypertension, peripheral vascular disease or stroke was found. Despite having a low sensitivity the specificity of an ear lobe crease is 94% which suggests that it should be used as a physical sign predictive of the presence of coronary heart disease rather than a diagnostic test.

My questions to you biological scientists are:
1. Is the crease down to a linked gene marking the propensity to heart disease or is it an external symptom of some internal condition?
2. Is it reversible, i.e. with lifestyle changes would the crease reduce alongside the risk of heart disease?
3. If it is genetic, could the crease always have been there in some form but just becomes apparent with age as all other wrinkles appear?
2. Should I go to the doctor and demand a check-up just because my ears have become ugly?

I'd love to hear any of your observations and theories on this subject, clever people! :flowerforyou:

Replies

  • helenium
    helenium Posts: 546 Member

    My questions to you biological scientists are:
    1. Is the crease down to a linked gene marking the propensity to heart disease or is it an external symptom of some internal condition?
    2. Is it reversible, i.e. with lifestyle changes would the crease reduce alongside the risk of heart disease?
    3. If it is genetic, could the crease always have been there in some form but just becomes apparent with age as all other wrinkles appear?
    2. Should I go to the doctor and demand a check-up just because my ears have become ugly?

    I'd love to hear any of your observations and theories on this subject, clever people! :flowerforyou:

    1. It could be either. The data given wouldn't distinguish between the two. However, pleiotropic effects (one gene producing a marked change in two (unrelated) traits in an organism) are relatively rare in organisms generally. Still may occur - not sure anyone knows much about the developmental pathways of these organisms.
    2. Again, data wouldn't say!
    3. No conclusions as such can be drawn from the data, although possibly if the paper looks at the age variation of ear lobe creases, this may help answer the question
    4. The experiment took people admitted to hospital and checked for ear lobe creases. They didn't find ear lobe creased people and check for existence of heart disease. It is not clear, but it might be circumstantial - however, if you take your blood pressure at home 3 days in a row in the morning before eating and find it is consistently high, I'd make an appointment.

    Now you get the sad boring realisation that science is too rigorous to make substantial guesses on things from limited data/anecdotes! Sad face! :P
  • mcanavan05
    mcanavan05 Posts: 210 Member
    Where exactly should one look for the ELC? is the lobe folded? does the lobe have a significant crease/depth to it
  • BerryH
    BerryH Posts: 4,698 Member
    Where exactly should one look for the ELC? is the lobe folded? does the lobe have a significant crease/depth to it
    Like this (not my ear I hasten to add!):
    creased_earlobe_2.jpg

    The 45 degree angle is typical. If you Google "creased earlobe" and look at the images you see it seems to get deeper with age.
  • mcanavan05
    mcanavan05 Posts: 210 Member
    Thanks I'll check my Dad out. He's 65, had a quad bypass last year and high cholesterol. I have a high count as well. (270 when I was 25) down to 200 on 20-40mg simvistatin - but im 36... Another reason im on MFP..lets see what happens if i get the weight down..
  • I_give_it_2_u_str8
    I_give_it_2_u_str8 Posts: 680 Member
    Very interesting correlation. Thanks for the info!
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