In the case of alopecia and vitiligo , the immune system can attack hair and cause loss of pigment. Hormonal changes caused by a thyroid problem — such as hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism — may also be responsible for premature white hair.
The thyroid is a butterfly-shaped gland located at the base of your neck. It helps control many bodily functions such as metabolism. The health of your thyroid can also influence the color of your hair. An overactive or underactive thyroid can cause your body to produce less melanin. White hair at an early age can also indicate a vitamin B deficiency. This vitamin plays an important role in your body. It gives you energy, plus it contributes to healthy hair growth and hair color. Your body needs vitamin B for healthy red blood cells, which carry oxygen to cells in your body, including hair cells.
A deficiency can weaken hair cells and affect melanin production. The long-term effects, however, can go beyond the heart and lungs and affect hair. Smoking constricts blood vessels, which can reduce blood flow to hair follicles and cause hair loss. Additionally, toxins in cigarettes can damage parts of your body including your hair follicles, causing early white hair.
The ability to reverse or prevent white hair depends on the cause. If you suspect a health problem, consult a doctor to see if an underlying condition is responsible for white hair.
If you treat the underlying health problem, pigmentation may return, but there are no guarantees. According to one study , if a thyroid problem causes white hair, re-pigmentation may occur after hormone therapy treatment. Taking vitamin B shots or pills to correct a deficiency may also improve the health of hair follicles and return your natural color. Jones, here is the situation, "I'm in my mids, I'm young, I'm happy, I'm emotionally healthy, I'm physically healthy, or at least I think I am, but I've noticed that I'm starting to grow some little gray hairs that are coming out.
And they keep coming out and I feel like I pluck them, and then they come out even more. Jones: Okay, well, let's talk about graying.
Now you had some, actually, buried in your question are some assumptions that being emotionally unhealthy might lead you to have gray hair.
Interviewer: Like stress. Jones: Like stress. So we'll talk about that briefly, but first of all, so Caucasian people tend to start going gray in their early 30s. Asian people in their late 30s and African-Americans in their 40s. Now, what's too early? If someone's going gray before they're 20, or they're half-gray by the time they're 40, then that's early, that's premature. So you're 20, you have a few gray hairs. I'm afraid that's still normal. Jones: Now let's talk about. We do know that an acute stress can cause hair to fall out, but it doesn't usually cause hair to turn gray.
So people say, "I got such a shock, it made my hair turn gray," or Marie Antoinette's hair turned gray overnight before she was put on the chopping block. Well, that's not going to happen because her hair, I'm sure, was pretty long. It's not going to all turn gray in one day. It can be inherited from either parent. The color of our hair is determined by the form of hair pigment that we have. The pigment is actually produced along the hair shaft, and there are two main forms of hair pigment.
There's eumelanin and pheomelanin. Eumelanin is what we see in brunettes and darker-haired people, and pheomelanin is what we see in blonds and redheads. The cells in our hair bulb produce a little bit of hydrogen peroxide, which is a metabolic byproduct, and typically there's an enzyme called catalase that breaks this down to water and oxygen. But as we age, there's declining levels of catalase, and this allows the build-up of hydrogen peroxide in the hair bulb, which damages and destroys the melanocytes, or the pigment-producing cells, of our hair.
Flanagan: So I wanted you to take a look at my colleague Joe here. Joe is technically a millennial. He started to go gray when he was 16, and by 22, it was pretty much gray all over.
What happened to Joe? Chwalek: So when individuals gray early in life before the age of 20, it's called premature graying, and this is due to genes. And we know there's one gene, in particular, that's been targeted called interferon regulatory factor 4, which is important in regulating and producing melanin in the hair.
Joe was lucky enough to inherit some genes that predisposed him to developing gray hair early in life. Flanagan: Obviously, Joe has gray hair on his head. When you go gray on your head, does the hair on the other parts of your body go gray as well? No, no, Joe, Joe!
We can picture it. Chwalek: So you can grow gray hair anywhere on your body.
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