A test carried out on the hair would allow to detect the risk of heart attack e strokethis was demonstrated by a study conducted on over 6,300 individuals and presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Dublin. In fact, cortisone levels in hair are signs of future cardiovascular disease in individuals aged 57 and younger. The risk is tripled with high hormone levels. “There is a tremendous amount of evidence that chronic stress is a major determinant of overall health. Now our results indicate that people with higher levels of glucocorticoids in the hair are significantly more likely to develop in the long term heart and circulatory diseases in particular“said the lead author Elaine van der Valk of the Erasmus University Medical Center of Rotterdam.
In the long term, high levels of cortisol in the scalp and its inactive form, cortisone in the hair, are biomarkers frequently used and is related to glucocorticoids in the previous months. The researchers looked at the levels of cortisol e cortisone in 6,341 hair samples from men and women. The participants in the experiment were followed up for an average of 5-7 years to evaluate the relationship between cortisol and cortisone levels and the onset of cardiovascular problems.
The study of acute cardiovascular events in attentive subjects
In the experimental phase, there were 133 acute cardiovascular events (heart attacks o stroke). From the study, it was possible to conclude that there is no correlation with heart risk factors, including age, gender, waist circumference, smoking, blood pressure and diabetes. In fact, people with higher cortisone levels were twice as likely to have a cardiovascular event as a stroke o one heart attackwith the probability increasing, even more than threefold in subjects aged 57 years and younger.
It should be taken into consideration that from the age of 57 onwards, cortisone and hair cortisol do not result predictive signals, according to the study. The researchers hope that the hair analysis could prove useful as a test that can help doctors determine which individuals may be at high risk of developing cardiovascular diseases and that in the future the analysis of the effects of stress hormones on the body could become a new therapeutic objective.