Grey Hair Causes
In a new study published in Nature, scientists have gained advanced insights into how stress impacts the body. More specifically, senior author Ya-Chieh Hsu, the Alvin and Esta Star Associate Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard, and his team have found evidence to back up anecdotal stories about hair turning grey (or even bright white) after acute stress.
Hsu found that when the fight or flight response is triggered, permanent damage to our pigment-regenerating stem cells in hair follicles can result.
Stress affects the whole body, so the first step was to track down the system that connected stress to hair color. They eliminated a possible immune attack as the culprit and then turned to the hormone cortisol, which also resulted in a dead-end. They had removed the adrenals from the mice and established that cortisol couldn’t be the primary factor because stress still resulted in the greying of the mice’s hair. They then turned to the sympathetic nervous system because these nerves branch out to each hair follicle on the skin. What they found was norepinephrine triggered excessive pigment-producing cells which, in turn, burned up the reservoir prematurely and resulted in permanent damage to pigment-regenerating cells.
“Acute stress, particularly the fight-or-flight response, has been traditionally viewed to be beneficial for an animal’s survival. But in this case, acute stress causes permanent depletion of stem cells,” said postdoctoral fellow Bing Zhang, the lead author of the study.
Pinpointing the exact system that was involved didn’t come easily. It required the collaboration of a wide range of scientists from many disciplines. Now that we have information on how stress can alter stem cell function, the foundations have been laid to find a process to revert the detrimental impacts of stress.
Come let Dr Price perform a STRESS test on you in his office and determine what supplements you need to combat stress and STOP the early greying of your hair. Adrenal gland function has always been a determining factor to early greying hair. There is no known supplement that will reverse grey hair yet, but we do know you can reverse the effects of adrenal stress on the body.
Dr Price says:
Take your adrenal supplements for stress
Take magnesium daily
Take minerals daily
Find a stress reducing exercise that suits you
Each person will have their own individual needs for reducing stress, so make your appointment today and have your stress levels checked. Each supplement will be different for every person, that is why Dr Price checks out each of you and finds your specific needs and exercises just for you!