[HN Gopher] Study links 'stuck' stem cells to hair turning gray
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       Study links 'stuck' stem cells to hair turning gray
        
       Author : gmays
       Score  : 106 points
       Date   : 2023-04-20 13:50 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (phys.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (phys.org)
        
       | rvbissell wrote:
       | This 'stuck' notion tracks with my anecdata, as I once noticed
       | one of my own hairs switch back from gray to colored. ... Alas,
       | its comrades did not follow its lead.
        
         | MichaelZuo wrote:
         | Same. I've noticed a few times where a solid strand of my hair
         | suddenly turned into a curious grey/white colour, with perhaps
         | a bit of a reddish interval inbetween, then after some length
         | turns back into the original colour...
         | 
         | And once it didn't turn all the way, but it got stuck on a
         | curious reddish-yellow colour, then reverted.
        
       | hair wrote:
       | This article gives me an opportunity to share a story that I've
       | shared with my kids though I don't think they believe me.
       | 
       | When I was a teen I heard my dad say that my uncle (his older
       | brother) would make a habit of advice that he liked, and then
       | keep the habit forever. For example, a long time ago someone had
       | advised him to massage his scalp daily for healthy hair. He was
       | in his 70s at that point and had far less grey than my much
       | younger dad.
       | 
       | So, around that time I started to vigorously massage my scalp
       | every day while taking a shower. I spend about 15-20 seconds
       | doing so.
       | 
       | My uncle passed away in his mid eighties with far less grey than
       | is normal at that age.
       | 
       | I'm now approaching my mid fifties with only a handful of grey
       | and keep on getting "you don't look your age" comments.
       | 
       | It may be genes or it may be this practice.
        
         | VeninVidiaVicii wrote:
         | Hard to refute -- I use a pretty vigorous spin-brush-dryer on
         | my hair every day for ~5 minutes, which only does the top and
         | front. I just noticed recently that the sides have grown out
         | beyond a few mm, and they are much grayer than the top.
        
           | zeroclick wrote:
           | Doesn't everyone grey on the sides first?
        
         | jnsie wrote:
         | Uncle didn't have any tips for a receding hairline by any
         | chance?
        
           | tyre wrote:
           | Finasteride.
        
           | dennis_jeeves1 wrote:
           | Transplant hair from nose to head, perhaps?
        
             | jnsie wrote:
             | I don't want _that much_ hair, jeez :-)
        
           | moralestapia wrote:
           | Hit the gym? Lol.
        
             | copperx wrote:
             | To increase testosterone and speed up the onset of
             | baldness?
        
               | kevviiinn wrote:
               | I don't think working out increases testosterone
        
               | fsckboy wrote:
               | if we included testosterone supplements I think we'll
               | find a correlation
        
               | pengaru wrote:
               | > I don't think working out increases testosterone
               | 
               | You think wrongly, they're definitely linked:
               | 
               | "Exercise: Resistance training increases testosterone
               | levels acutely, however, in older men, that increase can
               | be avoided by protein ingestion. Endurance training in
               | men may lead to lower testosterone levels." [0]
               | 
               | [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testosterone#Regulation
        
         | agumonkey wrote:
         | maybe microvascular stimulation helps hair follicles lifecycle
        
         | LazyMans wrote:
         | There is a subreddit dedicated to hair loss and techniques. I
         | think one of the highly rated posts discusses use of weekly
         | dermarolling, massaging the scalp, in combination with the
         | regular things like finasteride, minoxidil, and ketoconazole
         | shampoo. Anyways, this isn't exactly science. I think one mode
         | of action to explore is increased blood flow helping with hair
         | growth.
         | 
         | We know massaging an area increases blood flow to that area, in
         | turn promoting better cellular metabolic processes.
         | Dermarolling seems to do this through inflicted
         | trauma/irritation to said area. I know one of the actions of
         | minoxidil is a vasodilator.
         | 
         | Checks out. Worst case you just have really clean hair and
         | developed a new daily mindfulness technique.
        
