Gray hair is a sign of a long and healthy life
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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The color of hair provides an opportunity to look into the future and learn all about your own health, scientists say. And wild wild boars helped them in carrying out this unusual study. It was found that gray hair is a sign of a long and healthy life. However, there is not very good news for the redheads. People with red hair have more damage to the cells than others. Spanish scientists argue, the reason is that too many antioxidants are spent on the production of red pigment, which instead of cleaning the cells, they work to maintain it.
Considering that all higher vertebrates, including humans, have the same types of skin melanin, hair and feathers, these results increase scanty modern knowledge of the physiological consequences of pigmentation. Researchers examined two types of melanin, a pigment that gives hair and skin its color. Eumelanin is brown and black pigments, and pheomelanin is bright red and shades of chestnut color. Unlike eumelanin, pheomelanin requires a chemical called glutathione, which adds color.
Glutathione is an antioxidant, that is, it can stop the chemical oxidation reaction. Oxidation reactions cause free radicals, which, in turn, damage the cells. The purpose of the study was to find out whether red hair really "eat" this antioxidant, and the body becomes vulnerable to free radicals. So it turned out. With regard to gray hair, then because of the lack of melanin in them, the body does not have to suffer from free radicals, since antioxidants, not engaged in anything, successfully cope with their task.
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