Posted on Feb 27, 2024
We finally know why stress turns your hair white
1.03K
49
8
12
12
0
A recent paper, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, may put some of these arguments to rest. In the study, stem cell and regenerative biologists from the United States and Brazil reported that stress can indeed cause hair to lose its pigment—and they identified a cellular pathway by which it can occur.
To study this vexing relationship, the researchers created an elaborate animal model, which basically involved trying to turn black-haired rats white with lab-made stressors. They tried three different tactics: restraint stress, chronic unpredictable stress, and nociception-induced stress, which is caused by physical pain (or the threat of it). Each successfully turned the rat’s hair white. Perhaps unsurprisingly, nociception-induced stress, which the scientists stimulated by injecting the rats with resiniferatoxin, an analogue of the chili pepper compound capsaicin, worked best and fastest.
To study this vexing relationship, the researchers created an elaborate animal model, which basically involved trying to turn black-haired rats white with lab-made stressors. They tried three different tactics: restraint stress, chronic unpredictable stress, and nociception-induced stress, which is caused by physical pain (or the threat of it). Each successfully turned the rat’s hair white. Perhaps unsurprisingly, nociception-induced stress, which the scientists stimulated by injecting the rats with resiniferatoxin, an analogue of the chili pepper compound capsaicin, worked best and fastest.
We finally know why stress turns your hair white
Posted from popsci.com
Edited 2 mo ago
Posted 2 mo ago
Responses: 4
Posted 2 mo ago
This means I was Salt and Pepper by 30 from eating Spicy Food!?!?! Since I love it I guess I wouldn't have changed a thing.
(8)
Comment
(0)
(5)
Reply
(0)
SGT Stephen Rowland
2 mo
Good for your Dad, but eating them at your leisure is far different than receiving injections that cause pain and you do not want.
(2)
Reply
(0)
(2)
Reply
(0)
Posted 2 mo ago
Given my silver hair....what's left of it....guess I'm really stressed :-))
(2)
Comment
(0)
Read This Next