Forehead wrinkles may predict heart diseases

London: The wrinkles on your forehead may not be just an inevitable consequence of ageing, but could also signal an early death due to cardiovascular disease (CVD), researchers have warned.

The findings showed that increased deep forehead wrinkles, more than what is typical for their age, could be linked to death atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries due to plaque build-up – a major contributor to heart attacks and other CVD events.

While the furrows in the brow are not a better method of evaluating heart risk than existing methods, such as blood pressure and lipid profiles, yet they can raise a red flag earlier, at a simple glance, the researchers said.

For the new study, the team investigated a different visible marker of age – horizontal forehead wrinkles – to see if they had any value in assessing cardiovascular risk in a group of 3,200 working adults. The results were presented at the ESC Congress 2018, the annual conference of the European Society of Cardiology in Munich.