I suspect you know a lot of the symptoms of a heart attack but do you know, do you have heart attack hair? I’m sure it is a strange question and who would have ever thought that your hair could let you know if you are at risk to have a heart attack.

Stress on the heart is a major cause of attacks and a major indicator of stress is cortisol.

We found an article over at yahoo health that we thought would be of great interest to you…

Do You Have Heart Attack Hair?

“Traditionally, cortisol has been measured in serum, urine, and saliva. All of these matrices measure cortisol levels in the last hours to days and, therefore, do not reflect the stress response over prolonged period of time,” said study authors Stan Van Uum and Gideon Koren of the University of Western Ontario.

But, cortisol is also captured in the hair shaft.

On average, hair grows one centimeter each month and so by examining a six-centimeter-long strand of hair, it is possible to determine stress levels over a longer period.

The researchers looked at hair samples from 56 men admitted for heart attacks to the Meir Medical Centre in Kfar-Saba, Israel and compared these to hair samples from 56 men hospitalized for non-cardiovascular health issues.

The heart attack patients were found to have higher cortisol levels in their hair.

And after accounting for known risk factors such as diabetes, hypertension, smoking and a family history of coronary artery disease, “hair cortisol content emerged as the strongest predictor of acute myocardial infarction,” the study concluded.

Click here to read more about heart attack hair.

Since you understand that heart disease is one of the top three causes of death don’t you think you share this with everyone you know who has hair?