Dr. Tiffany Di Pietro discusses a study linking premature baldness and graying in young Indian men to early coronary heart disease. The conversation covers modifiable risk factors like cholesterol, blood pressure, and smoking, plus how stress affects heart disease risk differently in women.
Here's a question for you. Can your hairline determine your health? There is a new study that shows that male pattern baldness may be a better indicator of heart disease than obesity. Let's bring in Dr. Tiffany Sizemore. She's a board-certified cardiologist. We've already been talking about this on set before we even saw you, Dr. Sizemore. It's great to see you. Good morning.
You too, thanks.
What do you make of that?
This is a study actually done in India quite recently that looked at about 2,000 young Indian men. And we— they looked at a group of men that were young, under the age of 40, that had known coronary heart disease— that's what causes heart attacks— and men who did not. And they looked at, you know, the differences in these men, and what they realized is those young men that had early-onset coronary disease under the age of 40 actually had premature balding, male-pattern baldness, and gray hair. And so now we're starting to make the correlation as to maybe this is showing early biologic aging on the outside, which can reflect biologic aging on the inside. And I was speaking with my girlfriend last night and I said, you know, maybe subconsciously as a cardiologist, this is why I always like guys with good hair.
They're just healthier. Jack's looking at me like, no. Jack's got a question for you. Mr. Athlete Health Nut over here has got a question.
Well, thank God I have a pretty good hairline. I'll keep that. But no, what can be done to help offset this? Is this an issue where you think you know, diet and exercise like you, you, you've heard, you know, my entire life. Are there other things that you can do in order to take on these issues?
You know, this is a conversation I have to have with my patients every day because we have— when doctors talk to their patients, we talk to them about what we call modifiable risk factors and non-modifiable risk factors. So you can't control the fact that your hair started falling out early, and you can't control the fact that it's graying early. You also can't control that your mom or your dad might have had heart disease. What you can control to some extent: cholesterol, blood pressure, making sure you're getting up and moving every day, you're active, you're definitely not smoking, you're not drinking to any excess. So at the end of the day, if you have things that you cannot control but that are a risk to you, for instance, your dad having a heart attack at 40 years old, you need to be even more cognizant of, of really controlling those modifiable risk factors.
Um, Hey, Dr. Seidler, Mike Block here.
Hey, Mike.
What about environmental factors, where people live, occupation, how much of that is really a part of this?
And stress.
Stress.
Yeah, to some extent. So when we talk about occupation, there's actually another study that just came out about people who sit too long. Big study that shows that people who sit more than 10 hours per day have a significantly increased risk of heart disease. So when we, when we talk about occupation, really for heart disease, obviously if you're in an occupation where there's smoking around you, that's a big risk factor. But other than that, it's those jobs that you're just kind of sitting all day long, which becomes a big risk factor for heart disease.
That's interesting. Amy's here too.
Dr. Amy Holmes here. We've been talking about men and heart health and heart attacks and hairlines and so forth, but what about for women? I mean, you know, heart disease is a big issue for women. Are there these outer, you know, signifiers that can tell you about your heart health?
Um, I mean, like I said, this study was, was really in men. Um, you know, do, do, could it, could it be translated into women as well? Those women who tend to age earlier, um, on, on your outward appearance? Sure. There's been no real studies with that yet that have been a large study, but I mean, I think it would probably be able to be translated to both for sure. Um, and I do want to touch on your point, um, and I, and I thank you for bringing it up. Cause it happened yesterday in my office, you know, heart disease is the number one killer of women, and women are starting to die more of heart disease than men because we're not treating them the way we should be treating them. So I want to thank you for bringing that up. I always tell my women, if you're not getting the answer you want by one doctor, go to another one. So that—
well, I'm sorry to hear that that happened to one of your patients yesterday. You know, and speaking of women and health, I mean, also stress. There was a study earlier out in the week that I found fascinating that said that stress in particular for women's hearts could be just as— have an ill effect as, you know, bad eating and obesity and diabetes and things like that. Is that true?
Yeah, uh, yes. You know, and I'm sure as you probably know, women tend to hold in their stress, and that can, you know, increase catecholamines, can increase bad enzymes and hormones in the body that increases blood pressure, that leads to heart disease, that leads to stroke. So, you know, unequivocally, women tend to kind of hold in their stress more, which can definitely have ill effects on their cardiovascular health. Muscular health.
Wow, it's fascinating to have you on, especially, you know, it's the holidays, it's been stressful, people, you know, especially we were talking a little about the, you know, usually it's the mom and the wife that's kind of trying to keep everything together. So it's a good, it's a good way to end this segment with you. Tiffany, thank you very much.
Thanks, guys. Have a great New Year.
Yeah, Happy New Year, Dr. Tiffany Di Pietro.