         | esotericsean wrote:
         | The What I've Learned YouTube channel recently did a video on
         | this! https://youtu.be/Yehk_h_Uj6k
        
         | HopenHeyHi wrote:
         | It works even better if you rub your belly at the same time.
         | Not a lot of people have that kind of coordination tho.
        
           | Freire_Herval wrote:
           | Science:
           | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4740347/
        
             | hair wrote:
             | Wow! Thank you
        
             | HopenHeyHi wrote:
             | Ahem. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19965058/
        
               | Freire_Herval wrote:
               | Doesn't help hair.
        
       | whitemary wrote:
       | [flagged]
        
         | proc0 wrote:
         | Name one other system that has produced even a fraction of the
         | progress.
        
         | hatsunearu wrote:
         | clearly many people care about grey hair, despite how frivolous
         | you think it is. do their opinions not matter?
        
         | kofejnik wrote:
         | You can always move to North Korea to avoid capitalist
         | healthcare
        
         | melling wrote:
         | Can you believe the budget for Fast and Furious 10 is $340
         | million?
         | 
         | Here comes the classic ..."Oh wait", ... someone is once again
         | complaining because we are spending money on "superficial"
         | healthcare (e.g. hair loss, grey hair, aging etc)
         | 
         | Spending money to better understand the human body is valuable.
         | Sure, I wish people would wake up and demand that we cure
         | cancer(s), Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, etc. In lieu of that, we
         | should be happy that money is funneled into "healthcare" to
         | solve any problems.
         | 
         | Btw, interest on the US debt will soon be over $1 trillion a
         | year.
        
           | feoren wrote:
           | > interest on the US debt will soon be over $1 trillion a
           | year
           | 
           | And that trillion dollars gets, what, flushed down the
           | toilet? No, it goes into the hands of bond-holders, who spend
           | it the same way they spend the rest of their money, including
           | on plucking hairs out of mice to study aging. (Obviously I
           | mostly agree with you here, just nitpicking the idea that
           | that trillion dollars is "wasted" somehow.)
        
             | melling wrote:
             | Well, we either have to raise taxes or keep increasing the
             | debt, paying even more interest. That doesn't sound like an
             | efficient use of capital.
        
         | foxyv wrote:
         | To be honest, I'm happy any money is going towards actual
         | healthcare research instead of lining the pockets of vultures.
        
         | outworlder wrote:
         | Studying the processes that are related to aging is important
         | even when they are just cosmetic.
        
           | meepmorp wrote:
           | In fact, the 'cosmetic' (or, better, 'easily visible') nature
           | of this process probably makes it easier to study in vivo.
        
         | Tagbert wrote:
         | Yes, why aren't they working on a new video game, instead!? /s
         | 
         | There are a lot of different medical issuers that affect people
         | in various way. some are more impactful than others, but it
         | makes no sense to put all resources on a single, most impactful
         | problem. Better to put some resources on a variety of problems.
         | Cancer research is still going to get a lot more resources than
         | this.
        
         | LinuxBender wrote:
         | I think this is an appropriate use of resources. Fixing
         | motility of stem cells in this case may reverse grey hair but
         | improving the motility of other stem cells may have other
         | health, immune and age related benefits. It is entirely
         | possible this is just the tip of the iceberg so to speak. I
         | just wish we could find non-RX methods to do these things.
        
       | throw1234651234 wrote:
       | Did any of the hyped anti-aging things pan out / show
       | reproducible effect? Specifically the telomere research, blood
       | transfusions, and extensive fasting?
       | 
       | Was low-calorie diet -> lower mortality ever proven when
       | accounting for likely resulting lower muscle mass/fitness?
        
         | tashoecraft wrote:
         | Typically in mice. Testing in humans takes a very long time and
         | has ethical concerns so if you wait until it gets "proven" to
         | trust anything you'll be long dead already.
        
         | xwdv wrote:
         | low calorie stuff is very difficult to get right. You are more
         | likely to mess up and actually reduce your lifespan while also
         | living worse quality of life (weaker, low energy, low
         | endurance). No way around it, the body needs fuel to build
         | cells and produce energy.
         | 
         | Eating normal and exercising regularly to maintain muscle mass
         | will reduce chances of all cause mortality and delay morbidity
         | for as long as possible, however you must also maintain
         | creatine supplementation well into old age to support the
         | muscles and brain. The effects of creatine on the brain are
         | often understated but they are significant.
        
