You should be all ears about this stealthy sign of heart health.
The leading cause of death in the US, the American Heart Association (AHA) warns that 61% of American adults will likely develop some type of cardiovascular disease.
And while there are some clear signs that your heart is weak, others aren’t as well-known, even when they’re in plain sight.
Classic signs of heart trouble can appear as shortness of breath, chest pain, fatigue, irregular heartbeat or swollen legs.
But one other sneaky sign is a mark or crease in the earlobe that’s increasingly being recognized as an indicator for underlying cardiovascular disease.
Known as Frank’s sign, this marker is a diagonal crease or wrinkle in the earlobe that’s strongly associated as being a predictor of heart disease.
The diagonal crease was named after Dr. Sanders T. Frank, who observed the crease in multiple patients under 60 with angina (chest pain) or proven coronary artery blockages.
Larger studies have also linked this sign to peripheral vascular disease, cerebrovascular disease and coronary artery disease (CAD), the most common type of heart disease.
Those with a crease had a higher risk of death from heart complications, independent of other risk factors, like age, smoking and diabetes.
A diagonal ear crease was also linked to ischemic cerebrovascular events, like transient ischemic attack (mini-stroke) and stroke, in a 2017 study.
The study also noted that those with Frank’s sign and traditional factors associated with heart disease, such as type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, had a higher risk.
And the connection between an ear crease and heart disease risk was especially strong when the crease was the complete length of the lobe, bilateral (appearing on both ears), deep and had accessory creases.
Some medical experts believe that a loss of elastin and elastic fibers causes it, the same process that damages arteries in coronary artery disease.
Other theories suggest that a genetic factor causes the wrinkle, as a link between heart attacks and ear creases is apparent in different ethnic populations.
While the connection between a crease and cardiovascular health is unclear, one study found that those with Frank’s sign and CAD have low levels of adropin and irisin (a type of protein).
This may cause a crease and atherosclerosis, or when arteries become narrow and hard due to plaque buildup and can lead to a heart attack or stroke.
How the crease appears can also determine how severe the risk of cardiovascular conditions is, with an incomplete wrinkle on only one ear the least severe and a complete, bilateral crease the most.
An earlobe crease alone shouldn’t be the sole indicator of heart disease, but those with other risk factors should talk to a healthcare provider.
