Stoic Redheads ("redheads can withstand up to 25% more pain than their blond and brunet peers do")

The New York Times Magazine ^ | 12/11/05 | Amy Sullivan

[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."

[number_one_gypsy]

You get what you expect. Red heads are very sensitive. We know when someone doesnt like us. Maybe you should look at the evil in you

[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from 12/11/2005. Thanks paulat.

• The Pain of Being a Redhead [2009]
• Redheads are better at coping with pain [2005]
• Gene for Red Hair May Help Suppress Pain in Women [2003]
• (Redheads)That Flaming Hair Could Mean Flaming Pain - Study [2002]

[usconservative]

I'm a red head.

My mother (deceased) was a red head.

My grandmother (deceased) on my father's side was a red head, straight from County Cork, Ireland.

My youngest son is a red head.

My oldest son gets "hints" of red in his hair during the summer when he gets a lot of sunshine. Otherwise he has his mother's color hair (dirty blonde I think it's called?)

While none of my siblings are red heads, my sister has a red headed son.

My younger brother (now deceased) has a red headed daughter.

My youngest brother also has red headed daughter.

When the five of us red head's are in the same place, I call us the Master Race and tell my neice's and nephew's to help me plot our take-over. :-)

[usconservative]

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.

Scientifically proven that red heads require LESS pain medication and tolerate higher thresholds of pain than most others.

As an example, I've been through four major lower back surgeries. One of those back surgeries was to repair a break in a spinal fusion I'd had four years prior after slipping on some ice and falling square on my arse causing the break.

I walked around like that for six weeks occasionally telling my wife that my back hurt, but never took a single pain med. It was after six weeks that I called my Orthopedic Neurosurgeon and asked to go into his office to get checked out. Had an MRI that day which showed how I broke the spinal fusion I'd had done four years prior and had the surgery to repair it the following week.

I didn't take a single pain pill after the surgery, and was back at work in just under three weeks after having the surgery. That was back in 2009.

In February of 2013 I fell on some ice and shattered my right elbow while trying to get in my truck to go home after work. Ended up driving myself home and was able to shift until I had to put my truck in park when I pulled into my garage almost an hour later. That's when I realized something was wrong. Go figure.

Surgery to repair elbow, six weeks in a cast followed by several months of physical therapy to get the motion and strength back, and I didn't take a single pain pill.

We red head's are tough sons a bitches.

[usconservative]

Red hair is a remnant trait of Neanderthals.

Erik the Red was a red head. Red Hair has been traced back to the Nord's and the Vikings. Neanderthal's not so much.

[CodeToad]

Gingers...Nemo Valkyrja....

[usconservative]

A red headed kid kicked my ass all the way home from school even though he had a big time nose bleed and a busted lip. Last time I ever jumped on a red head.

I remember that day. ;-)

When I was growing up back in the days of dinosaurs, I got picked on quite a bit because of my red hair and I was at that time relatively small for my age.

Getting in fights all the time because you're "different" than the other kids teaches you quite a bit, especially when it comes to learning how to fight.

I won't sit here and say I won every fight I was ever in, because I didn't. Those who started a fight with me though damn' sure knew they were in a fight when it was over. Not very many came back for a second try either.

When my two sons were born I was worried they'd be picked on too, especially my youngest who has long, red, wavy hair like I did when I was his age.

Both of my sons were enrolled in Taekwondo at a young age and both have their Second Degree black belts. Oldest will be testing for his Third Degree when he comes home from college for Christmas.

Needless to say I don't worry about either of my sons getting in physical altercations. Especially with my youngest son who's quite good and has the size to defend himself easily.