Why Is Melanin Beneficial? It Affects Hair Color, Eye Color, And More.

Eye color is a crucial indicator used to identify an individual's appearance when they are in the media or interacting with others as well as by national and state databases like the driver's license division or passport office. Eye color is also a trait that we use to define our personal identity. Despite the widespread significance of this characteristic, very few people know the science behind why eyes their hue.

The color of your eyes is determined through genetics obviously but the genes involved with the color of your eyes are directly linked to the production, usage, and storage of a pigment known as melanin. The melanin pigment does not only affect eye color but also affects the tone and color "of our hair and skin also," explains Dustin Portela Do, a dermatologist board-certified and the founder of Treasure Valley Dermatology in Boise, Idaho.

Is melanin a substance?

Melanin is a natural substance or pigment made by skin cells that are special melanocytes that reside on the face, hair follicles eyelids, and various other areas in the body. While all people have the same number of melanocytes, certain people have more production of melanin than others. The more melanin an individual produces the more dark their skin, hair, and eyes will be.

Alongside the amount of melanin that is produced, the nature of melanin is also important. The melanin produced is of three main kinds of melanin pigments that are eumelanin, Pheomelanin, and neuromelanin.

Eumelanin is the reason for dark shades in the hair, eyes, and skin, "and is more common for those with brown or black eyes and hair," says Shilpi Khetarpal, MD, a dermatologist at the Cleveland Clinic.

The pheomelanin hormone contributes to lighter skin tone and hair color and is more prevalent in those who have the color red and blonde hair. The eumelanin and the pheomelanin regulate the hues of these obvious features, and neuromelanin influences the neurons of the brain and helps protect against neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's disease.

What causes melanin?

Every type of melanin can be "genetically defined," says Khetarpal - with the individual melanin levels being determined by race, genetics, and race as well as other environmental factors and secondary ones.

Portela mentions that these factors are hormonal production and aging, the amount of exposure to sunlight, and medical conditions. Based on Johns Hopkins Medicine melanin deficiency or irregularities can cause a variety of pigment problems.

This includes albinism (albinos) which causes blonde hair that is white, light skin, and blue eyes; melasma, which results in dark patches appearing on the face; as well as vitiligo, which creates smooth, white patches on the skin.

Is melanin having it beneficial or harmful?

As well as adding "to the diversity of human appearance, with different hair, skin and eye hues," Portela says, melanin has other essential purposes. "Having melanin in your body is a wonderful thing, and is an important adaptation for us to shield our skin from harmful consequences of sun's UV radiations," he says.

He says that when skin is exposed to sunlight "the melanocytes make more melanin and melanin is absorbed into normal skin cells as it moves to areas on your face." When this happens it sucks up and disperses UV radiation that helps protect the layers beneath the skin from harm caused by excessive UVA and UVB radiation, which includes sunburn and skin cancer.

Due to the importance of melanin's protection, those who have an inherited loss of pigment have at greater chance of being diagnosed with sun-related cancer and being affected by sunburn or vision loss. "Melanin manufacturing is a complicated process that plays an essential function in protecting the skin and the body," says Portela.