Hair Color Genetics

Hair turning gray is just a protein problem

The Nurse Is In

By Chris Hammerlund

Dear Chris, I am 40 and all the other men in my family were totally gray-haired by the time they turned 45. So, I’m prepared for hair color if I have to, but people say it would help if I control my job stress because everybody knows that stress can cause hair to turn gray. Rod in Vernon Hills.

Dear Rod, here’s a new fact. Actually it’s an old fact, but medical science didn’t know it until this year; so it’s new among facts we didn’t know before.

It turns out that stress isn’t so good for you, although you knew that. But it isn’t stress that causes hair to go gray. It’s a protein that lets one kind of stem cell signal another kind of stem cell along a precise pathway. Follicle stem cells produce hair, and a color-supplying stem cell, or melanocyte, makes the pigment.

So researchers at New York University’s Langone Medical Center in New York, say that when the pathway is activated by the protein, the melanocytes produce pigments that color hair. When they are turned off because the protein doesn’t work, the melanocytes don’t produce color, and that makes your hair gray.

It’s just the mechanics of stem cells. Maybe the research will help stop gray some day, or maybe not.

People gray because of gender, genetics, and ethnicity, according to Tufts Medical Center in Boston. White men tend to go gray beginning in their mid-30s; Asian men in their late-30s, and African men in their mid-40s. Women typically start to gray five years later than men.

Stress probably contributes somehow, but there's not yet any science to show it.

As to whether hair can turn gray overnight because of stress or fright or some other weird event, the answer is likely no. Something like that happened in the 1970s, but it was a man who had salt-and pepper hair and lost all of his black hair overnight because of a skin condition. That left him with all gray. It also happened once in a “Twilight Zone” episode, but that doesn’t count.

But some other conditions, such as vitamin B-12 or niacin (B-3) deficiency and thyroid problems, can do it, too. Oddly, people who undergo radiation treatment to their heads may have the reverse effect. Radiation to the scalp may stimulate pigment-producing cells into action once again, and gray hair might grow back in its regular color.

Who am I, and why would a person listen to me? Both fair questions. I’m Christine Hammerlund and I’ve been a nurse for years. I have delivered babies, saved lives, and cared for hundreds of patients through their medical triumphs and tragedies. Now I run Assured Healthcare at http://www.assuredhealthcare.com . We're a multi-million dollar medical staff provider in Illinois. I live in Antioch, Ill. Got health questions for me, whether large or small? I’ll answer. Chrishammerlund@yahoo.

Is the gene a substance found in the body? Or is it a kind of soul-like ...

The gene is a part of your DNA. It is definetely a real substance. Your DNA is made up of four different proteins arranged in a long sequence, and is found in the nucleus of every cell. A certain section of that DNA determines, for example, your hair color. That section is a gene, specifically the gene for hair color.

Half of your genes come from your mother and half from your father. They are passed on in the two sex cells that combine to create the new baby. As these cells reproduce into new cells, the DNA is also copied, so each cell contains the same DNA. When you have a baby, half of your genes will be passed on also.

Genes are actual substances in the body that can be analyzed and separated and studied. DNA evidence is based on the discovery of our ability to do this. Traits are passed down through generations by the gazillion combinations possible within the genes themselves. That’s why a member of the same family, could still be so very different from their immediate family, as the gene pool for that person could be based more in the collective past of the family rather than the immediate present of the same family. Genes have the ability to combine and recombine into many, various patterns. Dominant traits will hold sway over weaker ones. Like say, a family with musical ability, like the Osmonds or the Jackson family – the musical ability is presenting as a dominant trait, as nearly all members of these same families are musically gifted. As far as the genes of offspring from the genes of the parents, not enough is known as to why certain characteristics will combine over others. Man is still discovering the wealth of knowledge contained in the science of studying genes. There is a new branch to all of this called epigenetics. Scientists are discovering that even what our great grandparents ate or experienced, such as famines, can influence the gene pools of those several generations down the line. Fat-storing genes are suspected as having their origin from past generations who had little to eat, so their bodies had to adapt to this starvation environment which caused slower metabolisms to help those people survive the stark conditions of their existence. The genes passed down to those of us today, are still functioning in starvation mode, where we may no longer need this adaptation device, so the great majority of us are putting on weight in excess of what is actually required by us. There are ways being discovered every day, as to how to override certain gene influences and designations. You can change your genes to a certain extent. But we’ve got a very long way to go before we figure out the bigger picture. Evolution is a vast and intricate subject to contemplate! Fascinating stuff!

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