           | pengaru wrote:
           | > Eating normal
           | 
           | Considering "normal" these days is metabolic syndrome, this
           | doesn't even pass the smell test.
        
             | xwdv wrote:
             | Depends on what country you're from.
        
       | aranchelk wrote:
       | "Ito says the team has plans to investigate means of restoring
       | motility of McSCs or of physically moving them back to their germ
       | compartment, where they can produce pigment."
       | 
       | Sharpen your machetes, tape up your baseball bat handles, time
       | for the zombies.
        
         | meepmorp wrote:
         | Yes, but their hair will fantastically luxurious.
        
       | novia wrote:
       | > In the latest experiments in mice whose hair was physically
       | aged by plucking and forced regrowth
       | 
       | ...
       | 
       | edit:
       | 
       | The researchers in this case decided to pluck hairs from young
       | mice repeatedly until it started growing in grey instead of just
       | looking at grey hairs on older lab mice.
       | 
       | I think with animal research there needs to be a careful balance
       | struck between the amount of pain/harm caused to the animal and
       | the potential good that can come from the research. Like, in
       | animal studies that are done to try to prevent future cancer
       | deaths, purposefully inducing cancer in lab rats is defensible.
       | 
       | In this case, without looking at the research paper to get more
       | details, it sounds like they basically tortured live lab mice
       | without a defensible reason, due to the fact that alternative
       | methods were available.
       | 
       | Their methodology also makes the results less useful for the
       | thing they were trying to research. Instead of knowing that stem
       | cells exist but get stuck in older mammals who go grey, we
       | instead know that if you repeatedly pluck out your own hair while
       | you're young and then you go grey where you plucked out your
       | hair, it's likely due to stem cells getting stuck.
        
         | feoren wrote:
         | Say what you mean. "..." is not a useful comment.
        
           | slater wrote:
           | I'm guessing it's the old "in mice" thing that needs to be
           | added to the title, which has become somewhat of a trope here
           | ;)
        
             | [deleted]
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | agumonkey wrote:
       | Anybody knows a link between stem cell maturation and emotional
       | shock ? a good 10% of my hair became white after some event. I'm
       | very surprised about the overnight change and the fact that
       | they're not replaced.
        
         | gorkish wrote:
         | Once there was this kid who got into an accident and couldn't
         | come to school, but when he finally came back his hair had
         | turned from black into bright white. He said that it was from
         | when the cars had smashed so hard.
        
           | agumonkey wrote:
           | hmm hmm hmm
           | 
           | ps: timeless intro
        
         | coldtea wrote:
         | Yes, it has been studied too, e.g.:
         | 
         | https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/how-str...
        
           | agumonkey wrote:
           | thanks a lot
        
       | el_don_almighty wrote:
       | Once there was this kid who
       | 
       | Got into an accident and couldn't come to school
       | 
       | But when he finally came back
       | 
       | His hair had turned from black into bright white
       | 
       | He said that it was from when
       | 
       | The cars had smashed so hard
        
       | FollowingTheDao wrote:
       | Might want to look into zinc for these stuck stem cells:
       | 
       | Zinc Promotes Adipose-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cell Proliferation
       | and Differentiation towards a Neuronal Fate
       | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5932442/
       | 
       | Quercetin/Zinc complex and stem cells: A new drug therapy to
       | ameliorate glycometabolic control and pulmonary dysfunction in
       | diabetes mellitus: Structural characterization and genetic
       | studies
       | https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...
        
       | Khelavaster wrote:
       | This is according to Alan Turing's 1952 thesis, The Chemical
       | Basis of Morphogensis: https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/chemical-
       | basis-morphogenesis-19...
        
       | kordlessagain wrote:
       | When I was a kid our poodle got heartworms. They shaved the side
       | of her and applied some type of salve there in addition to shots
       | and/or pills. That spot on her stayed pretty much jet black while
       | the rest of her turned grey until she died at 18.
        
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       (page generated 2023-04-20 23:03 UTC)