Content Summary:
This article explains why older people tend to have grey hair, and gives suggestions to people on how to fix this problem. People tend to have grey hair when they're older because as they age, the cells in their bodies produce less and less catalase. Catalase is an enzyme that breaks down hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen. This is the catalase reaction. Without catalase, hydrogen peroxide builds up in their bodies. As hydrogen peroxide builds up, it can turn hairs grey because it is a bleaching agent. To stop the graying of hairs, older people must have more catalase in their bodies. There are vitamins that are able to boost the catalase levels in our bodies, and lessen the amounts of grey hair that people have. These vitamins can save people a lot of money in going to the salon every couple of months to get their hair dyed.
Relevance:
This is related to our classroom studies because the enzymes lab was all about catalase, and how its actions were affected by many conditions. The catalase actions were the breaking down of hydrogen peroxide. For our positive control in the experiment, we added 5 milliliters of hydrogen peroxide to 1milliliter of catalase extract, and we saw how the catalase broke down the hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen. This article also talks about the actions of catalase in our body and it shows us what can happen if we don't have enough catalase in our body; hydrogen peroxide builds up and bleaches our hair grey.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Vitamins-for-Grey-Hair&id=6735791
Article by Tom Simeo
Published December 5, 2011
Are these vitamins common?
ReplyDeleteIf you stop taking these pills after you had been taking them for a while, will your body stop producing enzymes all together?
ReplyDeleteStephanie: Yes, you can buy many over-the-counter vitamins that contain the catalase you need to break down hydrogen peroxide. There are a variety of anti-grey hair supplements that are available to people.
ReplyDeleteBrianna: No, your body has to keep producing catalase, because the build-up of hydrogen peroxide can damage cells in your body. Overtime, the production of catalase may decrease, and taking these vitamins will add to the amount of catalase in your body, but it will not stop the production of catalase all together. Also, taking these vitamins for an increased amount of catalase will have minimal effect on the production of other enzymes in your body because your body contains a variety of other enzymes.