THE CASE OF GRAYING HAIRS

While some people proudly sport a silver mane like the one and only Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the famous model Kate Moss and the actress Jamie Lee Curtis, many others face the arrival of new gray hairs with dread. The good news is that scientists are hard at work on how to prevent them. So what do researchers know that you don't?

Scientists have pinpointed the cells that cause hair to turn gray and to go bald in mice, according to a new study published in the journal Genes & Development. Researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center accidentally stumbled upon this explanation for baldness and graying hairs-at least in mouse models-while studying a rare genetic disease that causes tumors to grow on nerves. They found that a protein called KROX20 switches on skin cells that become a hair shaft, which then causes cells to produce another protein called stem cell factor (SCF). In mice, these two proteins turned out to be important for baldness and graying. When researchers deleted the cells that produce KROX20, mice stopped growing hair and eventually went bald; when they deleted the SCF gene, the animals' hair turned white.

So though this project was started in an effort to understand how certain kinds of tumors form, they ended up learning why hair turns gray and discovering the identity of the cell that directly gives rise to hair graying and hair loss in mice. More research is surely needed to understand if the process works similarly in humans. With this knowledge, we hope in the future to create a topical compound or to safely deliver the necessary gene to hair follicles to correct these cosmetic problems of baldness or graying.

Hair stem cells make hair, and pigment-forming stem cells make pigment. Typically they work together, but either can wear out, sometimes prematurely. Researchers are trying to figure out if a medicine, or something we could put in our scalp, could slow the graying process. Hair dye simply coats our hair in color but doesn't alter its structure, the pigment – forming stem cell is expected to do just that. A single hair grows for one to three years, then it sheds — and a new one grows. As we age, our new hairs are more likely to be white. Every time the hair regenerates, we have to re-form these pigment-forming stem cells, and they wear out as we age.

Causes of graying:

There are certain factors which have been seen to be responsible for premature graying and these are:

1. Normal aging.

It is not surprising to know that age is the biggest culprit. Dermatologists call this the 50-50-50 rule - Fifty percent of the population has about 50% gray hair at age 50. Like skin, hair changes its texture with age and would lose its shine, texture, pigment and finally its density as we grow old.

2. Ethnicity.

Caucasians tend to go gray earlier — and redheads earliest of all. The Asians, Africans and their descendents grey relatively late. My grandmother and my mother had jet black hairs in their eighties. Scientists haven't figured out why ethnicity plays such an important role.

3. Stress.

Stress is often blamed but it doesn’t cause graying directly.  During an illness or a stressful event — like getting chemotherapy, people can shed hair rapidly and they may grow back with a different colour.

4. Lifestyle.

Smoking, over indulgence in recreational drugs and low vitamin B12 levels are notorious for causing loss of hair pigment. Foods packed with certain vitamins, nutrients and antioxidants may help protect cells against toxins and help prevent heart disease, cancer, and other ailments and perhaps gray hair as well. Carrots, citrus fruits, legumes and pulses, liver are very useful to fight graying.

5. Genetics

Yes, this is one thing for which we can certainly blame our parents, and they, in turn, can most likely blame it on theirs. It is scientifically proven that premature graying of hair is mostly genetic in nature.

6. Nutrition

Being healthy is all about eating healthy and right. What we eat is reflected on our skin, on our hair, and certainly on our overall health. The right kind of diet gives us all the nutrients that our body needs to function properly and if we are fit and healthy, our hair too will show the signs. And this will also help in postponing the advent of the grays

Alternative approaches

Curry leaves, coconut oil, Amla or gooseberries have been used by those practicing Ayurveda since time immemorial to treat graying. A homeopath treats a patient by taking a detailed case history and based on the findings, he or she prescribes homeopathic medicine for graying. A few Homeopathic medicines used commonly for eliminating white hair and preventing premature graying are:

1.   Lycopodium Clavatum: It is the chief remedy for pre-senility and is also useful in treating premature graying of hair. It is also useful in treating baldness.

2.   Phosphoricum Acidum: Used to relieve fatigue and debility, along with nervous exhaustion and gray hair. It is also useful for preventing hair thinning and hair fall.

3.   Acid Phos: For treating hair graying and hair fall.

4.   Lycopodium: Early graying, associated with exhaustion, bloating, and other digestive problems.

5.   Silicea: Cures exhaustion.

6.   Thyroidinum: Works on the Thyroid problems.

7.   Psorinum: Useful in treating gray hair, especially when they appear in spots.

But yours truly too has a theory for graying and baldness which deserves your attention. Hairs are a pent up source of potential energy which as we reach adulthood convert into kinetic energy. Thus energized, the hair follicles start drilling in through the scalp, through the skull in search of grey matter. If they find it they turn gray and if they don’t, they simply fall off!