Hair Loss Stories That Aren't True

Many people believe that hair loss or going gray is caused by stress. Is it true?

New York (I-Newswire) August 24, 2012 - By all historical accounts hair has been credited with being a woman’s beauty and allure and a man’s symbol of strength and virility. Lets be honest, we’re not all Rapunzel’s and Samson’s, but hair mythology continues to file into our everyday lives. One such belief is the notion that extreme amounts of stress can make you go gray or cause your hair to fall out, but is that really possible?

Sometimes personal, financial, or work dramas can make you feel like you want to tear your hair out, but the likelihood that these stressors directly cause gray hair is slim to nil. The journal Cell released a 2009 study that found that unavoidable damage to the DNA in cells that produce pigments for hair is the most reliable cause for hair that turns white. The jury is still out on whether or not stressors accelerate the aging process on a cellular level and cause you to go gray prematurely.

If there’s still no clear answer on stress accelerating the aging process of pigment cells does that mean that stress could possibly lead to hair loss? Are the two issues related? Many dermatologists believe that the type of stress that affects cellular aging is a huge factor. Stressors like having to work late or carry a large workload will not make you lose your hair. So short term, everyday stress isn’t going to affect your body, but a larger extremely serious situation that can cause you to lose sleep or changes your appetite enough to raise the levels of your stress hormones could lead to changes in the growth of your hair cells. Unfortunately, there is still no completely conclusive evidence that leads scientists to believe that stress causes hair to turn gray or to fall out. For more information about hair loss check out NuHart