If you spend a large portion of your time dyeing your hair and giving yourself grey hairs worrying about your grey hairs, then now may be the time to think again. The boffins at New Scientist have just reported that your silvery tresses may help to reduce the risk of getting cancer.
Specific cells that produce the pigments that colour your hair – called melanocytes – are continually regenerating by the work of stem cells. When the number of stem cells in hair follicles declines, hair turns grey. Researchers at the Tokyo Medical and Dental University of Japan have found the cause of this decline in mice and have made some astute judgements based on their findings.
Emi Nishimura and colleagues exposed the mice to chemicals and radiation that harm DNA and found that the damaged stem cells permanently altered into melanocytes. This, in turn, turned the mice grey. Nishimura’s team now suggest that it is this very process that leads to the reduction in stem cells in the follicles of older people – particularly as DNA gets predominantly more damaged as we get older.
David Fisher, a researcher at Harvard Medical School, proposes that this process could prevent cancer as DNA with damaged stem cells do not have the chance to mutate any others, saying, “One likely beneficial effect is the removal of potentially dangerous cells that may contain pre-cancerous capabilities”.
It would be great fun if we did not have to worry about our locks looking grey as long as we knew our health was intact!
Is grey hair good for your health?
Grey hair does not mean old, you can wear your grey hair gracefully and yet look chic. Greying is an inevitable part of our life and grey strands look good when they shine with health. Our hair gets its colour from the pigments present inside the hair shaft, these pigments also give texture to the hair. When you loose these colour pigments your hair becomes grey and looses its texture. The result is dull and lifeless grey strands
Surely, colouring/bleaching your hair does not touch the hair follicles, which are below the surface of the skin? As Seakay said, the hair is still grey but colouring it is just a surface treatment. This new research sounds as if it says that simply having grey hair may prevent cancer - but cancer of what part of the body - or do they mean skin cancer? And this would imply that probably half of the (aging) population is naturally gaining some benefit just be reaching a certain age and the degeneration which accompanies it. This sounds like research that really doesn't have any relevance to real life! Why worry about having grey hair? If you don't like it, colour it!
