Cairo University Researchers Find Grey Hair is Linked to Heart Disease

Grey hair could signal increased risk for heart disease, according to researchers at Cairo University. Egyptian cardiologists presented their findings in the European Society of Cardiology’s annual conference EuroPrevent 2017.

It doesn’t matter what age you are, which challenges the common conception that grey hair and heart disease are to be expected in old age. "Atherosclerosis and hair greying occur through similar biological pathways and the incidence of both increases with age," said Dr Irini Samuel.

They still need to test people with no known environmental risk factors for heart disease like smoking, family history, or diabetes. Due to the high incidences of both diabetes and smoking in Egypt, they might have to find test subjects in Europe.

"If our findings are confirmed, standardisation of the scoring system for evaluation of hair greying could be used as a predictor for coronary artery disease," Dr. Samuel says.