Are brinkles a sign of heart disease?

“Brinkles are ticking heart health timebomb” according to a recent headline. So what exactly do they mean and what are the experts saying?

The report said that men must exercise to get rid of ‘brinkles’ as they could be a sign of future heart problems. Brinkles – the term used to describe wrinkles of fat which appear on the necks of bald men – have been highlighted in a US heart study as a possible factor in developing heart problems.

The Framingham Heart Study also found the thickness of a person’s neck provided as many clues about future health issues as measuring the waist. Professor Jimmy Bell, of the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre, said health was not dependent on how fat a person was but where fat was deposited. The Framingham Heart Study found the average neck circumference of men was 40.5cm.

So we asked Professor Lahiri if the claim that brinkles is an accurate marker of heart disease, and here is his reply:

All these factors such as 'ear lobe crease', and brinkles are unlikely to stand the test of time. There are much 'stronger' risk factors, as seen in the Framingham or UKPDS scores for predicting coronary artery disease (CAD). The comment from the MRC is correct, abdominal fat, leading to an altered waist-hip ratio is a strong risk factor. However, the overlap between the presence and absence of coronary artery disease, even when using a group of risk factors have poor specificity for detecting CAD.

The best screening method available today is the addition of Coronary Artery Calcium Imaging to other risk factors, this has been proven in multiple trials.