Medical experts have known for some time that besides older age being a cause, stress can cause your hear to turn gray.
Just look at before and after pictures of almost all past presidents to see what stress can do to hair color.
But the how and the why about the impact of stress on graying hair apparently have never been fully understood.
Well now there’s new research that provides an answer.
A Harvard based study found that feeling stressed can activate nerves associated with our fight-or-flight response. The researchers say these activated nerves then cause permanent damage to the pigment regenerating stem cells in our hair follicles.
Stem cells in our hair follicles essentially act as a backup supply of color-producing cells for our hair. They say that when we have stress, our stem cells over-activate, prematurely depleting our hair’s color reserve.
The researchers say the study gives more insight into the overall effect of stress on a variety of organs and tissues in the human body that could lead to future treatments for reducing the negative impacts of stress.
But for now, instead of stressing out about it, you can always just make a quick trip to the store and pick up one of those hair coloring products.
READ MORE DETAILS about this study, but don't stress out.
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