In addition to hair loss, another hair problem has become a major concern for young people.

Happy New Year, everyone. Did you find your parents' hair turned gray when you went home for the Spring Festival? Last year, Academician Chen Wei developed a vaccine, and her hair turned from black to white in half a year. Do you have any impression?

Let’s start the new year from the beginning and talk about gray hair today.

In addition to hair loss, another hair problem that troubles the general public is gray hair.

In fact, human hair is originally white. The reason why it appears black is that melanocytes produce melanin, which turns the hair black. The synthesis of melanin requires tyrosine, and the synthesis of tyrosine requires tyrosinase. The activity of human enzymes gradually decreases with age, which is why people's hair turns white when they get old.

Have you noticed that the number of white hairs increases significantly around the age of 40? The growth of hair depends on the nourishment of hair follicles, and the number of hair follicles in a person is limited. They will not increase after birth, but only decrease. The growth cycle of a hair from growing to falling out is about 3.5 years. When white hair starts to grow around the age of 40, the hair has probably cycled 10 times. After that, the production of melanin will usually decrease to a certain extent in each round of new hair growth. This causes the color of the hair to become thinner, or even completely white.

In modern society, people often work 996 or 007, so many people have white hair at a young age. Why is this happening? Isn't it said that only old people will have white hair?

In fact, the formation of melanin depends on the melanocytes at the bottom of the hair follicles. The pigment in the hair is produced by the melanocytes of the hair follicle pigment unit (HFPU) continuously providing melanosomes to the growing hair cells of the hair shaft. If there are no melanocytes, or if the melanocytes cannot synthesize melanin normally, the newly grown hair will be white. Most people will experience a lot of hair shaft (HS) depigmentation and gradual whitening from the age of 30, which is considered a characteristic of aging.

However, studies have found that under stressful conditions such as sadness, anxiety, tension, and pressure, differentiated melanocytes can synthesize melanin normally, but the melanocyte stem cells that can differentiate into melanocytes, which is the melanocyte reserve, will rapidly decrease.

It is like a factory production line where workers who are about to take over their shifts are late, causing the workers who have been working for a long time to become exhausted, their work efficiency gradually decreases, or even go on strike, causing the production line to stop completely. When the human body lacks newly differentiated melanocytes, the newly grown hair will be "inkless".

There is a poem that says, "White hair is three thousand feet long, because of sorrow." This does not mean that the white hair is really three thousand feet long, but it is an exaggeration to say that sorrow causes white hair. It is because of sorrow that the white hair grows so long. It can be seen that the ancients have already discovered that emotional problems such as sorrow, anxiety, tension, and stress can cause white hair. Many studies have found that long-term stress may increase mental and physical health risks at the same time, such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, cardiovascular disease, immune disease, Alzheimer's disease, etc., as well as some cancers, and even lead to suicidal behavior.

It is actually very simple to solve the problem of gray hair. Just keep a happy mood and stay away from the source of negative emotions. However, it is easier said than done. We can't just go on strike to stay away from work pressure. In order to survive, we have to bear the pressure. Many people have always believed that the impact of mental stress is reversible. The bad news is that according to scholars' research, some damage caused by stress to the human body may not be naturally reversed. In other words, stress makes people's hair gray, and it is difficult to turn it black again.

If you can't stay away from stress, why not try to support our stressed bodies through diet and exercise? As the saying goes, "inner conditioning and outer nourishment" are important in diet. Black beans, black sesame seeds, and walnuts are very effective. Take proper care of your hair every day, avoid damage from smoke and light, provide adequate nutrition, and properly deal with dandruff and hair loss. In the new year, let's start healthy from the beginning.

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