Canities subita, also called Marie Antoinette syndrome or Thomas More syndrome, is an alleged condition of hair turning white overnight due to stress or trauma.
For centuries, people have believed that a sudden fright, scare or traumatic experience could turn your hair white overnight. It is in fact medically impossible.
Share on Pinterest White and gray hairs may start to grow at any age, and may be caused by a range of different factors. Any deficiencies of vitamin B-6, B-12, biotin, vitamin D, or vitamin E can contribute to premature graying.
The harmful conditions that can trigger poliosis include melanoma skin cancer, thyroid disorders, and inflammatory conditions, among others. Poliosis can also be triggered by some medications and even by psychological stress.
Stress can cause hair to gray prematurely by affecting the stem cells that are responsible for regenerating hair pigment.
Poliosis results from a reduction or absence of melanin in affected hair follicles. 1 When there is a lack of melanin, there is a lack of color in the hair that grows from those hair follicles. Poliosis can occur at any age, depending on the associated underlying condition.
Poliosis is a rare condition that is thought to affect between 1 in 40,000 and 1 in 100,000 Caucasian people.
There is no effective treatment for poliosis. However, if there are other conditions, the doctor diagnoses and treats them. For example, the doctor may prescribe steroid creams and use light therapy for vitiligo, but these medications usually do not stop the white patches from spreading.
Poliosis is a clinical diagnosis. Clinical assessment and investigations may be required to determine the cause. Skin biopsy will show a lack of melanin and/or melanocytes in the hair bulbs. Epidermal melanocytes will be normal unless there is associated vitiligo-like leukoderma.
Context: Although the primary cause of premature hair graying (PHG) is considered to be genetic, certain environmental factors also play a role. Trace element deficiencies such as Vitamin B12, Vitamin D3, and calcium may also be associated with PHG.
Marie Antoinette syndrome designates the condition in which scalp hair suddenly turns white. The name alludes to the unhappy Queen Marie Antoinette of France (1755-1793), whose hair allegedly turned white the night before her last walk to the guillotine during the French Revolution.
Norepinephrine affects the melanocyte stem cells living there. It causes them to rapidly turn into pigment cells and move out of the hair follicles. Without stem cells left to create new pigment cells, new hair turns gray or white.
"But the detrimental impact of stress that we discovered was beyond what I imagined. "After just a few days, all of the pigment-regenerating stem cells were lost. "Once they're gone, you can't regenerate pigment any more - the damage is permanent."
In the donor area, Shock Loss is caused by the detachment of the blood capillaries that connect the follicular units when they are harvested. This micro-tear can create a shock to the surrounding hair, resulting in reactive hair loss.
POSSIBLE ETIOPATHOGENESIS OF GRAYING
Reversible hypopigmentation of the hair can be seen in nutritional deficiencies protein-energy malnutrition and diseases of chronic loss of protein. Copper and iron deficiency also can cause graying of hair.
“In patients with hair-loss or premature graying, I will check a CBC (complete blood count). If they are anemic (have a low red blood cell count), it may be due to a vitamin, usually B-12 or folate, or mineral, namely iron, deficiency,” says Dr. Welsch.
Bonnie Raitt
Raitt has poliosis, a rare hair condition that zaps melanin from certain parts of her hair.
The bad news is that white hairs in patches of vitiligo, known as poliosis, heralds a poorer prognosis than pigmented cells.
Genetics: It's all in genetics, say doctors. According to studies, premature greying happens due to genetics. Talk to your parents or even grandparents on when they first spotted their grey hair. If they had it very early in their age, chances are there you too will do the same.
Some mistake these white patches for simple birth marks. In poliosis there is decreased or absent melanin in the hair bulbs of affected hair follicles; the melanocytes of the skin are usually not affected.
Typically, white people start going gray in their mid-30s, Asians in their late 30s, and Blacks in their mid-40s. Half of all people have a significant amount of gray hair by the time they turn 50.
It is postulated that the etiology of this disorder is genetic and transmitted either as an autosomal recessive or X-linked recessive conditions.