Can you really reverse gray hair? Yes, you can! Biohacker and health coach Leslie Kenny shares her secrets, success stories and the plain truth on hacking your gray hair, which may be a sign of an underlying health issue…never mind the looks!
This podcast is chock o block of real practical tips on what it means to go prematurely gray, what tests to ask your doctor to perform, what supplements you can add to your arsenal and how to optimize your health to reverse and slow gray, dull, thinning hair and hair loss. Yes, genetics play a role, HOWEVER, epigenetics (which we can control) play an even greater role.
Leslie breaks down the science behind how hair goes gray and then gives us the ultimate recipes that include:
1. Eradicate infections, bacteria and pathogens
2. Optimize hormones
3. Optimize nutrients
4. Reduce stress
5. Get to bed!
6. Repair and repopulate the gut
7. Activate autophagy
Getting nutrients first from food, but in case you aren’t getting enough consider some of these supplements:
- N-acetylcysteine
- Liposomal glutathione – Setria (food sources: brassica veg, broccoli, wheatgrass, saw palmetto)
- Molasses (iron, copper, magnesium selenium)
- Spermidine – Use code ZORA for 20% off at Primeadine
ABOUT LESLIE KENNY
At 39 years old Leslie set out to optimize her health and as a by-product to her efforts, her gray hair disappeared. After research and shared success stories on her YouTube channel Leslie’s New Prime, she shares the many reasons why we may go gray.
Unfortunately, we cannot encapsulate this procedure to return our hair to it’s natural color. The only way to hack it is to hack your health.
Premature gray hair is a sign that your body is telling you to pay attention. That something is not right in the body.
Depending on ethnicity we may “go gray” at different ages. Caucasians at 25, Africans later.
Age is not correlated with a single root cause of graying
50% of the world has bacteria H Pylori, which is related to stomach ulcers and stomach cancer. And it is also implicated in gray hair. H. Pylori overgrowth can occur at any age, whether you’re 7 or 40.
Going gray early depends on environmental factors even more than genetics.
Oftentimes there may be an infection in the body, like candida (gut dysbiosis), which lives off of iron. It pulls the iron out of the gut lining. Makes it hard to absorb nutrients properly. Even with clean eating you can’t absorb nutrients. For example, B12 is needed for hair color, but it may not get into the cells if there is an infection.
Typhoid and strep infections also are causes for the body to upregulate production of hydrogen peroxide (remember we used it to bleach hair?) Hydrogen peroxide plays an important role to help us fight off pathogens, bacteria and viruses.
With stress, increased production of hydrogen peroxide can prematurely gray hair from the inside out.
In the body we have stores of glutathione, superoxide dismutase and catalase which are antioxidants in the liver and help neutralize hydrogen peroxide in the body. Hydrogen peroxide can be produced as a by-product of adrenaline. If you’re stressed, you make adrenaline and when it isn’t runned off, the body converts it to hydrogen peroxide.
Infections and stress increases hydrogen peroxide production, which can lead to premature graying.
We can neutralize hydrogen peroxide with catalase from avocados, superoxide dismutase or glutathione peroxidase will be produced from glutathione, you can also take acetylcysteine (aka N-acetylcysteine) a precursor to glutathione. And those neutralize the hydrogen peroxide
Get glutathione from the diet. – brassica veg, broccoli, wheatgrass, saw palmetto (a berry that grows in Florida), which inhibits 5-alpha reductase (an enzyme that converts testosterone to dihydrotestosterone) and miniaturizes the hair follicle. This upregulates glutathione.
You can also get glutathione as a supplement. However, you need a high gut integrity to be able to absorb nutrients.
As we get older we lose digestive enzyme production from things like papain and hydrochloric acid necessary for digestion. H Pylori and candida have low hydrochloric acid levels, so you may need a digestive enzyme to absorb glutathione and catalase from foods.
Glutathione is poorly absorbed unless you take a liposomal version of it. Reason Is because the fact that glutathione is a tripeptide and as soon as it gets to the body, it is looked at as three separate building blocks. The gut splits them apart and uses it for something else. We want them to stay together as a tripeptide and get into the bloodstream to neutralize the hydrogen peroxide.
The liver can do this when we are young and strong, we can take a precursor to glutathione like N-acetylcysteine and it will convert. If you are older, had some infection and want the “big guns”, go for patented liposomal glutathione Setria . This has been clinically proven to enter the blood plasma.
QUESTION: DOES HUMAN GROWTH HORMONE AFFECT GRAY HAIR?
Regarding Magdalena’s question about whether Human Growth Hormone helps prevent gray hair, I couldn’t find any evidence in the scientific literature to support it, but there seems to be a little anecdotal evidence.
