"Don't try to frighten
us with your sorcerer's ways,
Lord Vader. Your sad
devotion to that
ancient religion has not
helped you conjure up
a sexy redhead
or even a sexy ghost
of a dead redhead!"
Posted on 12/11/2005 2:03:17 PM PST by paulat
Stoic Redheads
By AMY SULLIVAN Published: December 11, 2005
Redheads have long been portrayed in literature and art as strong-willed and fiery. Now there may be a scientific explanation for these traits. The key, according to researchers at McGill University in Montreal, is a gene that is linked both to red hair coloring and to higher levels of pain tolerance. It has been known since the mid-1990's that mutations of the MC1R gene are responsible for hair color - and fair skin and freckles - in about 70 percent of redheads. But when Jeffrey S. Mogil and his colleagues at McGill set out to find a genetic link to pain inhibition, MC1R wasn't at the top of their list of targets. "We normally only get excited about genes in the brain when it comes to pain," he says. "This is in the skin." There was, however, a little-noticed paper that said MC1R was in fact expressed in the brain. It was enough of a clue to go on.
So, earlier this year, Mogil ran some mice through a battery of pain tests, using mice with the red-hair gene as his test group. (A collaborator in the Netherlands ran the same study with humans, giving them electrical shocks to the leg.) When animals and humans experience pain, their brains release natural opiates similar to morphine. In most cases, however, the MC1R gene produces a protein that interferes with the efficacy of those substances as well as of artificial painkillers. What Mogil found is that the variant of MC1R that causes red hair also appears to allow these opiates to work unimpeded. As a result, redheads can withstand up to 25 percent more pain than their blond and brunet peers do before saying "stop."
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I don't KNOW what it is.
"Don't try to frighten
us with your sorcerer's ways,
Lord Vader. Your sad
devotion to that
ancient religion has not
helped you conjure up
a sexy redhead
or even a sexy ghost
of a dead redhead!"
The only three red-headed men I can think of are: Carrot Top; Conan O'Brien and Arthur Godfrey.
Conan doesn't do it for me...Godfrey's dead...and Carrot Top is questionable as a male human....
I read just the opposite in Readers Digest...if you have read hair you actually need more pain killers than average. I have red hair and I can vouch for that. When ever I go to the dentist, they get out the elephant darts. I never get bit by mosquitos because I feel them and kill them 80% of the time before they get me.
How about bald guys? Some red heads shave their heads because they don't like getting teased.
As a redhead, I take option 2.
you = your
A real man would just
put his excellent good looks
to work earning cash!
Huh. I was born with copper colored ringlets. I'm a relaxed reddish blond now. Aren't chemicals amazing? Anyway, I hurt like everyone else, I guess but people think I don't. It's just that drugs go right to me and I would rather not take them until I get to the point that I can't stand it.
...and Carrot Top is questionable as a male human....
Lol!
Some of his shtick is funny if you haven't seen a hundred times.
Before or after the 4 pints of Guiness?
At least...there was one once living on Hoover Rd in SP,WI 25% more on an light day....:)
Considering the fact that I'm not feeling well due to a few glasses of wine, I would say, anyone can withstand more pain than me, not just redheads, lol.
What a guy:')
Yeah, I agree. I told my youngest he could do what he wanted with his but if he shaved those two darling babies heads I would whip his. I meant it too.
They must mean physical pain, because in my experience redheads are about as touchy as they come.
The majority of Celts, including those in Scotland and Ireland, are brunette. Blond would be second, followed by red.
Bwa=hahahah. My wife is a redhead, and the woman can take pain. She had a spinal tap once with absolutely no numbing. Ugh!
Is she single? :^) Mmm...
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