If a person has gray hair on their head, it means that they are aging or experiencing severe stress. After all, there is a reason among the people there is an expression "turn gray with horror"? Severe stress can actually cause white hair even at the age of 25, but scientists still did not know exactly how emotional experiences cause hair to lose its natural color. It was previously believed that stress somehow accelerates the aging of the human body, but American scientists from Harvard University have proved that this is far from the case. In a laboratory experiment carried out on mice, it turned out that prolonged experiences destroy the cells that are responsible for coloring hair.
A rather unpleasant, but very useful experiment for the scientific community was reported in the scientific journal Nature. In the course of scientific work, the researchers divided black rats into three groups and created different stress conditions for them. The first group was injected with a substance called resiniferatoxin, which causes burning pain throughout the body. The second group of rats underwent psychological stress when they were transplanted from one cage to another, shaken and shone a lamp on them. The third group was placed in a cramped cage and thus immobilized.
How does your hair turn gray?
After the stress test, the rats were shaved and their fur was monitored. As expected, most of them developed islets with white hair, and they were especially large in individuals who experienced physical pain. According to the researchers, stressful situations directly affected the functioning of the sympathetic nervous system of animals. It is known to help the body trigger responses against dangerous situations. This, in turn, depletes the stem cells responsible for hair color and the coat naturally begins to turn gray.
Rats at the beginning and end of the experiment.
In the course of further scientific work, scientists also managed to find out that proteins called cyclin-dependent kinases play an important role in the depletion of stem cells. To test this hypothesis, a substance was injected into the bodies of stressed rats to block the production of this group of proteins. As scientists expected, the blockage actually stopped the hair graying process.
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Unfortunately, due to the lack of understanding of all the interactions of substances occurring in the process of graying hair, scientists have not yet been able to come up with a medicine to preserve hair color. However, there is a possibility that in the near future such a remedy will still be created and people will stop worrying about the possibility of gray hair.
In general, in order to protect yourself from major hair problems, it is better to simply take time for yourself to have a good rest.
Ramis Ganiev