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Premature Graying of Hair: Review with Updates
- theultdev 2y agotldr: stress
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- OutOfHere 2y agoRegarding PABA, I have been taking 500 mg/day for years, and it hasn't done anything at all for restoring my hair color or even for freezing further change. A much higher dose of it can be risky and it's not worth the gamble. I have also been taking B5 as both calcium pantothenate at 500 mg/day and also as pantethine at 300 mg/day for years, neither of which has done anything either in this context. Similarly, B12 hasn't visibly helped either. I suspect that copper is the issue with me. The lowest dose of MitoQ, a 5 mg capsule per day, had lowered my blood pressure significantly after a month of use, well below normal, approaching an unsafe low. Moreover, it took another month after discontinuation of MitoQ for the blood pressure to normalize. I shudder to think how much more powerful SkQ1 would be if taken orally. My first impression is that SkQ1 seems more relevant for local use than for systemic use.
- hackernewds 2y agoseems like unnecessary dangerous experimentation with the hopes of something cosmetic. why not just color hair?
- OutOfHere 2y agoJust because you are uninformed about certain things doesn't mean everyone else is too. For example, driving on the highway could look dangerous to a person from the jungle, but it isn't to someone who knows what he's doing. Your comment is the same way. If I try or take something, it's because I have studied it reasonably. The things I named are not untested high-risk substances. In fact, hair colors contain toxic harmful chemicals that even increase the risk of certain cancers. I do color my hair, but I don't like it, and I do it as little as necessary.
- naught0 2y agoThe highway is remarkably dangerous for even excellent drivers
- Cumpiler69 2y ago>why not just color hair? Or if you're a male, why bother with coloring at all? Just own the young silver fox look and rock with it. Or shave it and grow a huge beard. As a male you have a lot of natural workarounds against imperfect hair color..
- chownie 2y agoSome of us don't grow beards, so you just end up looking like a tall child struggling on hard times.
- freehorse 2y agoIf the gray hair indicates an underlying health issue/deficiency, dying them is not going to help with that.
- notamy 2y ago> I suspect that copper is the issue with me. Prolonged copper deficiency can cause irreversible neuropathies and CNS damage. You should try to get tested for it if you can.
- keyle 2y agoThanks for your account of these supplements. I thought PABA looked interesting until reading this. Hopefully some day we can have an over the counter drug that restores or slows graying. I don't have issues with mine beyond it being patchy, distracting.
- notamy 2y ago> Vitamin B12 deficiency can cause PGH through unknown mechanism. About 55% of patients with pernicious anemia had graying before 50 years as compared to 30% in the control group.[32] /soapbox Get your B12 tested (before taking supplements!). B12 deficiency is known to present in many ways, and also to be often overlooked in clinical settings[1]. It’s known that not everyone presents with the anaemia from it[2], which is often why it’s skipped as a diagnostic option. Additionally, long-term/severe deficiency can present with symptoms almost identical to multiple sclerosis[3]. Deficiency of other B vitamins, such as B2, can cause a functional B12 deficiency as well[4]. It’s also known that supplementation will falsely elevate levels even in the presence of a deficiency. /unsoapbox [1] https://www.mcpiqojournal.org/article/S2542-4548(19)30033-5/fulltext https://www.mcpiqojournal.org/article/S2542-4548(19)30033-5/... [2] https://www.bmj.com/content/383/bmj-2022-071725 https://www.bmj.com/content/383/bmj-2022-071725 [3] https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1215&context=health_article https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article... [4] https://www.iomcworld.org/articles/paradoxical-vitamin-b12-deficiency-normal-to-elevated-serum-b12-with-metabolic-vitamin-b12-deficiency.pdf https://www.iomcworld.org/articles/paradoxical-vitamin-b12-d...
- jimbob45 2y agoIt’s also known that supplementation will falsely elevate levels even in the presence of a deficiency. It sounds to me that what you’re saying is that a daily multivitamin would not help in this case.
