New Delhi :
A new study is breaking all mysteries behind dandruff and its growth. It is not caused by a fungus, opposed to what we all have heard and believed so far, but rather by an imbalance. Two competing bacteria, Propionibacterium and Staphylococcus, when hold each other in check, dandruff is also at bay but their imbalance, i.e when one dominate the other one, it gives rise to dandruff, a team of Chinese and Japanese researchers reported.
Dandruff is the most common hair problem on this planet. Experts for long have differed sharply on its causes and cures. “Micro-organisms on the scalp - especially fungi -- have been predominately thought to be the main cause of the development of dandruff,” they noted in the study, published in the Nature Group's Scientific Reports.
In this study, 59 Chinese volunteers aged from 18 to 60 years old, measured levels of water, several dozen bacteria, sebum -- an oily secretion that proliferates in adolescence and early adulthood -- and the allegedly villanous fungus, called Malassezia.
The participants washed their hair 48 hours in advance of the tests, and dandruff samples were taken from eight different sections of the scalp. It was found that fungi did not exhibit an important role in severity of dandruff. Relationship between bacteria and dandruff was also significantly stronger. Striking a balance between the two bacteria on the scalp could possibly help lessen dandruff.
