Keep in mind that while scientific meetings of large medical societies allow for researchers and doctors to gather in one place to discuss hundreds, if not thousands, of new findings, what’s often presented may not pass muster for publication in prestigious medical journals, where they first undergo rigorous peer review. Addendum --

A Danish study drawing a lot of attention, but which has not yet published in a peer-reviewed journal, suggested that common signs of aging can predict a person’s heart disease risk. The researchers analyzed data from nearly 11,000 participants over age 40 in the Copenhagen Heart Study and found that those who had three to four aging signs at the beginning of the study -- such as a receding hairline, baldness at the top of the head, creases in the earlobes, and fatty deposits around the eye -- had a 57 percent increased risk of having a heart attack and a 39 percent increased risk of being diagnosed with heart disease during the 35-year study compared with those who had none of them.

“The visible signs of aging reflect physiologic or biological age, not chronological age,” the study’s senior author, Dr. Anne Tybjaerg--Hansen at the University of Copenhagen, said in a statement on the Heart Association’s website. She went on to recommend that doctors check for these aging signs as a “routine part” of their physical exam.