- notamy 2y agoIt may help, but it will also throw off lab tests while you’re taking it and for a time after. Also, B12 absorption depends strongly on good gut health (ex. no SIBO[1], low gastric acid, pernicious anaemia, etc.), as well as on other medications (ex. metformin[2]) not interfering with absorption. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_intestinal_bacterial_overgrowth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_intestinal_bacterial_ove... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metformin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metformin CTRL-F "B12"
- shitter 2y ago> In men, graying first occurs in the temples and sideburns. It spreads to the vertex and rest of the scalp involving the occiput the last. My graying started when I was 15 and first appeared as a single silver strand at the center of my hairline. At 28, I now have a cluster of them in that center spot, as well as diffusely all over my head, including the occiput. I think my temples and sideburns were actually relatively spared. Also of interest to me: once in a blue moon, I shed a hair that appears to be reverting from gray back to pigmented -- it's gray close to the tip and black closer to the root. I wonder what factors might cause this reversal.
- thaumasiotes 2y agoI have no graying of head hair. But I do have several white hairs in my facial hair. I wouldn't have expected to read that "graying first occurs in the temples and sideburns". (I also have one white hair that grows inside my nose...)
- sroussey 2y ago> I wonder what factors might cause this reversal. Very likely: Stress. Also diet and exercise. They are interrelated. But for people that I’ve known have hair go gray and back again, it was stress.
- treyd 2y agoI know this is anecdotal but I know someone that experienced / is experiencing a similar thing. Several silvery hairs reverting back to pigmented after leaving an overly stressful work environment. She only had a few, but of those few perhaps 30%-50% have reverted.
- faraaz98 2y agoIt can also be caused by autoimmune thyroidism
- FollowingTheDao 2y agoBut what causes autoimmune hypothyroidism? (Hint, it is probably oxidative stress.) Receipts: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5040049/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5040049/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0008874924000613 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00088... https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12902-023-01348-9 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12902-023-01348-9 https://etj.bioscientifica.com/view/journals/etj/12/6/ETJ-23-0167.xml https://etj.bioscientifica.com/view/journals/etj/12/6/ETJ-23...
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- trhway 2y agoThere seems to be a lot about immune system activation attacking melanocytes like this: https://www.uab.edu/news/research/item/9390-study-explains-one-reason-hair-can-turn-gray#:~:text=Hair's%20graying%20is%20linked%20to,can%20decrease%20pigmentation%20in%20hair https://www.uab.edu/news/research/item/9390-study-explains-o.... Thus not surprisingly “Covid and gray hair” brings some results too, including reversing of Covid associated gray hair.
- gnulinux 2y agoIn our world today it seems impossible to complain about stress. Everyone around me from boss to family to even therapist keep telling me to remind myself of how great of a life I have and that I should know better than to complain. But it feels to me like I'm drowning in an ocean stress everyday with no way to escape it. I keep being compared to others who can seemingly take the stress well and am questioned why I can't take similar level of high-stakes, indeterministic responsibilities with severe dangers that are beyond my control, and little to no positive pay-off for me. Some people around me are extremely health conscious, they avoid all kinds of chemicals, eat religiously well, work-out regularly, sleep well etc yet when they show obvious signs of stress because they're working 12 hours a day in their torturous FAANG job, I'm treated like an antivaxxer for pointing it out. In this world of hustle culture, it seems like a taboo to talk about how unhealthy stress is. Stress today is like 70s cigarettes, everybody is doing it, so no need to worry about its health effects. And yes I have graying hair at mid-late 20s. Sometimes I'm astonished how people don't complain about their stress levels. I feel weak, child-like, immature, and feeble being unable to tolerate maybe 10% of what my wife can.
- EZ-E 2y agoUnsolicited advice : have you tried stopping coffee / caffeine? This improved my stress levels immensely although I only drank one cup a day.
- JanSt 2y ago+1
- OutOfHere 2y agoI drink coffee and tea more for their beneficial phyto chemicals. If I were to stop them, I would lose this benefit. I limit it to a single cup of each. B6 as P5P at 20 mg twice daily has helped my stress. Similarly, magnesium citrate has too. Theanine is also relevant at night. I think the best cure for stress for someone who has saved up money is to quit their day job.
