Facial Signs May Warn of Heart Attack and Stroke Risk

The human face, long a canvas for emotion and identity, may also carry the quiet language of cardiovascular risk. Researchers are finding that certain visible features and skin changes can signal elevated danger of heart attack or stroke—sometimes years before any clinical symptom appears. This work, threading together dermatology, cardiology, and epidemiology, holds the promise of making early warning more accessible, more democratic, and perhaps more legible than the blood tests and imaging that currently define how we understand our own vulnerability.