According to a study from Bristol University "men who don't shave every day are 70% more likely to suffer a stroke than those who do."
Over the course of the last twenty years I've been clean shaven for perhaps twelve months at most, so if I stop in mid-entry you'll know what's happened...
[Via Lots of Co.]
Wow! I wonder if it's okay to shave every other day. Do you have to start at a certain age or if you don't do it before you're 25 or so is it pretty much futile starting?
Posted by: simon on February 8, 2003 12:53 AMPerhaps it's like smoking: regardless of the age at which you change your behaviour, it's better for you than not changing.
(Seriously, I suspect that it's not really anything to do with how hirsute you are. I'd expect that it'll turn out to be the case that other factors which happen to weakly correlate with wearing a beard will be the cause of the difference in susceptibility to strokes.)
Agreed. They more or less say this at the end. I suspect that it'll be down to lifestyle factors that make you fail to shave. Wearing a beard is probably OK; it's not the same as going around unshaven because you're too hung-over, too busy, too depressed to bother, etc.
Posted by: Ray on February 8, 2003 02:09 PMCome to think of it, why should the increased risk factor be solely about beard growth? Have they done any studies of links between strokes and hair length in general? Should we all be shaving our heads too? What about chest hair? Hairy backs?