Premature graying of the hair: Does heavy trace elements have a role to play

Introduction: Selenium, an antioxidant that plays a critical role in reducing free-radicals and thereby protects the human body from the damages. Its low status has been linked to increased risk of various diseases. Zinc, another antioxidant, plays an important role in human by influencing on cell mediated immunity and is also an anti-inflammatory agent. Human hair has a great impact on the appearance of an individual. It is normal for hair color to change, as people age. But white hair can appear at almost any time in life. Vitamin deficiencies, smoking and oxidative stress can cause hair to turn white prematurely. Oxidative stress causes imbalances when antioxidants are not enough to counteract the damaging effects of free radicals. Therefore, we aimed at to compare the amount of serum zinc and selenium in patients with premature graying of the hair with control group.Materials and Methods: The study enrolled 70 patients under the age of 25 years, with complaint of premature graying, from December 2017 to July, 2018. An equivalent number of patients without white hair problem and attending Dermatology clinic were taken as controls. The levels of selenium and zinc were monitored for both the groups by collecting blood from these patients at the fasting status.Results: Serum zinc level in case group was 97.61±23.35µg/dl and 99.47±6.28 µg/dl in the control group. The serum level of selenium in the control group was higher (110.65 ±9.15µg/dl) than the case group (80.43±17.75µg/dl), the difference being statistically significant (p=0.001).Conclusion: Lower levels of serum selenium in the case group suggests the its direct relation with premature graying of hair. However, other nutritional deficiencies which put the individual into the constraint of selenium in the body should be given importance.