When I look at gray hair two things come to mind: aging and stress. Gray hair is most often
associated with aging because it’s thought that when you grow older, your hair follicles produce
less color which eventually results in that infamous gray color. Stress can impact the number of
gray hairs that come out of your head. Now that might be a scary thought, but it turns out when
stress is eliminated, hair color can be restored Understanding how stress affects hair color can
give us insight on how stress affects our body.
Hair follicles carry a lot of our biological information. When under the skin, the hair is subject to stress and other influences of the mind and body. When hairs have grown out of the scalp, they mature into a stable form that reflect those exposures. Ayelet Rosenburg developed a method for capturing highly detailed images of small areas of human hair, about 1/20th of a millimeter wide. The individual hairs from 14 volunteers were analyzed by researchers and were compared with each volunteer’s stress diary where the volunteers rated their stress levels for each week. The study revealed obvious associations between stress and graying of the hair. Researchers also found that grays hairs started to revert to their original color when the stress levels of volunteers decreased. Researchers also measured the levels of protein in the hair and how the levels changed. When researchers produced a mathematical model that stimulated a graying head of hair over time, there were changes in about 300 proteins that were observed when hair color changed. The model suggests that changes to the mitochondria may induce stress related graying. The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell and respond to different signals, like psychological stress.
The data in this study show a connection between the mitochondria and stress, and their effects on hair. Researchers also discovered that graying can be reversed with the elimination of stress. The impacts that stress has on your body need to be better understood and studied, but it’s clear that it takes a toll on the body. So, it’s important that we take care of ourselves physically and mentally. And if you see a new gray hairs in the mirror, that may be a sign that you are due for a vacation.
Morianna Saint-Cyr (9)
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210622154339.htm
I really had never known before that grey hairs can also be caused by stress, I thought it was just aging. This was a great read! This quote, "When under the skin, the hair is subject to stress and other influences of the mind and body. When hairs have grown out of the scalp, they mature into a stable form that reflect those exposures," was super informative. I've never thought of hair growth like that before, super cool.
ReplyDelete- Declan Downing
Hello, this was a very interesting article and a topic I have been wondering about. Overall it was laid out very well and it was very informative.
ReplyDelete- Tugba Kahveci
This was very interesting. I had no clue that there were changes to the mitochondria in relation to graying hair.
ReplyDeleteMe either, I never knew how the graying of the hair worked until I did some research.
Delete-Morianna Saint-Cyr
DeleteI loved reading your post. I was wondering how stress induced gray hair is reversed? and how long it takes
ReplyDeleteStress can induce physiological changes in the mitochondria and those changes has been related to different proteins being produced. When stress is reduced, its effects on the mitochondria are reduced which result in changes in the proteins that can restore the hair to its natural color
Delete-Morianna Saint-Cyr
Hey this was a really interesting article. Are there any other outside factors that influence gray hair growth. My grandparents always mentioned that starting hair dyes early can contribute to gray hairs, how accurate is this?
ReplyDelete