- Researchers report that a stress hormone found in hair samples may help predict who is at higher risk of cardiovascular disease.
- The association appeared to be strongest among younger adults, a finding that surprised some experts
- Experts note that stress can be reduced by lifestyle factors such as sleep, exercise, and meditation.
Scientists from The Netherlands are reporting that hair samples might predict future cardiovascular disease.
The strongest associations appeared to be for hair cortisone and younger individuals.
Those were the results from a study recently presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity in Dublin, Ireland.
The findings haven’t been published yet in a peer-reviewed journal.
In their study, scientists used 6,341 hair samples from the Lifelines cohort study with 167,000 adult participants from the northern population of The Netherlands.
The researchers tested the hair samples and followed the participants for an average of 5 to 7 years to assess a potential long-term relationship between stress hormones and cardiovascular health.
The authors noted that hair has long-term glucocorticoids, including hair cortisol and hair cortisone, which have been associated with obesity and cardiometabolic parameters in the past.
However, associations with cardiovascular endpoints are lacking.
“It’s well established that high cortisol levels are associated with cardiovascular events,” according to Dr Caroline Messer, an endocrinologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York who was not involved in the study.
“Cortisol increases cholesterol, blood sugars and blood pressure, all of which raise the risk for heart disease,” she told Medical News Today.
During the follow-up period, there were 133 cardiovascular events. The most significant associations were for hair cortisone and in younger people.
People with higher long-term cortisone levels were twice as likely to experience cardiovascular events such as a stroke or heart attack.
The risk was three times…
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