Weather changes, relocation, swimming in chlorinated pools –– aging –– all these things can lead to deteriorating hair health. If you want the feeling that your hair feels like it did at 18, well that may never happen again but there are some dietary approaches for approaching hair health that will also better help your skin and nails.
There is plenty of research on the effects of peptides in one’s diet on hair and skin health. Research started in the 80s by and for men who wanted to counteract balding. While there is still no silver bullet for stopping an inherited bald gene from robbing you of your hair, there are some dietary supplements you can take that are known to increase a bit of volume and stop hair breakage.
Biotin is a common protein hair supplement women in salons talk about for improving the strength of your hair. Doctors like mine have suggested another regime that does not include biotin but one of three vitamins: one day a multi-vitamin, day 2 an iron supplement, day 3, a folic acid. This regime means I get the costs of the expensive supplements covered by my healthcare insurance.
Biohacking and taking vitamins and proteins has become a part of our life and there is no golden bullet solution if you don’t take care of the basics first: eating wholesome, healthy and organic food, having satisfying relationships to people and your work, and getting enough sleep and time in nature.
So what exactly are peptides anyway?
Peptides are chains of amino acids found in proteins like meat, milk, cheese, eggs and fish and they are the building blocks of what we call proteins which are already found as part of the skins, bones and muscles in your body. “Get your proteins” is a worry for moms and grandmothers because they know that they are essential for keeping you strong and full or energy unlike carbs which are basically sugars that wear off quickly.
Peptides as you can imagine help in promoting hair growth. The first step is that they move blood from your body around to the follicles of your hair giving them nutrients and oxygen to grow hair healthily. Peptides can also prompt the body to produce more collagen and elastin, which help keep the hair’s structure strong.
Can stress affect the peptides that cause graying hair?
Urban legends say stress is the reason why your hair turns gray. In the first evidence of “natural re-pigmentation,” scientists at Columbia University have built a computer model of how hair graying happens with age but alsp in response to stressful events. They have identified 323 proteins that tell us whether a hair was gray, white, or colored at any point in its history and from this information they snipped colored and gray hairs from 14 participants who listed and rated the stressfulness of their life over the past year.
So does stress cause you to gray faster? The researchers say yes. And that they believe they have found the first step to re-coloring gray hair: “The new method for measuring small changes in hair coloring opens up the possibility of using hair pigmentation patterns like tree rings. This could track the influence of past life events on human biology. In the future, monitoring hair pigmentation patterns could provide a way to trace the effectiveness of treatments aimed at reducing stress or slowing the aging process,” they write.
Disclaimer: please consult your medical doctor before using any new treatments or health supplements