TOP TIPS TO REVERSE GRAY HAIR
1. Reduce stress (see tips below)
2. Optimize overall health – nutrient deficiencies, chronic infections (H. Pylori, strep, candida, typhoid…)
3. Optimize hormones – thyroid hormone. Hypothyroidism can also go prematurely gray.
4. Sleep can impact the ability to produce glutathione. Less than 5 hrs sleep in 5 days in a row, reduces glutathione and catalase production by 25% – 30%!
H. Pylori and Candida both live off of iron, you can get anaemic.
TAKE THE QUESTIONNAIRE TO FIGURE OUT WHY YOU’RE GOING GRAY
Gray Hair Detective – Watch the video and take the questionnaire. You can get ideas of what you can speak to your doctor about to investigate further
HOW TO HACK STRESS
Stimulate the vagus nerve. Activate PNS (Parasympathetic Nervous System)
1. Breathwork – box breathing, Wim Hof. Join Zora on Patreon to have access to free classes on Breathwork and Meditation every Wednesday and Saturday. Or check out the videos made for her client on YouTube at HackMyAge.
2. Cold showers
3. AlphaStem FDA approved to activate PNS
4. Sensei
5. Apollo
6. Binaural beats
7. NewCom in dentists office
8. Brain Tap
(FYI….we will do a podcast on Stress management with Leslie discussing all of these alternative techniques on February 31st. Sign up to the Hack My Age newsletter to get reminders)
CONCLUSIONS
1. Eradicate infections
2. Reinforce and seal the gut – can use spermidine (use code ZORA at checkout for 20% off), collagen (peptides, bone broth…), Dr. Zack Bush’s ION
3. Repopulate gut with probiotics
4. Then take supplements and digestive enzymes. Low acid levels cannot benefit from nutrients.
6. Avoid processed flours and sugars, seed and vegetable oils to hack your health and hair.
Genetics play a role in going gray, but epigenetics are more important. Someone may have a predisposition to low glutathione production and if that’s the case, taking n-acetylcysteine or glutathione would help. Some serious genetic diseases leave you predisposed to gray hair, you would know… Due to serious health effects you’d likely already have seen a doctor about it.
To test your general health, you can also take a telomerase test or GlycanAge test to see how your biological age is and then work to reverse it.
RECOMMENDED BLOODWORK
In 99% of cases of mitochondrial function, one will find gray hair. Always work with your health care practitioner when determining your personal health issues and interpreting the blood test results.
Hemoglobin
RBC
WBC
Active B12
Iron
Total iron binding capacity
Ferritin
Magnesium
Zinc
Copper
Glucose levels
HBA1C
CRP
Glutathione
Reduced glutathione
Vitamins A, B2, B6, B9, B12
Lutein
Zeaxanthin
Alpha Beta Keratin
Alpha Beta lycopene
Oxidized LDL
T3 and T4 from urine (Dutch test)
Thyroid hormones
Humans absorb only 5% of iron from plants. We absorb 25%-30% from meat. Be mindful and take the appropriate supplements if you are vegan.
Take vitamin C with iron for absorption and eat a lot of plant material.
QUESTION: DOES DRINKING BLACK TEA MAKE YOU GO GRAY?
There are studies searching for a link between low iron bioavailability in those who drink tea with tannins, but conclusions are still being formed. When in doubt, better to lower the consumption or do your own experiment and stop black tea altogether and see what happens.
QUESTION: DO NAD SUPPLEMENTS HELP HACK GRAY HAIR?
We don’t know, but we know that NAD supplements inhibit one of the hallmarks of aging. Don’t know if it will help with gray hair, but it will help improve intracellular communication.
On the other hand, spermidine inhibits 5 hallmarks of aging. See attachment for Hallmarks of Aging. Spermidine also helps with new melanogenesis (brings color back to hair)
The Gray Hair Reversal E-book (attached) shows how spermidine helps with gray hair. Helps inhibit markers of aging.
FOLLOW LESLIE KENNY
Website: Ridgepath
Instagram: @lesliesnewprime
Twitter: @ridgepath
YouTube: @Leslie’s New Prime
FOLLOW HACK MY AGE
Website: Hack My Age
Instagram: @hackmyage
Facebook: @hackmyage
Clubhouse: Zora Benhamou (Club: Biohacking Women 50+)
Apple Podcast : Hack My Age
Email: zora@hackmyage.com
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This podcast is edited by @JonathanJK
This blog post is edited by Alison Copywriting
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2 thoughts on “Hack Your Gray Hair – Leslie Kenny”
Meaad
Hi
If gray hair is genetic, can it be reversed?
Zora Benhamou
It depends how strong those genetics are and if any of the grays are not related to genes. It’s worth a try. Email me zora@hackmyage.com to help you out.