People think gray hair comes from stress. People don’t know the whole story. That’s why we have science.
Scientists at the University College London have concluded that men going gray are the direct result of one simple thing — genetics.
Scientists at University College London published a study that claimed to pinpoint the specific gene that causes this common change in hair color. (Apparently this wasn’t something we knew already.) Called IRF4, the gene—which scientists were already aware caused blonde and light-color hair in people of European descent—is responsible for regulating and producing melanin. As you get older, IRF4 produces lower-than-normal levels of melanin, causing your hair to go gray.
So…IRF4…we meet again. You son of a bitch. You’ve pissed me off for the last time! I knew I should have killed you when I had the chance.
If you’ve got IRF4 you’re eventually going to get the grays BUT there is a way to slow it down a little and that’s chronic masturbation (checks findings) ok it’s not it’s “take a drug that boosts melanin production in IRF” and that drug is mushrooms (checks once more) sorry it’s anything off this list.
Kaustubh Adhikari, lead scientist on the study, told NPR the gene “probably accounts for 30% of people with gray hair” and the rest of us go gray because of stress or decade long grudges with IRF4.
But he’s such a twat I can’t help but hate him.
[via GQ]