Top 10 Causes We Go Gray

We've all wondered why we go gray. What's the objective to those silver strands that crop up once we least anticipate them? Is there even an evolutionary goal to it all?

Regardless of where you're going to be on the silver spectrum - in case you still have all of your hair color, if you are starting to go gray or you're presently a silver-haired senior - satiate your curiosity by understanding the top 10 reasons why we go gray:

10. Lousy Diets

In an age in which fast food items rules and people favor fast more than nutrition, it's no surprise that our inadequate diets enters the top ten reasons why we go gray. Researchers have not long ago suggested that a nutritious diet that's high in amino acids and calcium will help enhance melanogenesis , which produces the melanin pigment that's required to help keep the hair strands saturated with colour.

9. Vitiligo

Vitiligo is a illness whereby the hair and skin loses its pigmentation resulting from a reduction in melanin production derivatives from the amino acid tyrosine which is responsible for skin color and hair pigmentation. When melanin manufacturing all of a sudden decreases or stops altogether, this causes the hair to lose the pigmentation that gives it its original shade. Thus, the hair follicles that grow following melanin death have no pigment, therefore its gray appearance.

8. Lack of B12 and Folic Acid

Researchers from University Hospital's Department of Dermatology in Sweden recently conducted a analysis in which participants suffering vitiligo increased their consumption of folic acid and vitamin B12 through their diets and oral supplements. Researchers were astounded to find re-pigmentation of gray hair in 64% of the patients, with half a dozen individuals experiencing complete re-pigmentation. Talk about turning back the clock!

7. Currently being a Smoker

At the same time to raising your risks of contracting deadly diseases such as cancer, heart disease and kidney failure, smoking could also cause your hair to prematurely gray. A 1997 research carried out by researchers in England discovered that smokers had been approximately four times more likely to have gray hair as their non-smoking counterparts. It's still another reason why smokers really should ditch the habit.

6. Using Tooth Whitening Products

That whiter smile might cost you more than the price of your teeth whitening toothpaste - it may also cost you your hair pigment. Scientists have long known that an rise in hydrogen peroxide levels within the body leads to melanocyte death by deactivating the enzymes directly responsible for preserving your hair pigment. A research has shown that even the tiniest dose of hydrogen peroxide can kick-start melanocyte death - and as hydrogen peroxide may be the main ingredient in most teeth whitening applications, your smile won't be the one thing that turns white.

5. Environmental Pollution

You recognize that the skin is susceptible to injury thanks to damaging free radicals in environmental pollution - but did you realize that your hair pigment is at risk as well? These molecular free radicals bind themselves to our healthy cells and sapping them of valuable electrons - if left unchecked by our body's immune system - can bring about the type of cellular deterioration that inevitably influences the melanin manufacturing we need to keep our hair healthy, strong and pigmented.

4. Genetic Predisposition

Clearly, becoming gray may also be boiled down to genetic disposition. If your parents or grandparents started to go gray at a particular age, then you can bet that you will go gray about the similar time. Researchers at the University of Alabama-Birmingham Health System recently confirmed the function of genetics behind graying hair, stating that inheritance [of genetics] determines not only your hair pigment, but also when [hair] graying starts.

3. Our Hair Care Products

Hydrogen peroxide isn't just in your teeth-whitening products; ironically, it's within your hair care products as well. The greatest hair care offenders include hair bleaches, dyes, conditioners and shampoos. Before purchasing your favorite condition or hair dye, take a look to view the levels of hydrogen peroxide it contains; you could possibly be shocked to uncover it's contributing towards your graying hair.

2. Prolonged Stressful Lifestyle

Better make that yoga a priority: researchers have shown that high stress levels directly contribute to premature graying hair. Our stress levels prompts a surge in our body's production of hydrogen peroxide; the additional H2O2 then accumulates within the hair follicles, thereby causing meloncyte death and essentially "bleaching" the hair follicles gray. Bring your stressful lifestyle down a few notches to keep your hair healthy and lustrous.

1. Age

There's no way getting around it - as our body's enzyme and amino acid productions start to slow down, the aging process will eventually lead us down the path towards gray hair.