“A Japanese researcher found that each hair color is asso- ciated with a certain pattern of several trace minerals. When he removed all the trace minerals, every type of hair became white. When he added a characteristic pattern of trace miner- als, associated with a particular hair color, to a sample of de- mineralized hair, the color which was produced corresponded to the minerals added, and not to what the original color of the hair had been. He concluded that people inherit a tendency to concentrate certain minerals in their hair.
People who studied the effects of steroids on aging skin found that the steroids which reversed structural age changes in the skin (progesterone, testosterone, pregnenolone) some- times restored hair growth. Occasionally, the hair that grew was pigmented. Estrogen and cortisone accelerated the struc- tural changes of aging in the skin, but their effects on hair were not mentioned. Vitamin A has anti-estrogen effects in skin and other tissues, and part of this effect might result from its ability to promote synthesis of pregnenolone and progesterone.
Physicians have mentioned that a depigmented spot some- times appears in the skin over an area where they have in- jected cortisone. The familiar association of severe stress with sudden greying o f the hair also would suggest that exces- sive cortisone destroys melanin. The average stress caused by a particular climate would probably combine with any other factors that are involved in regions where there is more or less white hair than average.
1 think oxygen wastage is a central event in aging. Just as a cut potato requires oxygen to make melanin, so do our tis- sues. Iron tends to keep accumulating in our tissues with ag-
ing, and iron appears to be a factor in wasting oxygen (especially in age pigment).”
-Ray Peat
Author
Cari aka "Rinse & rePeat"