New research suggests gray hair could actually be the body protecting itself from cancer

A new study has concluded that that gray hair may be a sign that your body is protecting itself from cancer.

Getting gray hair is normally a frustrating part of getting older, for both men and women, but it might actually be serving you well.

While many hate the appearance of gray hairs, a study reported in October for the journal of Nature Cell Biology found it is a clear and normal part of a protective mechanism that emerges with age as a defence against DNA damage and disease, according to the study authors.

Healthy hair growth is very much dependent on the amount of stem cells within the hair follicles and the strength of their ability to renew themselves.

A tiny pocket inside the follicle contains reserves of melanocyte stem cells, which are precursors to the cells that produce the melanin pigment that gives hair its color. The more you know, eh.

Gray hair could mean your body is doing what it i should to fight off cancer according to the study (Getty Stock Image)

Dot Bennett, a cell biologist at City St George's, University of London, who was not involved in the study, commented on the research team’s findings.

Explaining how it would work, she said: “Every hair cycle, these melanocyte stem cells will divide and produce some mature, differentiated cells. These migrate down to the bottom of the hair follicle and start making pigment to feed into the hair."

A person’s hair turning gray occurs when these cells can no longer do their job of producing sufficient pigment to thoroughly color each strand.

Bennet continued: “It's a sort of exhaustion called cell senescence.

“It's a limit to the total number of divisions that a cell can go through, and it seems to be an anti-cancer mechanism to prevent random genetic errors acquired over time propagating uncontrollably."

The research team first did their experiments on mice (Getty Stock Image)

The study, which saw the team test their ideas on mice first, looked at tracking the progress of individual melanocyte stem cells after exposing the rodents to different harmful environments, and found that the type of damage influenced how the cell reacted.

Concerning ionizing radiation, it caused the stem cells to mature and activate the biochemical pathway responsible for cell senescence.

Ultimately, the melanocyte stem cell reserves were rapidly depleted after exposure, i.e when they had a greater risk of cancer from the ionizing radiation.

This resulted in halting the production of further mature pigment cells and leading to gray hair.