By Ellen Kuwana Neuroscience for Kids Staff Writer
December 17, 2002
"If you have red hair, you might want to talk to your anesthesiologist before having surgery--and request more anesthesia! A study has shown that women with naturally red hair require up to 20% more anesthesia than dark-haired women.
Researchers administered a commonly used inhalation anesthetic, desflurane, to 20 women (10 redheads and 10 non-redhead controls) between the ages of 19 and 40 years. The researchers then gave small electric shocks to the anesthetized women to measure their pain response. Compared to the non-redheads, the redheads required more anesthesia to reach what the experts judged an "optimum" dose. The optimum dose was determined by the amount of anesthesia needed to suppress movement in response to the small electrical shocks. Because this is a small study and only women were tested, more research needs to be done before generalizations can be made.
Everyone has a unique response to pain. Something that is unbearably painful to one person might be only mildly painful to another. Attention to pain may also influence the perception of that pain.
Redheads, however, apparently feel pain more than most other people because of a quirk of genetics that is linked to having red hair."
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