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The Many Shades of Gray
A Bite-Size Read for Your Health and Waistline
The global anti-aging market was almost $50 Billion US dollars in 2023 and is expected to grow to almost $80 Billion in the next ten years. As a health coach and podcast host, I hear from clients and listeners with a host of questions related to aging. One that’s quite common is about gray hair…the quintessential sign of age. Is it inevitable? Preventable? Reversible? Keep reading to find out.
Let’s start with causes. Your hair follicles have stem cells called melanocytes that produce melanin, which creates your hair color. There are two types of melanin: eumelanin and pheomelanin. Eumelanin creates brown and black shades, while pheomelanin creates red and brown tones. The ratio of these two determines your hair color. Although, for redheads, there’s a mutation in the MC1R receptor that creates red hair. With that information, we can go back to gray hair. Stem cells naturally turn over and make melanin for a set amount of time. As we age, the cells turn over and eventually stop producing melanin so the new hair strands that grow are lighter; this is how we see various shades of grey, silver, or even white hair. When it comes to how quickly the cells turn over and how long they’ll produce melanin, it depends on a few factors. Sure, genetics is the primary factor. (Maybe talk to your parents and grandparents about when they started…
