You may have heard that grey hair is the result of depressing events in a person’s life. Many parents believe that it is kids that give them grey hair. But what is the real reason your hair loses its colour and turns white?

Yes, it’s true: Stress causes grey hair

We all have heard anecdotal stories how someone experiences an unusually stressful event and as the result their head turned white overnight.

This time science confirmed the verdict of the common wisdom: Yes, it is the stress that starts the process in which the cells generating the coloured pigment in hair follicles are damaged irreversibly.

Researchers from Harvard reviewed how this process occurs in a human body. External events affect nerves that activate fight-or-flight response, and it is this process that may cause permanent damage within the hair follicles, in particular, the stem cells responsible for the production of the pigment.

At first, researchers thought that it could be the immune cells that jump-start this process. But it was proven not to be the case, when they monitored specially bred mice that didn’t have immune cells, but under stress were losing colouring in their fur.

Scientists reviewed another potential culprit, the stress hormone cortisol, but it also had proven not to be the case, when the adrenaline gland was removed from lab animals. Even though cortisol was no longer produced by the body, the animals’ furry coats were turning while under duress.

Thus, one by one potential causes were eliminated, until the researchers identified the actual reason. It happened to be the sympathetic nerve system responsible for firing the flight-or-flight response. Its nerves reach every hair follicle on the body. When an individual is under stress, nerves release norepinephrine, which affects the pigment-producing stem cells. Some of these cells are reservoirs of cells that produce hair pigment. All parts of the body, including hair, constantly regenerate. To make a pigment-making cell for the hair, there has to be a stem cell capable of turning into such a cell. What happens under stress, the pigment-making stem cells all turn into actual cells at once. It’s like a woman’s body would suddenly release all her baby-making eggs, after which she would become infertile forever, as there are no more eggs that could mature.

The same thing may happen under stress with pigment-making stem cells, scientists found. The damage is permanent and irreversible after just a few days.

The impact of acute stress

The body’s fight-or-flight responses is an evolutionary mechanism helping an animal to escape or defend itself under duress. It’s a survival mechanism. But in this case, it has been shown to trigger the process of hair greying via depleting the source of pigment-making stem cells.

The scientists zoomed into the molecular responses using a variety of modern research methods.

Isaac Chiu, an assistance professor at Harvard Medical School, pointed out that the role of peripheral neurons have been known in regulating functioning of immunity, organs, and blood system, and now it is discovered they also interact with stem cells and cause greying of the hair.

This finding is also helpful in researching further the effects of stress on human body.

So, how to avoid grey hair? Expose yourself to less stress and learn to manage your response. You may not be able to completely eliminate all stress from your life (although it’s possible to regulate it), but you are able to manage your responses to it.

One of great minds of the humanity stated, “This, too, shall pass.” Whatever happens in your life, stressing about it won’t make it better, but managing your emotions and actions will.

You may not be able to completely eliminate all stress from your life (although it’s possible to regulate it), but you are able to manage your responses to it.

Anti-stress methods

There are many methods people use to manage stress in their lives, but one of them is preceding all: Knowing that stressful situation will happen and deciding in advance how to act when it occurs.

Of course, greying hair isn’t the worst thing that can happen in a volatile situation. People lose their lives because of decisions made in milliseconds.

Advance thinking isn’t only required in international dating, when you need to plan from the start, but in everyday life as well. An example of this is the safety briefing on a plane. Knowing where your nearest exit is makes it much easier to find it if there is no light or smoke in the cabin.

Surprisingly, some people go through their lives without planning as much as a week ahead. Is it even a wonder that certain individuals reach their goals consistently (including finding the love of their life), while others just drift through daily existence complaining about things going a wrong way?

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