
How the stress of fight or flight turns hair white - whack
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03949-8
======
mtm7
There are a few comments about how to decrease stress. From personal
experience, asking "How can I be less stressed?" is like asking "How can I be
happy?" There's not really a great answer... but you can look at the things
that would make you _unhappy_ and avoid them. So here's "How can I become MORE
stressed?"

1\. Buy as much nice stuff as you can – it's okay if you go into debt because
it'll persuade you to work harder!

2\. Since you're so busy, accept that you don't have time to exercise. You can
get around to it in the future (once you're rich!)

3\. Stay up as late as you can. After all, you can sleep when you're dead.
Caffeine is your friend.

4\. Be too lazy to make todo lists or mark anything on your calendar.

5\. At least once per week, compare yourself to everyone else. It's the only
way to judge how you're doing.

6\. Do everything yourself. You don't need to hire that tax accountant. You
don't need to ask for help.

7\. Sell your time to [Company Name Here]. Yeah, they're hard to work for, but
they might make you rich.

~~~
loughnane
This reminds me of a CGP Grey Video “How to maximize misery”

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LO1mTELoj6o](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LO1mTELoj6o)

------
baby
I’ve heard that stress can cause a lot of issues in one’s body. Grey hair,
diabetes, even cancer?

What should I do? Should I drop everything to live a stress-free life in
Thailand? Should I do meditation everyday? What are the ways for someone to
live a stress-free life :)?

~~~
simonsarris
> Should I drop everything to live a stress-free life in Thailand?

That sounds like it would be a really stressful thing to do...

You probably have a number of good ways to reflect on your priorities, but its
very difficult for someone else to tell you how to reflect on those. Most
people can only speak to what worked for them, which depends on where they
were before, etc.

IMO to start:

Wake up way earlier than you have to. (This changed me into a morning person.)
When you have 1-2 hours where you can just sit there calmly, drinking coffee,
and not be rushed, you feel ten times better. Many mornings me and my wife
wake up and just sit by the fire (that we restart to heat our home) and make
coffee. Sometimes she will write, or we will both read, or talk, etc, but
often we just sit together for a while and relax. Later on, you can work on
being ~productive~ in the a.m. too if you please.

Invite ritual into your life. Spend a time making your home a place you would
want to be. A house is a place for having coffee, having conversation, having
memories and symbols that give you feeling or inspiration (pictures, objects),
how much of their designs do that? How much yours?

~~~
QuercusMax
How early do you go to bed? If I woke up 1.5 hours before I need to (6:50 AM,
to get kids ready for school), that would mean I'd be getting up at 5:20. Do
you seriously start heading to bed at 8:30pm? That doesn't seem realistic to
me at all.

~~~
simonsarris
Last year for a while I was doing that (going to bed 8:30 to 9). My house is
mostly heated by wood stove so last year I started waking up early to restart
the fire and it just stuck.

This year I'm getting up a little later (maybe average 6:30, to be out the
door by 8:30), mostly because I am writing more at night this winter, and its
not as cold. I think in the summer I'll switch to writing in the morning more
and go back to waking up 5:30-6.

Years ago, I would go to bed at 12-2am. I always used to say most of my best
work was done between 10pm-2am. I much prefer it this new way, though past me
would have a hard time believing it!

~~~
QuercusMax
How much of this is just the natural consequences of aging? Humans' sleep
patterns do tend to shift as you age - teens and 20s naturally want to go to
bed and get up later, and elderly folks go to bed early and wake up early.
What you're experiencing might just be due to your naturally changing
circadian rhythms.

~~~
simonsarris
That's possible, but it seems unlikely, as it was a conscious decision made in
one day when I moved/necessitated by heating. If it was aging, I would expect
it to at least be gradual, or unconscious, or something.

~~~
Darkphibre
I'll second this finding. I'm not getting younger, sure... but I can still go
to a party convention and average 3hrs sleep a night for 5 days, or "decide"
to play Beat Saber until 2AM.

The reality is that if it's important, you'll make time to go to bed earlier.
It takes a while for the body to hit restful sleep so early (and using
blackout curtains / dawn clocks have been pivotal). For me it was wanting to
start working out in a particular morning class... I immediately shifted from
midnight to 9:30-10 to give myself the extra time in the morning.

------
gnulinux
I'm constantly stressed. Therapy and weightlifting help but don't solve it. I
always find something to be stressed about. For years, I was stressed in
school, then graduated and started being stressed about being lonely. For the
last year, I always thought about how lonely I am, so my therapist suggested
me to get a pet. I got a cat. Now I don't feel lonely, but every time I'm not
home, I just worry that something bad will happen to the cat. I always worry
that he is sick, or jumped somewhere and injured himself. Or that there is a
fire in my house and my cat is grilling.

~~~
taurath
Sounds like you have an anxiety disorder to me. Stress is situational. Anxiety
is stress when it’s not appropriate.

~~~
TheFiend7
I experience a lot of what OP describes but obviously am not OP. It's tough
though, who wants to take the anti-anxiety medication that we don't really
understand every day for the rest of their life? Just for you to eventually
not need it? Why would I all of a sudden not need it? Doesn't even make sense.

My doctor always tries to get me to take it but it just seems like a bandaid.
Granted, I don't claim to be able to fix it myself either, but the last thing
I want to do is mess with my brain chemistry more, especially since I'm
starkly aware of the arrogance of humanity (i.e. nobody really knows what is
actually going on).

EDIT: I feel like baby(user comment below) might be on to something. I
constantly am in fear of something bad happening and stress about that far
more than I stress about things that have already happened. But I do
experience both.

