# Frank's Sign - hypertension, heart disease, and stroke
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/franks-sign-hypertension-heart-disease-and-stroke/787612
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [May 28, 2017, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/franks-sign-hypertension-heart-disease-and-stroke/787612 "2017-05-28T19:32:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2017, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/franks-sign-hypertension-heart-disease-and-stroke/787612/1 "2017-05-28T19:32:32Z")
New England Journal of Medicine.
[http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMicm1213868](http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMicm1213868)
You may want to grab a mirror. It’s a easily identifiable marker of your future health.
I didn’t realize George Bush has the crease on his ear. That may be why he’s so dedicated to exercise. Bush is a serious mountain biker.
> **[Earlobe Crease & Heart Disease: Fact or Myth? • MyHeart](https://myheart.net/articles/earlobe-crease-and-heart-disease-fact-or-myth/)**
>
> Does having an earlobe crease mean you're destined to have a serious heart condition? Director of Heart Disease explains the risks those with an earlobe crease should be aware of.
> [@](#):
>
> Taken in conjunction, most of the studies conducted clearly show an association between earlobe creases and heart disease. In fact, most studies – including the larger ones – suggest that this association is true and conclude the association cannot be explained by other risk factors. Unfortunately, although research supports an association as of yet we don’t have a convincing explanation as to why earlobe crease would be associated with heart disease.
>
> The modern day approach to detecting heart disease has likely limited the usefulness of Frank’s sign. Although the earlobe crease may be associated with coronary artery disease (CAD), its sensitivity for detecting this is nowhere near that of stress tests,
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### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2017, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/franks-sign-hypertension-heart-disease-and-stroke/787612/2 "2017-05-28T19:55:53Z")
I checked my ears. It’s easier to snap a shot with a phone.
I got Frank’s sign.
Thankfully I had a full heart workup 15 months ago prior to surgery. Wore a monitor for 3 days and a stress test.
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### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2017, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/franks-sign-hypertension-heart-disease-and-stroke/787612/3 "2017-05-28T20:05:43Z")
I talked with my mom. She was a nurse anesthetist for forty years. She is very familiar with it. Most older people will eventually develop Frank’s Sign. She has it now. My dad had it by the time he was forty.
It can be an early indicator in younger people. One of the articles mentions it’s not as useful in people over 60.
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### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2017, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/franks-sign-hypertension-heart-disease-and-stroke/787612/4 "2017-05-28T21:00:25Z")
I didn’t want to live to 80 anyway.
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### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2017, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/franks-sign-hypertension-heart-disease-and-stroke/787612/5 "2017-05-28T21:28:26Z")
It never hurts to be aware of a potential health problem.
I started checking my BP at home several years ago.
Heart disease runs in my mom’s family . Lost several close family members.
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### Author:  [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2017, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/franks-sign-hypertension-heart-disease-and-stroke/787612/6 "2017-05-28T21:58:55Z")
I have a crease, and have hypertension, tachycardia and a family history of heart problems.
The only way I found out was playing around with my grandmother’s blood pressure cuff. Said 193/117, and pulse was 124.
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### Author:  [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2017, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/franks-sign-hypertension-heart-disease-and-stroke/787612/7 "2017-05-28T22:03:59Z")
Unca Cece [wrote](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2892/are-earlobe-creases-a-sign-of-heart-disease) about it in 2009!
mc
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### Author:  [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2017, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/franks-sign-hypertension-heart-disease-and-stroke/787612/8 "2017-05-29T03:00:34Z")
No Frank’s sign here. My family tends to live a long time so long as we don’t smoke cigarettes or drink to excess.
Though come to think of it, my dad is a 75 y/o Viet Nam vet with Agent Orange exposure and adult-onset asthma, who has smoked forever, and was a volunteer firefighter besides. He’s doing well, to be honest. No hypertension – actually low blood pressure. Some people are just tough, I think.
Yeah, my family has autoimmune problems and some really bizarre allergies (who’s allergic to turkey? My cousin.), but the hearts work fine. Go figure.
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### Author:  [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2017, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/franks-sign-hypertension-heart-disease-and-stroke/787612/9 "2017-05-29T03:37:16Z")
I do not have Frank’s Sign, although I do have hypertension, albeit well controlled by medication.
My family tends to be pretty long-lived, if we don’t smoke and take our BP meds. If I was a woman and do not smoke, chances are I’d be living into my 90s- grandmother and a couple of great aunts made it into their 90s, and another grandmother made it into her early 80s, despite having been an insulin-dependent diabetic for the last 30 years of her life, AND smoking 2 packs a day until she was 70. I can’t help but think she’d have made it closer to 90 without the smoking.
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### Author:  [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2017, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/franks-sign-hypertension-heart-disease-and-stroke/787612/10 "2017-05-29T06:35:35Z")
I should add that we are pretty well long lived. We may need open heart surgery multiple times, but we live pretty long. Late 80’s to early 90’s.
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### Author:  [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2017, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/franks-sign-hypertension-heart-disease-and-stroke/787612/11 "2017-06-01T21:30:55Z")
I have Frank’s Sign but compared to the Google images pics, mine is quite minor. It also seems like it is at least in part due to years of dragging my earlobes down with earrings, since the crease goes directly through my ear piercing, and is much more visible if I wear dangling/heavy earrings.
Anyway, I have a cardiologist (because I had to get checked out to make sure I was in good enough shape for general anesthesia when I had my cataract surgery) who wants to keep up with me every 1-2 years because I have 4 leaky heart valves (3 minor, 1 moderate). But he seems to think I’m fine, and in particular noted that there has been no change in the degree of leakiness over the past few years.
So I’m good. But I wish I didn’t have it. I try not to think about it much, because really, what difference does it make to me at age 58? I exercise, don’t smoke, am not overweight, and generally try to lead a pretty healthy lifestyle, which is what I’d be doing with or without the crease.