Random Fact of the Day: Stress Does Cause Gray Hair
April 14, 2008 by Liberty Kontranowski
Filed under Beauty, Easy Health Tips, Happy Living Tip, How To, Stress, Your Body, Your Mind
Just the news you wanted to hear to start your week, right? Sorry, but it’s true. Stress can, in fact, cause your hair to gray.
Why? Stress hormones like cortisol can mess with melanocytes (simply, hair cells). Suddenly, the cells have trouble surviving and/or producing the pigment that keeps your hair its original color. Hence, those pigments disappear and out pops a gray (or white) hair.
Naturally, controlling stress is a good defense in this type of situation, but that might not always be possible. Eating foods rich in the amino acids lysine and arginine can help provide a drop in stress, however, so if you’re feeling a bit on edge, grab some peanuts and a carton of yogurt. These superfoods can get you halfway to the recommended 3 grams of lysine and arginine that Slovakian scientists found to be so effective in reducing the hormones responsible for stress.
Either that, or there’s always hair color.
Hi
It is a very nice and good post and I like it .
Now what I wish was that if you start relaxing more that it would reverse the effect and hair could go back to its natural color again. Wouldn’t that be great? Life doesn’t tend to work how we want it to though does it?
I’m with you, Trisha! That would so be the perfect fix, wouldn’t it? Spend two weeks on the beach in Hawaii to relax, come back home with your “younger years” hair color. Ah, sweet victory.
Some vitamin B complex deficiencies have also been implicated with premature gray hair.
That’s interesting about the vitamin B complex deficiencies.
I have to keep reminding myself though – grey hair is only a superficial sign of aging. The real stuff to be concerned about isn’t so obvious.
Uuugh how do i stop it? any tips 22 my black is going gray! This doesn’t help it just stresses me out more.
everyone has stress, but not everyone has grey hair….
I’ve noticed that I tend to sprout a few after especially trying emotional periods.
I truly believe my gray is being caused by stress. Once a hair cell dies, is there any hope for resurrection? If I were to eliminate or reduce the cortisol in my body would they rejuvinate?