Here's an intriguing idea. Cut the amount of alcohol you drink and slow down the graying of your hair.

A report in the Archives of Dermatology by Australian researcher Dr. Albert S. Reece showed that people with drinking problems had twice as much prematurely gray hair as those who didn't.

Is there a connection? Turns out that alcohol can halt the production of melanocytes, Dr. Reece said. These are the cells that give hair its pigment. And if you're already gray, imbibing less could even help restore some of your original color, he claims.

Dr. Reece, who's from Brisbane, sampled hair from 196 patients who had a history of addiction to drugs or alcohol and 79 others who did not. He found that 53 percent of the addicts had substantial gray hair vs. 16 percent of the nonaddicts. The average age for both groups was the early 30s.

Apparently three drinks a day is enough to be toxic to hair color over time, he said.