- CuriouslyC 2y ago
- dukeofdoom 2y agoSo what's the best brand for coloring grey hair. Preferably non toxic.
- dyauspitr 2y agoHenna? Though it will give your hair a shade of red and not black.
- WrongAssumption 2y agoI use this. https://www.amazon.com/American-Crew-Precision-Blend-Hair/dp/B003GLMM9M https://www.amazon.com/American-Crew-Precision-Blend-Hair/dp... It’s a temporary hair color, which tends not to damage your hair. I find it lasts about a month.
- ivolimmen 2y agoWell I have gray hair since I was 16. It never made me feel insecure.
- RajT88 2y agoI would guess you are a man. It's way less bad for us, visibly aging. One of my oldest friends is a lady who went gray in her 20's. I only found out in her late 30's when she went through some mental health issues and missed aggressively dying to hide the roots.
- Ancalagon 2y agoMan I sure know a lot of early 30 year olds with graying hair
- james_marks 2y ago> INTRODUCTION Haalthy hair is a sign of general well-being and youth. Not exactly confidence inspiring when the very first word is a typo.
- duck 2y ago+1 how is this even possible to do?
- onionisafruit 2y agoI looked at INTRODUCTION letter-by-letter several times before realizing the spelling issue is in “Haalthy”. That’s the second word.
- bowsamic 2y agoHeadings don’t count as the body text
- ramraj07 2y agoAuthor list, author affiliation and past history all suggest this might be a green card paper.
- DoingIsLearning 2y agoHow does that work in the US they pump papers out as evidence of exceptional ability or something along those lines? I thought that mattered for entry visas not for residency.
- on_the_train 2y agoThis title had me hoping that this was a gwern article
- sandebert 2y agoOT, but I can't not notice the wild domain.
- slt2021 2y agoTLDR: root cause is working with dynamic and weakly typed languages and poorly documented and maintained spaghetti code
- butternet 2y agoLeaving aside other health concerns grey hair can be attractive on all genders and should be respected and celebrated.
- mxxc 2y agolol at scientific papers using the word "caucasian" like it's the 70s
- A_D_E_P_T 2y agoI had been looking into this recently. My beard is graying and it's annoying me excessively. 10 years ago, the research consensus behind hair graying was, "we don't know what causes it, lol." Today, it's a little bit better understood -- though far from completely understood. There's a handy review article here: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10535703/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10535703/ To summarize, there's no known agent that can reliably repigment gray hair. Sometimes powerful drugs repigment hair as a side-effect. Hair graying results from the dysfunction or loss of melanogenic melanocytes and the depletion or immobility of McSCs, often due to aging or stress. Lots of cellular signalling pathways are involved. The Wnt/β-Catenin pathway promotes melanocyte stem cell (McSC) proliferation and differentiation, while the MC1R/cAMP pathway, activated by α-MSH, drives melanin production via the MITF transcription factor. The SCF/c-KIT pathway supports melanocyte survival and function, and the Endothelin/EDNRB pathway stimulates both melanocyte proliferation and melanogenesis. In contrast, the PI3K/AKT pathway inhibits melanogenesis by suppressing MITF activity, and the TGF-β pathway maintains McSC quiescence while inhibiting melanogenesis. Stress is actually a factor because activation of the sympathetic nervous system can deplete McSCs, and neuropeptides like CGRP, SP, and VIP, can either enhance or suppress melanogenesis in ways which are, as yet, unclear. Dermal white adipose tissue (dWAT) near hair follicles also plays a role by secreting factors such as adiponectin that affect hair growth and pigmentation. A drug to reverse or prevent hair graying would be very welcome, so I hope that the phenomenon becomes better understood in the near future, and then we get products that work.
- meigwilym 2y ago> My beard is graying and it's annoying me excessively. So is mine, and now I've lost most of the hair on my head I shave it so completely bald. But I've learnt to accept it. I don't like it, and wish it was different. There's nothing I can do and I have plenty of more pressing problems to worry about. So I keep fit and eat reasonably healthily. So even though I look old, I don't have to act it
- 7bit 2y agoI've also learnt to accept my recewding and thinning hairs. Yet, Everytime I look in the mirror I also don't like it and wish it were different. Have I really accepted it?
