Redheads May Be More Sensitive To Pain, According To Specialists
This news will get an interesting reception in our house, which has a resident 15-year-old redheaded boy (literally, my redheaded stepchild...), who is just about the cutest teenager imaginable (and no, "cute" and "teenager" are not mutually exclusive). It does offer an explanation for the questions I've had about how he deals with pain. Perhaps it really DOES hurt more than I might think.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Redheads may actually have another trait that makes them stand out -- sensitivity to pain, specialists reported on Tuesday.
People with natural red hair need about 20 percent more anesthesia than people with other hair colors, they told a meeting of anesthesiologists. The unexpected finding not only suggests that redheads are more sensitive to pain, but offers insights into how anesthesia works in people.
"Red hair is the first visible human trait, or phenotype, that is linked to anesthetic requirement," Dr. Edwin Liem of the University of Louisville in Kentucky said in a statement.
"In a nutshell, redheads are likely to experience more pain from a given stimulus and therefore require more anesthesia to alleviate that pain," he added.
Liem, who reported his findings to a meeting in Orlando, Florida of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, said the finding is important news for specialists who monitor patients during surgery.
"The art and science of anesthesiology is choosing the right dose," he said. "There is very little difference between the effective dose and the toxic dose of most anesthetics. Patients can awaken during surgery if they are given insufficient anesthesia or suffer cardiac and pulmonary complications when they are given too much."
He said scientists do not fully understand how anesthesia works, but the findings offers clues, as people with red hair have a certain genetic variant.
"Since red hair can be traced to particular mutations (variations) in the melanocortin 1 receptor, we now have the opportunity to evaluate central nervous system pathways that may influence or mediate anesthetic requirement," Liem said.
I have no idea whether this theory is credible or not. I was a History major, after all. Regardless, it does lend some credibility to the uniqueness of redheads. Though I barely understand the genetic mumbojumbo, it fascinates me that something as simple as hair color can create such a unique difference for an entire group of people.
