How Stress can cause premature graying of your hair

Stress can cause premature graying of your hair, but it's not hard to avoid

Graying of hair is a sign of aging. Whereas scientists are believing that stress makes you old before age. It is important to know about this research, which is suggesting ways to prevent it.

Taking too much stress can make your hair gray. Image: Shutterstock

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a lot of stress. It has seriously affected physical health as well as mental health. Facial wrinkles and graying of hair are the effects of severe stress. In such a situation, this corona period can be called the period of white hair, because the entire human race is going through great stress. If you have also noticed some white hairs in your hair during this time then you are not alone.

Stress is believed to be responsible for premature aging, as it affects the stem cells, which are the cause of hair pigmentation. But till now it was believed that the damage caused by it as payment!

A new study by researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons has shown that stress causes your hair to turn gray prematurely, but it can return to its original color.

"It is important for us to understand the mechanisms that allow hair to 'whiten' and return to its 'original form," says Dr. Martin Picard, associate professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University. Understanding these mechanisms will help us understand the effects of aging and stress.

What came out in the study

In this research, the scientists examined a small group of 14 participants who were asked to rate their stress in a 'stress diary' every week and compared it to their hair color data. Strong associations were made between graying and stressful periods, although the changes in hair color were extremely subtle.

Picard says, “When you look at your hair from the top, you won't notice any significant change. But under a high-resolution scanner, you see small, subtle changes in color, and that's what we're measuring."

However, what attracted the researchers the most was that when a participant was on vacation, five of the hairs on their head "returned to black during that vacation."

A previous study from 2020 showed that stress-related hair graying in rats was irreversible because it was caused by the loss of stem cells in the hair follicles. However, this new study suggests that the process is different in humans.

Conclusion

"Based on our study, we think there is a limit that needs to be reached before the hair can turn grey," says Picard. For example, this change can be seen in a person of middle age, but if we talk about a 70-year-old woman, her white hair cannot turn back to black.