What is it that makes our hair turn several shades of grey as we get older? I鈥檓 sure many of us recall the first streaks of grey, realizing we were older whether we liked it or not.
It鈥檚 a time when we start to wonder: 鈥淚s it age that鈥檚 causing the grey? Or have I been doing something wrong?鈥�
Maybe too much stress or excessive work? Or is the result, according to one 19th-century dermatologist, due to overindulgence in sexual appetite?
聽We鈥檝e all heard stories about people going grey overnight due to overwhelming anxiety. For instance, there are historical reports that this happened to Marie Antoinette the night before she was beheaded by angry mobs in France.
The same has been said about Thomas More before he, too, was executed on the orders of King Henry VIII.
There is no hard proof this happened.
Nor will there ever be.
After all, I鈥檓 sure no one will be persuaded to participate in a scientific double-blind study of this problem.
Nevertheless, a report in the University of California Wellness Letter says that stress can hasten the appearance of grey hair.
I must admit that the question of why hair turns grey has never been one of my major medical concerns compared with many other serious medical topics.
To my knowledge, grey hair has never killed anyone, so why bother about it?
But since many people become concerned about greying, it would be good to know what triggers the change.
Studies do show that what keeps hair black or dark are cells in the hair follicle called melanocytes.
These cells produce a pigment called melanin and as we age, less and less melanin is produced. It鈥檚 not the original hair that turns grey. Rather, it鈥檚 the new hair that grows in with less melanin.
But why is it that some people become grey early in life and others later on?
Two reasons are gender and race. For instance, in 2012, the British Journal of Dermatology published a survey of 4,000 middle-aged people from around the world.
Seventy-four per cent of those age 45 to 65 had grey hair, but men were more affected than women.
And people of Asian and African descent had less grey hair at any age than Caucasians.
Since I always try to find reasons why people should not smoke, here is another one.
In 2013, a report in the Indian Dermatology Online Journal stated that smokers were two and a half times more likely to be grey before the age of 30 than non-smokers.聽 聽
The Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology reported the same findings.
The cause was believed to be the formation of free radicals produced by smoking.
Free radicals are the by-products left over during metabolism and are believed to be associated with the aging process.
As you might suspect, there have been some studies that associate grey hair with a number of illnesses.
But there is no concrete proof that HIV infection, Hodgkin鈥檚 Disease or severe iron deficiency increase the risk of premature greying.聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 聽
So what will happen to Hillary Clinton鈥檚 hair if she becomes the first female president of the United States? If this were a Trivial Pursuit question, you would think it was merely a matter of time before her hair started to whiten.
Have we ever seen a U.S president who hasn鈥檛 gone noticeably grey while in the White House?
Just look at the shades of grey in U.S. President Barack Obama鈥檚 hair after eight years in the White House.
This is one Trivial Pursuit question we will never get to answer, however.
As Clinton recently remarked on the campaign trail: 鈥淵ou will never see my hair turn white in the White House because I鈥檝e been colouring it for years.鈥�
