Epidemiological and investigative study of premature graying of hair in higher secondary and pre-university school children

Abstract

Background:Hair pigmentation is one of the most conspicuous phenotypes in humans ranging from black, brown, and blonde to red. Premature graying of hair occurs more commonly without any underlying pathology but is said to be inherited in autosomal dominant pattern. Premature graying has been shown to be associated with a few of the autoimmune disorders. A role for environmental factors and nutritional deficiencies has also been postulated. However, to date the exact etiology of premature graying has not been established.Aim:The objective of our study was to conduct an epidemiological and investigative study of premature graying of hair in higher secondary and pre-university school children of the semi-urban area.Materials and Methods:A total of 35 cases and controls were investigated for various parameter such as Hemoglobin, total iron binding capacity, serum ferritin (S. Ferritin), serum calcium (S. Ca), serum iron (S. Iron), vitamin B12, and vitamin D3 after taking informed consent. Epidemiological and investigations correlation was established using the Chi-square and Mann Whitney test and P < 0.05 values were considered significant.Result:Among the various laboratory parameters S. Ca, S. Ferritin and vitamin D3 were low in patients with premature graying of hair. There was significant high number of vitamin D3 deficient and insufficient among the cases compared to the controls.Conclusion:According to our study S. Ca, S. Ferritin, vitamin D3 may play a role in premature graying of hair in our society.

The melanocyte lineage in development and disease

“…Environmental factors, such as UV light ( Trueb, 2006 ), smoking ( Mosley and Gibbs, 1996 ) and oxidative stress ( Shi et al, 2014 ; Wood et al, 2009 ; Kamenisch and Berneburg, 2009 ) might also contribute to premature hair greying, possibly through an increase in intracellular reactive oxygen species. Nutritional deficiencies in trace elements ( Fatemi Naieni et al, 2012 ), including vitamin D3 ( Bhat et al, 2013 ), vitamin B12 (such as in pernicious anaemia) and copper (such as in Menkes disease) can also lead to hair greying. These conditions are thought to reflect deficiencies in the pigmentation pathway rather than loss of melanocytes, such that colour can be restored with nutritional supplementation ( Heath and Sidbury, 2006 ).…”

A Case of Premature Hair Graying Treated with Ferrous Sulfate

“…However, no difference was found in the zinc levels while the iron concentration was higher in the control group. Moreover, Bhat et al4 proposed that serum calcium, serum ferritin and vitamin D3 may play a role in premature graying of hair. The mean serum ferritin and serum calcium levels were significantly lower compared to control groups.…”

Familial aggregation of phenotypic expression of premature hair hypopigmentation in the craniofacial region

“…Determination of the color of hair is a complicated process. There are genes that dictate color, texture, distribution, and number of stem cells [1]. Gray hair, also known as canities, is a phenotypic manifes-tation of a process in while melano-cytes within hair follicles stop pro-ducing melanin.…”

“…However, with a fair number of individuals, the process of pigmentation of the hair shaft begins much sooner than the aver-age individual. Hair is said to gray prematurely when it occurs before the age of 20 in whites, 25 in Asians and 30 in Africans [1]. There have been many proposed causes of gray hair including stress, cigarette smoking, nutritional deficiencies, genetics, and a variety of syn-dromes.…”