Most of us associate gray hair with aging or even genetics as the primary causes of the change from normal to gray hair. But in a new study, researchers found a significant association between stress and gray hair.
Melanocytes, or pigment-producing cells, are what give our hair its color. The melanocyte stem cells that reside in our hair follicle at the base of the hair odd are the source of the new melanocytes in our hair.
These cells become less plentiful as we age and eventually vanish. Our hair then changes from its natural color to gray.
But in this study, conducted by Harvard University researchers, it was shown that stress may be another factor in the loss of these stem cells.
Dr. Ya-Chieh Hsu led the team of scientists who utilized mice to study the connections between stress and gray hair. To do this, scientists subjected the mice to three different types of stress, moderate, transient pain, emotional stress, and limitations on movement.
What they discovered was a significant decline in stem cells, which accelerated the graying of their hair.
They then made the decision to delve more to determine why stress had resulted in early graying. They studied the immune system to do this.
They noticed from their findings that norepinephrine was crucial to this process. The mice’s melanocyte cells were significantly reduced after noradrenaline injection, which led to an increase in gray hair.
Simply put, our sympathetic nervous system, which controls our body’s fight-or-flight reaction, has nerves all over us, in our hair follicles. Our hair color can suffer significant and long-lasting harm when we are under a great deal of stress and are frequently in flight or fight mode.
Hsu said, “When we first started studying this, I understood that stress was bad for the body—but the harmful impact of stress that we revealed was beyond what I envisioned. “All of the melanocyte stem cells were gone in just a few days. You can no longer renew pigments after they are lost. The harm is irreparable.
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