Fountain of youth?
Once the bird of youth has flown the nest, is it certain that it will never return? Can a white head of hair be transformed back into a lustrous raven-colored mane? Can presbyopia be reversed and vision cleared up?
Tsai Tsen-fang has had clinical cases of people who had white hair that turned back to black. For example, it has happened that the hair of someone undergoing chemotherapy, after completely falling out, has grown back in darker than it was before. “Because the cells get reorganized, when the stem cells come back to life, melanin production goes back on line.”
But such cases are exceptional. No magic potion has yet been discovered that will un-gray your hair.
That doesn’t stop people from trying! It has long been believed by many Chinese that foods of a certain shape can help organs of similar shape, and that health problems with a particular color can be treated with foods of the same color. Is it really true that eating, say, sesame seeds or Chinese knotweed, can cause hair to turn black?
Tsai says that while he has had patients that swear up and down that their hair has turned black after eating lingzhi or pearl powder or whatever, these are all anecdotal cases, and there hasn’t been scientific confirmation of such claims, so one shouldn’t expect such results to be the norm.
Nonetheless, it is not the case there is no chance of success whatsoever with folk remedies. Tsai points out that tests done on animals show that the formation of white hair may be related to “free radicals.” Therefore, in theory, consuming foods that “passivate” free radicals may be effective if they are consumed in large amounts over a long period of time. But once again, scientifically speaking there have never been any replicable, controlled experiments to test this hypothesis.
Graying hair has never been considered a high-priority problem in the medical community, because the problem can be solved with coloring agents. Even if there is some potential risk that such chemical agents may be carcinogenic, many people seem willing to take the risk to get rid of those gray strands. Tsai notes that statistically speaking, hairdressers who are in contact with dyeing agents over a long period of time do indeed have a higher risk of contracting bladder cancer or lymphoma, but it’s probably not unsafe for someone to use hair dye once a month.
In contrast, ophthalmologists are devoting a great deal of effort to finding solutions to presbyopia. Tai Ming-cheng relates that there are already a number of methods by which people can reclaim a beautiful visual world.
For example, femtosecond lasers have recently been introduced into the market in Taiwan, and the claim is made that patients will be able to “say bye-bye to presbyopia in 20 seconds.” This kind of surgery has proven very attractive to a number of presbyopia sufferers who don’t want to look old, but it is still extremely expensive, about NT$90,000 (US$3000) per eye, and is only useful for people who suffer only from simple presbyopia.
Tai explains that unlike laser surgery for myopia, in which some of the thickness of the cornea is removed, the femtosecond laser technique is to cut a circle in the cornea, so that the cornea has multiple focal points (just like putting a lens on the cornea).
In addition, a great deal of research is also going into techniques that will strengthen the ciliary muscles or increase the power of accommodation of the crystalline lens, attacking the problem right at its source and restoring the eye’s ability to adjust (at least for the short term). The goal is to use less invasive methods to deal with presbyopia. If successful, vision problems caused by ageing could be cured in a few short days.
Ageing successfully
In an essay entitled “I Am Middle-Aged,” the writer Tom Wang wrote with regret: “When a man reaches middle age, there is less and less of everything: less to say, less hair, less testosterone….” It is somewhat reassuring, however, that “no matter how different people’s family situations, wealth, or social status, this thing we call ‘advancing in years’ is remarkably fair.”
In his book Ageing Successfully, Chen Liang-kung reminds us: “In the process of ageing, the most serious deterioration, both quantitatively and qualitatively, is in the muscles.” Studies show that between 20 and 70 years of age, skeletal muscle mass and soft lean muscle mass decline by at least 40%. Therefore it is good to get into the habit of regular exercise from a young age, because—while it cannot block the ageing process—exercise can at least be effective in maintaining better muscle mass and tone.
“Since ancient times, great beauties have shared something in common with great generals: neither wants anybody to see them with a gray hair on their head.” No one, however beautiful or heroic, can stop the heartless passage of time. But if you define successful ageing as physical and psychological health and courage, and forget about external appearances, then you might just find that old age can be very enjoyable.