Ear crease worry

[Tulip]

I'm worrying so much over something I read in a magazine and foolishly checked further on the net. The article was about ear creases and how if you had one it could be a sign of arterial sclerosis, a heart condition. I have quite a pronounced crease on my ear and after checking on the internet it does seem that there could be some validity to the article. Does anyone know anything about this? I can't stop thinking about this and even though I don't have high blood pressure or any other heart disease indicators that I know about, I can't get it out of my mind.

[PaulBl]

I'm worrying so much over something I read in a magazine and foolishly checked further on the net. The article was about ear creases and how if you had one it could be a sign of arterial sclerosis, a heart condition. I have quite a pronounced crease on my ear and after checking on the internet it does seem that there could be some validity to the article. Does anyone know anything about this? I can't stop thinking about this and even though I don't have high blood pressure or any other heart disease indicators that I know about, I can't get it out of my mind.

There is medical evidence for a link. My advice is to discuss this with your doctor.

[PaulBl]

There is medical evidence for a link. My advice is to discuss this with your doctor.

[Captain America]

i have creases, and went to a doctor who said it's something that has been losing steam of late. i have had a nuclear stress test, and an echo stress test and both were fine. i have had an mri of my corotids and was told they were grossly patent, which is good! so the ear creases? who knows. but i did just turn 40, and have at the same time had an increase in grey hair on the temples, a couple of smile lines forming around my mouth, and one near my nose. so it's most likely aging.
also the tests they did were on bilateral creases (not just one ear, to rule out sleeping position). then then they found that 50 percent of people who they said had heart disease had creases, but only 25 percent of people without heart disease had the creases. so although there was some indication there, that means that 25 percent of healthy people had them.
so, this means that there is no direct link between them. just like some people who smoke don't get heart problems, but it can be a 'risk factor'.

make sense?

[nomorepanic]

Please note that this is a very old post and Joan has not been on the site since Dec 2006 so will not see any replies to her.

[precious78]

I came across this by accident and noticed that I too have ear creases and am quite worried about this. Does anyone else have them?

[decca]

I have heart disease but I don't have ear creases, my advice to anyone worried about this is to contact thier Doc, who may do some simple tests such as blood cholesterol and ecg for your peace of mind.
If in the worse scenario you do have heart disease, it's best to know so you can get some early treatment, they can do absatutely amazing things these days to prevent heart conditions becoming worse.

Best wishes
Decca.

[Alisonj]

OMG, this better not be true. My dad had heart disease and died at age 40 and my son has very definte ear creases!!!

[Captain America]

I've checked into this more. Bascially they're saying that ear creases are like an independent risk factor. Like smoking, high cholesterol, etc. So for example, just as you could have high cholesterol and no heart disease, same thing for ear creases. they haven't been able to tie ear creases to anything at this point except to say there's a connection. in other words there are people with 90 percent blockages whose ears are fine. this means that ear creases are considered a 'risk factor' and not a 'symptom'.

basically if you have them your doc can do some tests. me for example, i have very low cholesterol, and not overweight, but did smoke for years. so i have a couple of risk factors, but no heart disease.

[precious78]

Well not long back I had an ECG and a cholesterol check and both were fine but does this heart disease show up on an ECG cos I heard it didn't.

[Piglet]

this means that ear creases are considered a 'risk factor' and not a 'symptom'.

Well put - that gives a sense of perspective on the issue, as I too was abit worried.

Piglet :flowers:

[precious78]

But the thing is how do you tell if it is a true ear crease or just the way you've been sleeping?!

[Captain America]

ecg's may show heart disesase, but may not. basically any non-invasive test (stress tests, etc) are good for finding advanced disease but not subclinical disease. like me for example...i'm 40 years old, and the chances that i have the arteries of a teenager are zero. with my echo stress that i took that turned up negative the odds of me having a heart attack this year are around 1 percent. heck, my father in law has a blockage in one of his arteries at around 40 percent, that they left alone because they had to roto rooter his corotids. he's been working on a 40 percent blockage for 2 years. he golfs, swims, walks, etc, and he's in his mid 60's. so even a some minor clogging, which is to be expectecd, isn't always at the threshold needed to justify operating. so even if an ear crease means you're blocked 10 percent, you have a long way to go before it becomes a problem. start modifying the things you can...exercise, eat more fish, stop smoking...and you may stay at 10 percent forever and never develop heart disease.


i actually did see a cardiologist in the end, because i was having other symptoms. and it's america, where they will run every test you want because they don't want to be sued.

anyway he said he doesn't really put much weight on ear creases as much as the accepted standards...high cholesterol, family history of early heart disease, smoking, diabetes, and obesity. so if you add ear creases to the list, and you only have one or two risk factors, then your odds are better than someone with a whole bunch of them.

at the time i was glazed over, so that didn't really register until i did some recent googling. i wish i'd listed to him then...would have saved me 6 months of worry.

[Captain America]

oh and you can't tell if it's because of the way you've been sleeping or not unless maybe you have one in your left ear but not your right, you could maybe sleep on your right for the next year or so.

i wish i didn't have them myself. even knowing what i know, they scare me.

[Captain America]

oh and just to add, finally, the statement i made about my 1 percent risk for heart attack was because my stress echo showed NOTHING wrong. my heart was perfectly fine according to the test. the 1 percent was just my age, weight, and the fact that smoked. so i've lost weight and quit smoking. the creases are still there, but my risk is already lower.