~~~
losteric
imo, some people are clearly in situations where continuous medication is
worth the trade-offs...

For milder cases, medication can disrupt negative feedback mechanisms. eg
Adderall didn't cure my ADHD but a few months at a high dose gave me momentum
to build organizational habits and understand what "normal" meant. Now I just
take the occasional low dose in response when life gets hectic to stay on top
of what matters.

------
geuis
Interesting article.

In my dad's side of the family, we seem to have an interesting inherited
trait. We don't really have any balding, but the men (including me) go grey
very early in life. I'm turning 40 in a couple of days but my beard has turned
almost completely grey by now and I have a lot of grey in my hair. My eyebrows
are holding on though.

My dad and his brothers were all mostly grey by the end of their 30's as well.

Interestingly, when my dad got cancer in his mid 50's and started undergoing
radiation treatment, the hair on his chin started growing back brown. By the
time he passed away about 2 years after, that part of his beard was his
original hair color from when he was young.

One hypothesis is that perhaps due to the damage being done from the radiation
to healthy tissue encouraged stem cells to migrate back to that area and had
the effect of regenerating the melanocytes in the follicles in the area.

~~~
nicholasjon
Same. I come from a long line of prematurely gray haired folks. I'm 42 and my
hair and beard are almost entirely white. I definitely have a problem with
stress, though given the number of family members (distant and otherwise) that
have the same coloring I suspect there's more to it than just that.

------
mickdarling
It is not direct heavy constant stress that causes the damage to the stem
cell, but the heightened reaction in Fight or Flight scenarios. This was all
in the study. Being under constant stress, which is measured via cortisol did
NOT cause the stem cell damage.

I look young for my age, at 44 I look far younger than my silver haired 43
year old brother. People say I am "chill" and "zen" but I bathe in stressful
situations as an entrepreneur and independent consultant all day, everyday. I
just don't get excited in high stress moments. I'm the guy in center of the
storm when everyone is freaking out. It is certainly both part of my nature
and learned, as I have worked on improving that over the years.

You can learn to not freak out, and even if it doesn't keep your hair dark and
luxurious like mine, you will be better in lots of scenarios.

------
encoderer
I am satisfied knowing that I've gone grey raising my daughter and not for
some godforsaken software project.

------
boromi
How can we live stress free lives in an inherently stress driven work
environment and life. We are constantly impressed by others more accomplished
and drive ourselves to try to attempt to reach their success. This is hard,
plus we have social and money issues that drive us to worry. All of these are
not easy to solve, and lead to a lot of daily stress.

~~~
flatiron
Hence the invention of alcohol.

~~~
echelon
Which, if used sans moderation, causes _further_ aging.

------
Eyght
I wish my hair had gone grey instead of retreating from my head at 21.

------
CalRobert
Turning 30 stole my head hair, and this explains the grey chest hairs when my
kid showed up...

~~~
brailsafe
I gotta know, did it all fall out at the same time or was it just the last few
strands?

~~~
CalRobert
Well, it didn't all fall out, but the forehead kept getting farther and
farther back and I recall seeing an image of the top of my head and thinking
"god that's awful" and have been shaving it off ever since. I could let what's
there grow but... it's bad.

------
Aperocky
Does poor sleep patterns intersect with stress? I don’t feel much stress but
between work, side projects and traveling, I feel a bit tired.

------
sarego
I used to be an easily stressed person. I do get stressed even now but am
acutely aware of it affecting the body and mind. I feel that a lot of people
don't even know that they are stressed. It used to take many minutes of
sitting still for my mind to relax. At that point some of my muscles would
automatically relax. Only at that instant would I even become aware of it
being tight the whole day.

------
rzzzt
I'm immediately reminded of the Crash Test Dummies song:
[https://www.songfacts.com/facts/crash-test-dummies/mmm-
mmm-m...](https://www.songfacts.com/facts/crash-test-dummies/mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm)

------
yingw787
I think it's really important to learn how to laugh. Laugh every today. Laugh
at dumb things. Don't get cardiovascular disease or creases in your face or go
bald because you're too proud to have a sense of humor.

I need to work on this myself.

~~~
ecoled_ame
I’d rather be bald than laughing & chattering all the time like the rest of
them.

~~~
baxtr
That actually made me laugh. Thanks for saving my hair

------
dang
This was discussed at
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22123481](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22123481)

------
ajcodez
Data point - of my close friends in our 20s the stressed founders were the
ones to go bald. It could be genetics, but it’s interesting.

------
Kenji
My hypothesis is that both stress and depression vastly speed up aging, hair
being the least of the problems. It is good to see research about this
subject.

------
mitfahrener
My mother was right. I am baldy because if stress. Although all my maternal
uncles were bald as a lightbulb. That probably didn't help.

~~~
leib
This article says it causes greying, not balding

~~~
mitfahrener
Hah. Yeah. I read it now.