- amarcheschi 2y agoMy grandfather started having white hairs at 20, I'm a bit older and I have a few strands of white hair. Honestly, I love white hair. It's not very noticeable on me though, I get it can be embarrassing
- sterlind 2y agoI started going gray at 16. My dad would pull my gray hairs out and marvel at them whenever he saw one - without thinking to ask first, of course. they joked it must be from stress - disquieting that it might have been metabolic, and that they never considered taking me to a doctor.
- donatj 2y agoI started graying in my mid twenties, I am in my late thirties now and my hair is a little over half gray at this point. I would frankly like to do something about it, my wife has been insistent that I don't because she likes it. The possibility of it being some sort of vitamin deficiency that this raises has me feeling like I should at least get my levels tested. I can't imagine that it is a B12 deficiency however due to how much canned fish I consume. It's become my go to easy lunch since the beginning of COVID.
- louthy 2y ago> I started graying in my mid twenties, I am in my late thirties now and my hair is a little over half gray at this point. I would frankly like to do something about it, my wife has been insistent that I don't because she likes it. Full grey here. The amount of comments and compliments I get about my hair is unreal. I never really got any before greying. I say embrace it.
- OutOfHere 2y agoBe careful with the canned fish, especially canned sardines, as they risk arsenic. Canned tuna and some others can risk mercury. I wouldn't eat canned fish more than once or twice a week. Always make sure to cook them well, otherwise worms are risked. The ocean is used by us as one big garbage dump.
- donatj 2y agoYou shouldn't need to cook canned fish, they are cooked after canning at the factory, which is why they are shelf stable for years.
- OutOfHere 2y agoYou shouldn't have to, but you would be taking a massive risk, and risk becoming a medical statistic when worms grow and multiply, also entering various organs. In me, canned tuna caused major problems that required antibiotics to resolve after conducting thousands of dollars of tests. The tuna evidently had certain highly inflammatory bacteria. I consider myself lucky that the antibiotic worked at all.
- abrookewood 2y agoSlightly off topic, but I have found a Vitamin B supplement all but eliminated my migraines. I was getting them every 1-2 weeks and then, after taking Vitamin B regularly (to counteract alcohol consumption during the festive season), I realised I hadn't had one in ages, despite running on reduced sleep (which seems to be my main trigger). Anyway, I always make this comment anywhere I can because migraines are horrible, vitamins are cheap and maybe it will help someone else (obviously anecdotal; sample size of 1; I can't find any supporting research etc).
- elric 2y agoVitamin B2 (Riboflavin) in particular can be helpful for those with migraines. But it seems like it only effects those with migraines headaches, and not migraine auras. Did nothing for me :-( Also N=1, but I remember coming across some research that confirmed this when I was taking the supplements.
- abrookewood 2y agoInteresting. I still often feel like I am about to get a migraine (colours go weird, slight auras, blurry vision), but they don't eventuate.
- casenmgreen 2y agoWhich B vitamin(s)? there are a number of them.
- abrookewood 2y agoLooks like B2 is the one that helps
- alkyon 2y agoThere are studies that support this: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33779525/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33779525/ Conclusions: A pooled analysis of available randomized controlled clinical trials demonstrated that Vitamin B2 400 mg/day for three months supplementation had significant effect on days, duration, frequency, and pain score of migraine attacks. For some months I've been taking 200 mg/day and it reduced the frequency of my migraine attacks in half.
- n1b0m 2y agoI was diagnosed with hypothyroidism a decade ago and it seems to coincide with premature graying in my 30s
- FollowingTheDao 2y agoThis is probably linked to high oxidative stress. H2O2 plays a role both with thyroid production and with greying hair. They talk about it in the paper.
- elric 2y agoAs someone who started balding at ~19, I would have been very happy with grey hair instead. One person's self-esteem damaging condition is another person's hope.
- whtsthmttrmn 2y agoAs someone who got grey hair in their 20's and doesn't have to deal with it thinning, I am aware of my good fortune.
- zingababba 2y agoI started graying when I fucked around with nicotine for a bit.