A study by Canadian researchers informs that a minute snippet of hair could possibly reveal whether a person is running a risk of witnessing heart attack, which is months in advance to suffering the attack.

A team of researchers at the University of Western Ontario in London, examined three-centimeter long samples of hair that was taken from 56 men, who had been admitted in an Israel hospital for heart attack and also collected hair samples of men in the hospital admitted for some other reason.

Cortisol, which is a hormone that the body secretes, that too in huge amounts when body is under stress, is for which the hair samples had been tested.

People, who experienced cardiac arrest, had considerable level of cortisol, which is three months prior to have suffered the attack.

This hormone, cortisol, can be measured via urine, saliva and blood. But those can only predict cortisol levels in only the last few hours or days, which means that they are incapable at reflecting stress reaction that is pent up inside the body over the number of years.

It is perceived, for now, that cortisol level remains stable in only hair for a minimum of six months or even more.