Written by Stuart Stevens | Wednesday, 16 April 2008 | There are 0 comments
If you are a regular reader of Ukmedix News you may well have come across a story which linked male pattern baldness to a significantly increased risk of suffering from heart disease. According to one study men who suffer from what is known as vertex baldness meaning that they suffer from hair loss at top of their head are more likely to have heart attacks, and also that the more prevalent their hair loss was the more the risk was apparent.

Well the good news is a new study done with over 5,000 men has shown that the link does not exist. According to Dr. Shahar from the University of Arizona there was not a clinically significant difference in the amount of heart attacks suffered by men who had a full head of hair and men who had male pattern baldness.
They also determined whether there was any relation between hair loss and the thickness of the inside lining of the carotid arteries which supplies blood directly to the brain. The thickening of these arteries is linked to the onset of atherosclerosis which in turn can cause heart disease.
Out of the 5,000 men who were looked at 1/3 of them had slight or no hair loss, thirteen percent had hair loss at the front of their head and 54 percent of the participants had hair loss at the top of their head. Out of this group of men 767 had already suffered from a heart attack and they were not seem to suffer from more hair loss than the other participants overall.
The researchers concluded that there was no statistically significant risk factor for heart attacks or for atherosclerosis in men who suffered from male pattern baldness.
The research was published by the respected medical journal The American Journal of Epidemiology.
