An arterial buildup over time is responsible for most heart attacks, which finally prevents blood from flowing to the heart. Although heart disease develops slowly, there are few warning indications. Some signs on the face, on the other hand, could show how your heart is doing.

A heart attack, also known as myocardial infarction, can create a violent crushing feeling in the chest, leaving only a brief window of opportunity for treatment. Warning signals can appear months before an attack in rare situations. Experts advise those who want to know if they’re in danger to look for signals in their facial features.

In early studies, scientists discovered a correlation between a number of facial characteristics and an elevated risk of heart disease.

The findings suggested that a receding hairline, cholesterol deposits on the eyelids, and earlobe fissures could indicate a person’s risk of heart disease.

According to the findings, 57 percent of people with three out of four of these characteristics had heart disease.

It was observed that individuals with cholesterol deposits on the face may also suffer from corneal arcus, a condition in which cholesterol deposits alter the eye’s color to a hazy white, grey, or blue opaque ring at the cornea’s periphery.

Cholesterol deposits on men’s eyelids and receding hairlines were, however, the most indicative facial characteristics.

“Some receding hairlines, bald spots, creased earlobes, increased baldness, and facial cholesterol deposits,” according to Monika Wassermann, medical director at Oliolusso, “can indicate that you are at higher risk of heart diseases such as stroke and heart attacks.

“Though there is no clear evidence to link each sign with an increased risk of heart disease, most studies believe these features could arise due to hereditary genes or changes in body hormones.”

Excessive facial and body hair, aggressiveness, and infertility are some of the signs of high testosterone in both males and females.

According to WebMD, the hormone is thought to lead to artery hardening and may increase the risk of blood clots when taken in large doses as a supplement.

“An increase in testosterone hormones is always associated with a higher risk of heart diseases, explaining why men are at higher infection risks than ladies,” said Miss Wassermann.

She added: “Excess testosterone hormones in the body can lead to the deposition of fats on arteries or other blood vessels, increase cholesterol amounts, spike blood pressure and cause narrowing or thickening of blood vessels.

“The signs could also be triggered by inheritance as new studies linked the changes in hairlines, facial cholesterol deposits, and high cholesterol levels to be common among people of the same family and can be passed to newborns.”

The findings, according to the researchers, show that indications of aging convey a plethora of information about a person’s biological age as well as the status of their heart, in addition to chronological ageing.

However, further research is needed to discover the specific link between these startling indications and an increased risk of heart attacks, according to Miss Wassermann.

Furthermore, despite the fact that other researchers have corroborated the findings, predicting and measuring heart disease risk has been problematic.

Artificial intelligence has, however, been used to identify heart problems using facial traits.

Researchers used deep learning computer algorithms to detect coronary artery disease in four images of a person’s face.

In 2020, a study published in the European Heart Journal explained the simple and inexpensive method, implying that a simple selfie might detect at-risk people.

“To our knowledge, this is the first work demonstrating that artificial intelligence can be used to analyse faces to detect heart disease,” said Professor Zhe Zheng, who conducted the study.

“It is a step towards the development of a deep learning-based tool that could be used to assess the risk of heart disease, either in outpatients clinic or by means of patients taking ‘selfies’ to perform their own screening.”

Image Credit: Getty

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