Gray Hair and Autoimmune Disease

 

There's no shortage of commercials and ads geared towards restoring silver locks back to their natural color. The amount of time, money and effort dedicated to keeping hair any color other than gray is disappointing to me personally- yet also laughable, since we all naturally have white hair. Just as we have melanin in our skin, it's the Melanocytes in our hair follicles that give us actual pigment. 

Nonetheless, I've long wondered if chronic illness or autoimmune diseases had any connection to graying hair considering that autoimmune diseases usually cause long periods of persistent pain, i.e. stress. According to the NIH, the answer is a resounding yes. Autoimmune diseases such as Sjogrens means your white blood cells are attacking themselves daily as they cannot differentiate between healthy and unhealthy. 

When our bodies become infected, our immune system releases interferons. Interferons activate other cells and influence gene activity. This means the MITF protein, which is responsible for regulating cellular activity, is not working as it should--and without properly controlled MITF-- hair turns gray. Wow!!

Of course genetics does play a role as to why some gray earlier or later than others, bit this new research confirms the connection between autoimmune disease and the loss of melanin in the hair follicle. While the study doesn't definatively point to specific diseases, researchers can confirm that thyroid conditions, as well as alopecia are two conditions that have a significant impact on hair color or lack thereof.

So, the obvious question is what can you do?? Like most, you can simply prepare to spend a hefty amount of money dying and touching up your roots if wish. Option two is my personal preference, and that to lean in and embrace it. I absolutely love gray hair. It's debonair and has a certain depth to it. Thankfully the narrative surrounding going gray...especially for women is quickly changing--for the better. One scroll on the gram and there are stunning images of silver sisters embracing their gray with pride( as they should). Speaking from personal experience, I can attest to more gray hairs after each really bad flare. 

While I'm not rushing the process, I have no intentions of running away from it either. Each streak has been earned and I intend to embrace every one of them. Til next time. ~Red

#grayhair #health #silversisters