One of the most dreaded things about adulthood is graying hair. For some it is a sign of aging too soon, or just genetics. We have often wondered that whether worrying leads to grey hair? Well, a team of scientists have finally found why,
The scientists have discovered the reason our hair turns gray. It is due to stress.
It might not come as a surprise to learn that stress can turn your hair gray, but a team of scientists at Harvard discovered why exactly does our hair turn gray whenever we are stressed.
Scientists believe that gray hair is the result of the natural aging process, certain pigment/follicle disorders, and stress. Until now, people never had a definitive explanation as to why stress causes gray hair. Previous theories suggested that stress accelerates the aging process or triggers an autoimmune response.
However, as it turns out, the specific type of stress associated with the brain’s fight-or-flight response is the culprit behind graying. When people experience this type of stress it causes a sympathetic nerve response, which activates the stem cells that are responsible for coloring our hair. So in other words, we use up the limited supply of hair dye in our cellular make-up when we get too scared.
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According to the Harvard team’s research paper:
“Our study demonstrates that neuronal activity that is induced by acute stress can drive a rapid and permanent loss of somatic stem cells, and illustrates an example in which the maintenance of somatic stem cells is directly influenced by the overall physiological state of the organism.”
How did they discover the hair-raising truth?
How the scientists came up with this explanation is a bit unsettling. The team conducted experiments on mice in a laboratory. The test subjects experienced three different types of stress: physical restraint, physical pain, and psychological distress.
The researchers then began studying to see what was actually causing the grayness. Suspecting adrenal glands were the cause, they ran the tests again on mice with theirs removed. Those mice still experienced graying, so they tried again with other hormonal processes inhibited. Eventually, the researchers came to the conclusion that a sympathetic nervous response was causing the stem cell overload responsible for the gray hairs. Once they blocked that response, the mice stopped going gray.
Well, now we know why our hair turns gray. So stop stressing out about things, it will only get more and grayer. If only things were that easy in life.
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