Health
Your Hair Is Going Gray. This Glitch May Explain Why.
Lots of the indicators of getting older are invisible, sluggish, and refined — modifications in cell division capability, cardiac output and kidney perform don’t precisely present up within the mirror. However grey hairs are one of the vital apparent clues that the physique isn’t working prefer it used to.
Our hair turns grey when melanin-producing stem cells cease functioning correctly. A brand new examine in mice, however with implications for individuals and revealed Wednesday within the journal Nature, offers a clearer image of the mobile glitches that flip us into silver foxes and vixens.
“It is a actually massive step towards understanding why we grey,” stated Mayumi Ito, an creator of the examine and a dermatology professor at New York College’s Grossman College of Drugs.
In contrast to embryonic stem cells, which become all kinds of various organs, grownup stem cells have a extra set path. The melanocyte stem cells in our hair follicles are answerable for producing and sustaining the pigment in our hair.
Every hair follicle retains immature melanocyte stem cells in storage. After they’re wanted, these cells journey from one a part of the follicle to a different, the place proteins spur them to mature into pigment-producing cells, giving hair its hue.
Scientists assumed that grey hair was the results of that pool of melanocyte stem cells operating dry. Nevertheless, earlier research with mice made Dr. Ito and her co-author, Qi Solar, marvel if hair might lose its pigment even when stem cells are nonetheless current.
To be taught extra about stem cell habits all through completely different phases of hair development, the researchers spent two years monitoring and imaging particular person cells in mouse fur. To their amazement, the stem cells traveled forwards and backwards inside the hair follicle, transitioning into their mature, pigment-producing state after which out of it once more.
“We have been stunned,” stated Dr. Solar, who stated seeing one group of stem cells switching forwards and backwards between mature and younger states didn’t match up with present explanations.
However as time wore on, the melanocyte cells couldn’t sustain the double act. A hair falling out and rising again takes a toll on the follicle, and finally, the stem cells stopped making their journey, and thus, stopped receiving protein alerts to make pigment. From then on, the brand new hair development didn’t get its dose of melanin.
The researchers additional explored this impact by plucking hairs from mice, simulating a sooner hair development cycle. This “pressured getting older” led to a buildup of melanocyte stem cells caught of their storage place, not producing melanin. The mice’s fur went from darkish brown to salt-and-pepper.
Whereas the examine was carried out with rodents, the researchers say their findings must be related to how human hair will get and loses its coloration. What’s extra, they hope their findings could possibly be a step towards stopping or reversing the graying course of.
Melissa Harris, a biologist on the College of Alabama at Birmingham who was not concerned with the examine, stated the findings assist “clinch” earlier proof she’s seen suggesting that “not all melanocyte stem cells are created equal, and even when you’ve got some left over, they is probably not helpful.”
Dr. Harris stated she takes the examine’s findings about its “pressured getting older” of mouse hair “with possibly just a little little bit of a grain of salt,” as a plucked hair won’t behave the identical as naturally aged hair. However she discovered the examine invaluable, not simply because a remedy for graying hair may be successful with the general public; the insights into stem cell habits would possibly assist researchers perceive issues like most cancers and cell regeneration.
“I believe generally individuals take the hair as a right,” she stated, “however in a way, it makes it really very easy for us to see potential methods during which getting older or different perturbations have an effect on our our bodies.”
Health
fatty15 has the essential nutrient to ease stress and well-being
Sign Up
Create a free account to access exclusive content, play games, solve puzzles, test your pop-culture knowledge and receive special offers.
Already have an account? Login
Forgot your password?
Get back to the Sign In
Use left and right arrow keys to navigate between menu items.
Use escape to exit the menu.
Health
Summer is tick season, but these tips can help you avoid the bloodsucking bugs
Tick season is starting across the U.S., and experts are warning the bloodsuckers may be as plentiful as ever.
Another mild winter and other favorable factors likely means the 2024 tick population will be equal to last year or larger, some researchers say.
“It’s very bad and has only been getting worse,” said Susanna Visser of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
TICK BITES AND LYME DISEASE: WHAT TO DO IF A TICK BITES YOU OR YOUR PET
An increasing variety of ticks are pushing into new geographical areas, bringing unusual diseases. Exotic southern species like the Gulf Coast tick and the lone star tick are being detected in New York and other northern states, for example.
But the tick that experts warn of the most is a common blacklegged tick, which is found mainly in forests and spreads Lyme disease. Infection rates begin to peak in May, and U.S. health officials estimate nearly half a million Lyme disease infections happen annually.
Here’s a look at what’s expected this year and how you can protect yourself.
