ALOPECIA AREATA
Alopecia is autoimmune disease of hair follicles leading to hair loss. This sometimes appears to cause someone to gray "overnight" when patches of hair fall out suddenly, and gray or white hairs already present become more prominent. With treatment such as cortisone injections, the hair will grow back slowly by itself and may turn temporarily completely gray or white, although the original color usually returns.
ANEMIA
Pernicious anemia is a rare form of anemia connected with a vitamin B-12 deficiency. According to Dr. Jerome Litt, assistant clinical professor of dermatology at Case Western University in Cleveland, premature graying is one symptom of the disease and is often accompanied by fatigue, shortness of breath and chest pains. It's easily treated with injections of vitamin B-12 that can reverse the hair-color change, as noted by a 1986 study from Thailand published in the "Archives of Dermatology."
BONE MINERAL DENSITY
In 1997, researchers working at the University of Auckland Department of Medicine in New Zealand found a link between decreased bone mineral density in postmenopausal women and premature gray hair. Out of 293 subjects, those experiencing onset of hair graying in their twenties tended to have lower bone mineral density throughout the skeleton than those who started graying later in life. The results were also true for women who had a majority of their hair gray by the age of 40.
HEREDITY
The primary reason for premature gray hair is heredity. A 2005 issue of "The Journal of Investigative Dermatology" reported that Caucasians tend to gray first, as early as their mid-thirties, followed by Asians and then Africans until about age 50, when half of people in the general population are at least 50 percent gray. You are also more likely to start having gray hairs around the same age that your parents or grandparents did, so if your grandmother started graying in her twenties, the chances are greatly increased that you will, too.
SMOKING
The "British Journal of Medicine" published a report from a 1986 clinical trial that studied 600 patients aged 30 or older for three months. The researchers compared non-smokers to smokers and found a significant relationship between gray hair and smoking, as well as a possible connection between baldness in men and smoking. Although these results need to be verified in further studies, the researchers concluded they are suggestive of a link between smoking and premature graying.
STRESS
Although stress has often been associated with someone turning prematurely gray, until recently the reports have been largely anecdotal. Researchers like Ralf Paus, with the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein in Germany, are beginning to look at the possible connection between graying and chronic free radical damage---the unstable molecules that damage cells. Stress hormones could produce inflammation that drives the production of these free radicals, which in turn bleaches melanin.
THYROID DISORDERS
Both hypothyroidism and hyperthyroid conditions like Graves' disease can cause premature graying. Graves' disease is an autoimmune disorder that leads to overactivity of the thyroid gland and also includes symptoms such as an enlarged thyroid, or goiter, and bulging eyeballs. These thyroid diseases can be successfully treated, although not cured, by medications or surgery.
VITILIGO
Vitiligo occurs when the cells at the base of hair follicles that produce color are lost or destroyed, most likely due to an immune system failure. The primary symptoms are white patches that develop the on the skin, in the mouth and eyes and on the hair. If you have a family member whose hair turned prematurely gray or white, you may be at greater risk for vitiligo.
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