Eyebrows going white?

[Muad'dib]

Really odd question. I started intensive qi gong again, after years. When I used to practice regularly 12 years ago, occasionally a few of my eyebrows would grow long and turn white. Now it is happening again, but quicker and more than before. My coworkers are commenting on it, because in general I don't have much gray. Any one have similar experiences?

[GrahamB]

[lazyboxer]

This is significant because age related localized loss of hair colour usually happens in reverse order - i.e. the eyebrows are the last to turn white.

I suspect there may be a connection to pineal gland activity. The pineal (between and above the eyebrows) is involved in the production of melatonin, a hormone which amongst other things produces melanin, the pigment factor determining hair and skin colour. Changes in melatonin levels, whether increased or decreased, can bring about corresponding alterations in pigmentation, though the precise linkage is not yet completely clear.

As I'm sure you know, any intervention in normal human life processes, whether through meditation, qigong or other, often produces significant changes in the organism, sometimes even harmful ones. The pineal gland is well-known for its connexion with psychic activity and your qigong practice could well be a factor in your newly-acquired white eyebrows. Remember Baimeidaoren, the renegade White Eyebrow Daoist who betrayed the Shaolin Temple in South Chinese historical romance? Watch out!

[chud]

Well, White Eyebrow is an effective style of kung fu...just sayin'

Seriously though, I've been doing chi kung for 57 days straight now (had a good Lenten Challenge and just kept on going) and while I don't have white eyebrows, I have been seeing other interesting and strange effects. I guess it's different for each individual person.

[yeniseri]

I am inclined to think of this as a DNA /ancestral affiliated, whether result of a recessive or dominant gene.

[edededed]

That's pretty weird, dude - I've no idea, but the late Wang Yinghai (of Dai family xinyiquan) had really long, bushy white eyebrows (and was mostly bald, too)...

[Peacedog]

This is the herb Chinese folks on the mainland use to keep their hair from turning white. It can cause acid reflux so just watch out for that.

http://www.dragonherbs.com/prodinfo.asp?number=542

The herb is called He Shou Wu

[BonesCom]

Sorry I can't add anything anything to the OP but just for clarity, melanin and melatonin are synthesised by distinct pathways.

First, melanin and hair colour:

Hair color is the pigmentation of hair follicles due to two types of melanin: eumelanin and pheomelanin. Generally, if more eumelanin is present, the color of the hair is darker; if less eumelanin is present, the hair is lighter. Levels of melanin can vary over time causing a person's hair color to change, and it is possible to have hair follicles of more than one color on the same person....

wo types of pigment give hair its color: eumelanin and pheomelanin. Pheomelanin colors hair orange and yellow. All humans have some pheomelanin in their hair. Eumelanin, which has two subtypes of black or brown, determines the darkness of the hair color. A low concentration of brown eumelanin results in blond hair, whereas a higher concentration of brown eumelanin will color the hair brown. High amounts of black eumelanin result in black hair, while low concentrations give gray hair.

Pheomelanin is more chemically stable than black eumelanin, but less chemically stable than brown eumelanin, so it breaks down more slowly when oxidized. This is why bleach gives darker hair a reddish tinge during the artificial coloring process. As the pheomelanin continues to break down, the hair will gradually become orange, then yellow, and finally white.

The genetics of hair colors are not yet firmly established. According to one theory, at least two gene pairs control human hair color.

One phenotype (brown/blond) has a dominant brown allele and a recessive blond allele. A person with a brown allele will have brown hair; a person with no brown alleles will be blond. This explains why two brown-haired parents can produce a blond-haired child. However, this can only be possible if both parent are heterozygous in hair color- meaning that both of them have one dominant brown hair allele and one recessive allele for blond hair but as dominant always wins the parents both have brown hair. In a punnet square it is possible determine the possibility of a certain trait in an offspring.


The other gene pair is a non-red/red pair, where the non-red allele (which suppresses production of pheomelanin) is dominant and the allele for red hair is recessive. A person with two copies of the red-haired allele will have red hair.

The two-gene model does not account for all possible shades of brown, blond, or red (for example, platinum blond versus dark blond/light brown), nor does it explain why hair color sometimes darkens as a person ages. Several gene pairs control the light versus dark hair color in a cumulative effect. A person's genotype for a multifactorial trait can interact with environment to produce varying phenotypes (see quantitative trait locus).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_hair_color

Melanin is synthesised ultimately from tyrosine, see upper left of the following map:

http://www.genome.jp/kegg-bin/show_pathway?scale=1.0&query=&map=hsa00350&scale=0.82&auto_image=&show_description=hide&multi_query=

Whereas melatonin is synthesised from tryptophan via serotonin, upperish left of map:

http://www.genome.jp/kegg-bin/show_pathway?org_name=hsa&mapno=00380&mapscale=&show_description=hide

[Muad'dib]

Damn, completely forgot about White Eyebrow style. Does this mean I have to burn Shaolin or something? As for the genetic component, it would come out of nowhere. No one in my family in generations has reported anything similar.

[wiesiek]

I practise gong ~~ 20 years 2 times a day, everyday almost regularly.
My eyebrows seems to going white slower than rest of my head,

I drink HSW from time to time - recommended with couple of the ginseng drops extract - forms basic Yang tonic.
To go with EB -style- do I have to kill the Master 1st?

[KEND]

Have practiced Qigong for many years, my eyebrows [as in W's case] turned white later than my hair. I have heard of systems that cultivate martial power by reversing natural energy flow, the down side is you get paranoid and crazy,

[edededed]

Actually - lots of good points here, what kind of qigong are you doing, anyway? That might give some hints as to what is going on... there are lots of very different qigong methods, of course...