study
This is the real cause of gray hair!
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For many women it is appalling, for others an expression of maturity: gray hair. Researchers have now discovered how these actually arise.
Gray hair is often perceived as an unattractive sign of aging – some people, on the other hand, even like to showcase it in the right way. But why do we get gray hair at all? Researchers at Harvard University have investigated the answer to this question and have now come one step closer to it. A simple explanation for gray hair is therefore too much stress.
Stress makes us gray
The scientist Bing Zhang and his colleagues from the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology actually discovered by chance in an experiment on mice that stress can cause gray hair: When the animals were exposed to stress, their fur turned from dark to white. In order to find out the trigger for this, the animals were put under stress with targeted pain stimuli. The researchers discovered that the stress had an impact on certain stem cells of hair follicles. These stem cells, in turn, are involved in the production of color pigments in the hair. As a result, the hair of the mice grew back white.
The test result can be transferred to humans. Because stress triggers an escape reflex and in order to be able to pursue this, a large part of the blood shoots into the muscles, the lungs and the heart in a stressful situation. Non-vital parts of the body such as hair and nails are no longer adequately cared for at this point – and can turn gray when exposed to extreme stress. The researchers presented their results in the specialist magazine Nature.
Other causes of gray hair
But not only stress is responsible for gray hair. South Korean researchers have identified additional factors for this on the basis of a study with 6,390 people. These include:
- Overweight: If you have a BMI over 29, the risk of gray hair increases by a factor of 2.6.
- Smoking: Smokers also suffer from gray hair earlier. Why this is so has not yet been fully clarified. However, experts suspect that smoking increases oxidative stress in the pigment cells of the hair.
- Genes: The genetic makeup also plays a role in premature graying. 23 percent of the subjects in the study stated that their parents had gray hair early on.
Not all gray is the same
By the way, our hair isn’t actually gray at all, it’s white. The reason: the cells in which color pigments are formed lose this ability over time, which means that the hair grows back white. However, this happens gradually and not in all cells at the same time, which means that the white hairs mix with the darker ones. The human eye then perceives this mixture as “gray”.
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