壓力真的能讓你的頭發(fā)變白嗎

If someone asked you to list all the different health-related rumors you've ever heard, it would probably be a long list. And somewhere on that list is probably the rumor that stress can turn a person's hair gray well before their time.

如果有人讓你列出所有你聽過的與健康有關(guān)的傳言，可能會有一長串。在這個列表上的某個地方可能有這樣的傳言:壓力會讓一個人的頭發(fā)提前變白。

When you take a look at all the horrible things stress does to the human body, it's easy to see where the idea comes from. The American Psychological Association makes it clear that stress doesn't just put you in a bad mood. It can affect every system of your body, from the musculoskeletal to the nervous and reproductive systems.

當(dāng)你看看壓力對人體造成的所有可怕的事情，就很容易明白這個想法的來源。美國心理學(xué)協(xié)會明確指出，壓力不僅僅讓你心情不好。它可以影響你身體的每一個系統(tǒng)，從肌肉骨骼到神經(jīng)和生殖系統(tǒng)。

Chronic stress can lead to muscle tension because it puts the body on high alert. It can also cause shortness of breath. Moreover, stress dilates blood vessels, which increases blood pressure, and the effects don't stop there.

長期的壓力會導(dǎo)致肌肉緊張，因為它會使身體處于高度警覺狀態(tài)。它也會導(dǎo)致呼吸短促。此外，壓力會擴(kuò)張血管，導(dǎo)致血壓升高，而且影響還不止于此。

But can stress really turn your hair gray? A group of researchers at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center got together and put the theory to the test.

但是壓力真的能讓你的頭發(fā)變白嗎?哥倫比亞大學(xué)歐文醫(yī)學(xué)中心(Columbia University Irving Medical Center)的一組研究人員聚集在一起 ，對這一理論進(jìn)行了驗證。

Some rumors are true

有些傳言是真的

The researchers selected hairs from 14 volunteers and studied not only their color over time but also the levels of proteins in the hair, as well as the stress levels of the volunteers. Per Science Daily, the study found that stress did actually contribute to loss of hair pigmentation, but that's not all.

研究人員從14名志愿者身上挑選了頭發(fā)，不僅研究了頭發(fā)隨時間變化的顏色，還研究了頭發(fā)中的蛋白質(zhì)水平，以及志愿者的壓力水平。據(jù)《科學(xué)日報》報道，這項研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，壓力確實會導(dǎo)致頭發(fā)色素沉著的減少，但這還不是全部。

Researchers found that color changes were tied to mitochondrial activity. Mitochondria receive and process signals, such as stress. In this study, it turned out that people who reduced their stress level — most notably one volunteer who went on vacation — actually renewed the pigmentation level in their hair.

研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，顏色變化與線粒體活性有關(guān)。線粒體接收和處理信號，如壓力。在這項研究中，結(jié)果表明，那些減輕了壓力水平的人——最明顯的是一位去度假的志愿者——實際上恢復(fù)了頭發(fā)的色素沉著水平。

Though this finding is exciting, researchers cautioned readers that graying could not always be reversed. People had to be at a certain time threshold, meaning that they had to be fairly young and the graying fairly recent. Hair that had been gray for decades, for example, is unlikely to regain its former pigment levels. That said, there is no telling what this breakthrough may mean for future research.

盡管這一發(fā)現(xiàn)令人興奮，但研究人員提醒讀者，頭發(fā)變灰并不總是可以逆轉(zhuǎn)的。人們必須處于某個特定的時間臨界點，這意味著他們必須相當(dāng)年輕，頭發(fā)也必須是最近才變白的。例如，幾十年來一直是灰色的頭發(fā)不太可能恢復(fù)到以前的色素水平。也就是說，這一突破對未來的研究可能意味著什么還不得而知。