Can Fear Actually Cause Death or Turn Hair White?

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The discussion centers around the concept of dying from fear and the phenomenon of hair turning white due to extreme stress. The original poster questions the validity of these claims after watching Wes Craven's "People Under the Stairs." They reference anecdotal stories, including Australian Aboriginal rituals where individuals allegedly die from fear or curses. The conversation acknowledges the brain's significant influence on the body, suggesting that intense fear could potentially lead to severe physical reactions, such as a heart attack. However, the idea of hair turning white as a direct result of fear remains unsubstantiated, despite cultural references like a song mentioning a similar occurrence. Overall, while the psychological impact of fear is recognized, the physical manifestations, particularly hair color change, lack scientific backing.
thunderfvck
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Hi.
I just finished watching Wes Craven's "People Under the Stairs" (hilarious) and there was one scene that brought something up. There was this guy who, as a result of being scared so badly, his hair turned white and he died. Is there any truth to this? Do people really get scared to death? Does their hair really turn white? I really don't think so but I thought I'd ask to make sure.
 
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I've heard stories of Australian Aboriginal tribal rituals whereby someone found guilty of commiting a serious crime would be danced around, chanted at etc etc, and at the climax of the ritual the central dance guy would essentially point a bone at the accused and they would die.

I haven't had this story 'confirmed' in any regards, but I don't have to much difficulty believeing it to be possible. I mean, the brain exercises tremendous power over our bodies, and if the brain is truley convinced that it is about to die, then it is possibly that it could trigger a body wide shut down...or simply cause a heart attack from stress.

I don't know about the white hair though.

Although it was mentioned in that song "mmm mmm mmm mmm", that a kid was in a car crash and ended up with white hair. *shrugs*
 
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Popular article referring to the BA.2 variant: Popular article: (many words, little data) https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/17/health/ba-2-covid-severity/index.html Preprint article referring to the BA.2 variant: Preprint article: (At 52 pages, too many words!) https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.14.480335v1.full.pdf [edited 1hr. after posting: Added preprint Abstract] Cheers, Tom

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