An unlikely link: men's shaving habit and strokes?
If you asked me to list a bunch male habits that might be distantly linked to stroke risk, shaving once a day would be the very last thing I would have guessed. But this 20-year study will really make you think twice about it. Apparently shaving less than once a day increases our risk of having a stroke by 70 percent!Over 2,000 men aged from 45 to 59 were studied in South Wales. You must be asking yourself how this link originates. Well, some of the infrequent shavers were found to be smokers, which automatically put them in the club for high risk. But when they took away those risk factors, the hormonal links ended up showing through regardless! Just like the relationship between baldness and heart disease, infrequent shaving and strokes were found to have a biological link.
So next time the long weekend rolls around, think twice about sporting that five o'clock shadow.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-06-2006 @ 1:06PM
Phil said...
A comment about the original article:
"Professor Shah Ebrahim, who led the research, told BBC News Online the findings indicated infrequent shaving did increase a man's risk of stroke."
Don't they teach the difference between correlation and causality in the UK? This is ridiculous to suggest that the act of shaving reduces a man's risk of stroke. They say later that it's probably due to lower levels of the hormone testosterone, but the statement above implies causality.
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9-07-2006 @ 9:56PM
Nick said...
As a whole the original article makes it perfectly clear that the take-away point refers to the need to shave every day if one wishes to be clean-shaven.
"The link between needing to shave infrequently and stroke risk emerged from a 20-year study of over 2,000 men aged 45-59 in Caerphilly, south Wales."
Any communication specialists out there who have studied the differences in communication style between american-english and english?
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11-12-2006 @ 6:51PM
Hardy Petrson said...
So, what about these Muslem types that never shave?
How about just a goatee? Porkchop sideburns?
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11-19-2006 @ 8:06PM
DONALD MICHAEL, MD said...
I think that Phil did an excellent job helping to debunk another one of these correlations being disguised as something significant.
People who wear bras have about half the rate of heart attacks as those who do not. Should we start dressing all Cardiac patients in Maidenforms™? Or, does this simply reflect the fact that those people happen to be women who have estrogen which is even better than testosterone to protect from heart attacks and strokes?
The most that can honestly be said about correlations is, "Hmm, that's interesting..."
Doc Don
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