TICK FACTS
Ticks are small, eight-legged bloodsucking parasites — arachnids, not insects — that feed on animals and sometimes people. Some ticks are infected with germs that can cause illness, and they spread those germs when they bite.
There is no widely accepted estimate of how many ticks there are from one year to the next, but there is a scientific consensus that they are an increasingly common health hazard in large portions of the United States.
Blacklegged ticks — also known as deer ticks, since they feed on deer — are among the most common ticks in the eastern half of the U.S. They were plentiful centuries ago, then diminished when forests were cut down and deer were hunted, and rebounded alongside deer and wooded suburbs. The ticks have spread out from pockets in New England and the Midwest over a wider range.
Tick populations cycle throughout the year and their numbers depend on a few factors. They like warm, humid weather, and more can be seen after a mild winter. The more deer and mice available to feed matters, too.
Overall, the blacklegged tick population has been expanding for at least four decades, researchers say.
“This is an epidemic in slow motion,” said Rebecca Eisen, a CDC research biologist and tick expert.
2024 TICK SEASON FORECAST
Weather can play a role in the severity of a tick season.
Very cold, dry winters can whittle down tick populations, but recent winters have been mild — a trend some attribute to climate change.
As Scott Williams, a tick researcher at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, said: “Winters are no longer limiting the tick population.”
Ticks can withstand the heat but tend to almost hibernate when it’s a dry summer. That happened in Maine in 2020 through 2022, said Chuck Lubelczyk, a vector ecologist at the MaineHealth Institute for Research.
But last year was a very wet year, and tick activity multiplied in Maine — the state with the highest incidence of Lyme disease in the country. Weather service predictions call for higher temperatures and precipitation, so “on paper, at least, it could be a very good year for the ticks,” Lubelczyk said.
In Wisconsin, adult ticks were out longer than usual due to a mild winter. The tick nymphs are starting to emerge, and a wet spring is setting the stage for the possibility that the population will be robust, said Xia Lee, an entomologist at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
Ditto New York.
“It will be as bad as last year, or worse,” said Saravanan Thangamani, who studies ticks and tickborne diseases at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse.
WHAT IS LYME DISEASE?
Not all ticks are infected with disease-causing germs — about 20% to 30% of the blacklegged tick nymphs that emerge in the Northeast and Midwest this spring and into summer will be carrying the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, experts estimate.
Lyme disease symptoms tend to start between three and 30 days after a bite occurs and can include fever, headache, fatigue and a bull’s-eye-like rash. If you get bitten and develop symptoms, see a doctor to get treated with antibiotics.
HOW TO KEEP TICKS OFF OF YOU
Experts say the best thing to do is take steps to avoid a tick bite in the first place.
If you go outdoors, make note of wooded areas and where grassy properties start bleeding into wooded areas. Ticks tend to perch on ankle-level vegetation with their upper legs outstretched, waiting to latch on to an unsuspecting dog or human.
Try to walk in the middle of paths, wear light-colored and permethrin-treated clothing and use Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-registered insect repellents.
HOW TO CHECK FOR TICKS
When you come inside, check for ticks. They can be found anywhere on the human body, but common spots include around the waist, behind the knees, between fingers and toes, on underarms, in the belly button and around the neck or hairline.
They are harder to see when they are young, so look carefully and immediately pull them off with tweezers.
The CDC does not recommend sending individual ticks to testing services for analysis, because a person might get more than one tick bite and the results from the tested tick may not be sufficient information.
Health
Pizza for Weight Loss? Top MD Says This Dough Makes It Possible
Sign Up
Create a free account to access exclusive content, play games, solve puzzles, test your pop-culture knowledge and receive special offers.
Already have an account? Login
Forgot your password?
Get back to the Sign In
Use left and right arrow keys to navigate between menu items.
Use escape to exit the menu.
-
Politics1 week ago
RFK Jr said a worm ate part of his brain and died in his head
-
World1 week ago
Pentagon chief confirms US pause on weapons shipment to Israel
-
World1 week ago
Convicted MEP's expense claims must be published: EU court
-
News1 week ago
Students and civil rights groups blast police response to campus protests
-
Politics1 week ago
California Gov Gavin Newsom roasted over video promoting state's ‘record’ tourism: ‘Smoke and mirrors’
-
Politics1 week ago
Ohio AG defends letter warning 'woke' masked anti-Israel protesters they face prison time: 'We have a society'
-
News1 week ago
Nine Things We Learned From TikTok’s Lawsuit Against The US Government
-
Politics1 week ago
Biden’s decision to pull Israel weapons shipment kept quiet until after Holocaust remembrance address: report