Bill
[/qb][/QUOTE]Given the size of Mr. Lightfoot's ears, one would hope he has the good sense to NEVER get a buzz cut! Is it true that our ears continue to grow as we get older? Another thing to look forward to in our "Golden Years?" LOL [/QB][/QUOTE]
The answer to that is ... a qualified yes. See below:
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As we age and shrink, our ears grow on
Tuesday, November 04, 2003
By Michael Woods, Post-Gazette National Bureau
Why do old men have big ears?
A dozen scientific studies have tackled the topic, including the ear-size landmark, done in 1999 at the University of Milan in Italy. Scientists used computer analysis to document the "normal" sizes of facial structures and how structures change as people age.
Ears, they found, do get larger with age. And the study found that old women have big ears too -- although hair styles often hide it.
A British doctor named James A. Heathcote may have pioneered modern research on the topic with a 1995 study that involved several other physicians. They measured ear length in hundreds of patients, aged 30 to 93, and concluded that ears grow an average of 0.01 inches a year.
Japanese scientists confirmed it in a 1996 study of 400 people.
Researchers say that people who live to old age have bigger ears because there's more time for their ears to grow.
One London scientist immediately challenged that in a report published in the British Medical Journal. He argued that old men's ears look bigger because of a trend toward smaller ears in young people. Maybe it's due to passive smoking or changes in parenting, he said, noting that older people got their ears scrubbed or "boxed" -- smacked as punishment -- regularly.
A specialist on aging from Cambridge, England, wrote to the BMJ and said the findings may mean ears are a "biological marker" for longevity. Men with small ears may die younger, leaving a population of healthier old people with big ears.
Several scientists have tossed physiognomy into the debate, in letters to BMJ and other medical journals that published the studies. Physiognomy holds that the study of a person's face reveals a lot about personality and can forecast the future -- including longevity. Long ears mean long life.
Most of the kings and emperors of ancient China had long ears, as do many statues of Buddha. An emperor named Liu Bei, who lived around 220 AD, had ears that reached to his shoulders. He could actually see how own ears by glancing sideways
One Chinese physician recalled his mother's childhood nagging: "Stretch your ears daily, child, to ensure long life."
The earlobe itself has been proposed as a biological marker for heart disease risk. Dozens of studies have shown that men with a diagonal crease in both lobes may have an increased risk of heart attacks.
Some doctors advise that men with the "positive ear lobe crease" pay special attention to controlling heart disease risk factors like smoking, high blood pressure and cholesterol, and cigarette smoking.
When science's eyes turn to people's ears again, you'll hear more on the subject.
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from
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/03308/236232.stm