The Greying Brain Phenomenon

As your hair greys, does your mind rust?

Well, you have the luxury of not splitting hairs over the greying and rusting.

Or you can ponder over one of the phenomena to begin with—greying—given that the brain is much too hard to understand. A general tendency is to blame stress for greying, especially premature greying.


But Robert H. Shmerling, MD, Senior Faculty Editor, Harvard Health Publishing; Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing, goes much beyond while answering the question: Why does hair turn grey?

In his blog on the Harvard Health Publishing homepage, Shmerling compares the photos of Barack Obama taken before he ran for US presidency and after he left office, noting that he had “far more grey than brown” after his time in office.  Most of the 8.2 billion Homo sapiens (including this scribe) do not have much of a job (so very stressful, isn’t it?), let alone a position as high paying and stressful as that of the US president.  Yet greying remains remarkably pervasive. 

There’s no stopping Shmerling, who goes on : In humans, most grey hair is not related to stress. In fact, hair doesn't actually turn grey at all. Once a hair follicle produces hair, the colour is set. If a single strand of hair starts out brown (or red or black or blonde), it is never going to change its colour (unless you colour your hair). Your hair follicles produce less colour as they age, so when hair goes through its natural cycle of dying and being regenerated, it's more likely to grow in as grey beginning after age 35. Genetics can play a role in when this starts. 

Interestingly, according to Shmerling, a 2020 study of mice showed how stress might turn their hair grey under stress. It’s unclear whether stress can do the same to human hair. 

While the majority of people experience age-related greying, the phenomenon may also indicate an illness, especially if it occurs at a young age, like vitamin B12 deficiency, neurofibromatosis, tuberous sclerosis, thyroid disease, vitiligo, and alopecia areata, per the blog.

Now a bit about the rusting of the brain. Do cerebral games like chess decelerate the process?

Apparently, this scribe is no expert in this uncharted territory, but he enjoys the cerebral game, online or beyond, in stolen moments. While his on/off romance with the game began in his 10s (wish it had started earlier as it gets better and better till rusting begins), those well aware of the developments in the field say that the game which got a huge boost online during the Covid-19 pandemic continues to have a huge following to date. 

Indeed, the House of Staunton states on its website that approximately 605 million adults worldwide play chess regularly, describing this statistic as a “testament to the immense popularity of chess,” with over half a billion people playing it.

In Kathmandu, Makkhan was once a chess hub in the 80s and 90s, and this scribe hopes it has gained even more popularity over time. Close by the Bagmati bridge in the Thapathali area, this observer has witnessed some big-ticket games but desisted from joining in for a game or two, given the stakes and grey matter involved. 

Recently, however, he had the chance to play two friendly games with a shopkeeper by the roadside in a tourist hub, after watching him play—and waiting. So let him tnow share his firsthand experience. 

This guy had beaten a fellow shopkeeper and then a British woman, who said she loved horse riding but did not know how the knight moved on the chequerboard.

Leaving the small chess station after a defeat, the foreigner promised return the next day after a serious practice session, as the winner challenged her to a £1 match.

Did she come the next day, astride a horse or without? Did she win a sterling pound, lose, or achieve a draw? This scribe has no idea. 

The first match against this scribe was a cakewalk for our champ. More or less, one can say it was like an ill-prepared boxer getting the trounced by a well-prepared one. A defeat can elicit a thousand excuses, but this scribe genuinely feels that it takes time to adjust to the physical board and the opponent, especially if you are playing long hours online. 

The saving grace was that it was a dry run, and this scribe had nothing to lose and some firsthand experience to gain. 

When the real battle began, this scribe found a bit of old Vidhya (knowledge) acquired by playing with Dad, cousins, other players from different neighbourhoods, and his school coming back along with some grim reminders, giving an indication that this thing called the brain may not have rusted alarmingly, though it was clear as daylight that it was no longer as sharp as it used to be. This became evident through multiple inaccuracies on the part of this scribe in a clearly one-sided game that could have ended much earlier with the trouncing of all but one pawn and a beleaguered king. 

The ending of the game at the 16th step gave some solace as it came with a small prize, though a small boy that used to surprise grown-ups with scathing attacks and decisive wins with his warhorses in full gallop on the lap of the Himalayas seemed lost somewhere in the crowded alleyways over the years. 

These days, this scribe sees people playing games like ludo, snakes and ladders, and card games here and there—and not chess. He finds such spectacles a tad too sad, though he is not here to impart moral lessons. 

Playing their favourite game is their right, of course. Still, one can develop their careers in cerebral games like chess and make it big, in terms of name, fame, and money. Our neighbours, India and China, have emerged as global chess powerhouses, giving global champs like Gukesh Dommaraju (19), Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa (19), Vishwanathan Anand (56), and Ding Liren (32). 

For Gukesh, 2024 started with him becoming the youngest-ever winner of the Candidates tournament and ended with him becoming the youngest-ever world chess champion, after beating Ding Liren in the World Chess Championship in Singapore. As per media reports, Gukesh earned $15,778.42 in prize money in 2024. This shows that the cerebral game holds great prospects for our sharp minds as well. 

Our government spends large sums on the development of big infrastructure such as stadiums, courts, and playgrounds for physical games, which is commendable. 

Time has indeed come for the government to focus on nurturing ace players in cerebral games like chess by catching them young and preserving our indigenous cerebral games like Baghchal, in collaboration with the private sector, corporate sponsors in particular, by committing a bit of resources.

(The author is a freelancer.)