If the eyes are the windows to the soul, then the ears are the windows to the heart. Science says that ear canal hair, that dollhouse garden of black strands inside many an ear, is a common signpost for heart attacks.

In 1973, Dr. Sanders T. Frank and his team of researchers published a study in the New England Journal of Medicine claiming that a diagonal earlobe crease, then nicknamed “Frank’s Sign,” was a positive predictor of coronary artery disease. When the waxy plaque deposits build up inside the arteries is called CAD a plumbing problem.

Physicians in collaboration with dermatologist are trying to find answers. In New York back in 1984 group of physicians published a letter in the New England Journal of Medicine claiming a strong association between ear canal hair and coronary artery disease. In a study of 43 men and 20 women, 90 percent of participants who had both a diagonal earlobe crease (DELC) and ear canal hair experienced cardiac failure.

They suspected that long-term exposure to androgen, the king of male hormones and father of testosterone, caused clots in the arteries due to surplus production of red blood cells.

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In 1989 doctor conducted a research where participated 215 Indian patient and correlation between earlobe creases, ear hair and coronary artery disease. “A significant difference was also observed between men with and without CAD in the presence of ear-canal hair with age matched group,” wrote the authors in the report abstract. Ear hair prevalence advanced with age.

Not to be beaten by the twentieth century, Edston E. distributed his study in the June 2006 version of the American Journal of Forensic Medical Pathology. Edston thinks about 520 post-mortem examinations and measured the BMI, spleen weight, ear hair, and ear cartilage wrinkle, reason for death, sparseness, thickness of stomach fat, and about six different qualities. Subsequent to doing the math, “It was found that ELC (ear cartilage wrinkle) was firmly corresponded with CAD in both men and ladies (P < 0.0001) however with sudden cardiovascular demise (SCD) just in men (P < 0.04).” The more youthful the patient, the higher was the positive prescient quality.

Yet no one is sure why ear hairs and heart attacks make good bedfellows, some blame the testosterone supplements. At the end no one blames the ear hairs.