ASRM: Babies and gray hair
More from the fringes of reproductive medicine. (I know I haven’t delivered yet on the weird things that doctors do with embryos, but that will come I’m sure.)
Women who are born as heavy babies are more likely to go gray early (in their 20s). Author Lubna Pal of Albert Einstein College of Medicine said she is a bit embarrassed to even present the study. She originally wondered if women who hit the menopause early also tend to show other signs of aging, such as gray hair, and whether this premature aging was somehow established in the womb.
But what actually fell out of her analysis was the larger baby, grayer hair connection. One rather unsubstantiated idea behind this link is that heavier babies have higher insulin levels -- and that over the years this causes more oxidative damage to many cells including those that manufacture our hair dye. (There are previous links between early graying, heart disease and bone health.)
If gray hair is really an indicator of past and future health, it might help explain our obsession with covering it up.
Comments
Very interesting about the gray hair and heavy baby connection. My adopted daughter was 10 lbs 4 oz at birth. She started turning gray in her 20's or maybe before.
What is considered heavy in a newborn?
Posted by: Muriel Fahrion | July 8, 2007 06:16 PM