Tuesday 16 December 2008

Pain and Hair



When threatened with something mildly hurtful, like an injection, my father often feigned fear and claimed that he felt pain more than other people (I know he was feigning, because he was given a DSC in the war, and you don't get those for good hand-writing).

I didn't inherit his valour gene, but I have borrowed his line about feeling pain more than other people from time to time.

Research at the University of Louisville in 2002 discovered that people with red hair are more sensitive to pain, and consequently need more anaesthetic during operations than other patients. In people with red hair, the cells that produce skin and hair pigment have a dysfunctional melanocortin-1 receptor. This dysfunction triggers the release of more of the hormone that stimulates these cells, but this hormone also stimulates a brain receptor related to pain sensitivity.

Research at the University of Edinburgh in 2005 discovered that redheaded women have a higher tolerance of pain and consequently require less anaesthetic. Normally the melanocortin-1 gene produces a protein that reduces the efficacy of opiate drugs, but without a functional gene, natural and artificial painkillers appear to induce a threefold stronger effect in redheaded women.

So there you are, it's official; redheaded people feel pain more than other people. Or less. This may explain my predilection for anaesthetic around 6pm. Or not.

22 comments:

  1. I'm glad we've got that one figured out!
    :-)
    Pearl

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  2. The moral of the story is surely to always carry a good supply of various sorts of painkillers then?

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  3. My hair has a touch of red in it and is more visible on days when I have a dentist's appointment.

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  4. Pearl - Absolutely. Plain as peanut butter.

    Lulu - Hello and welcome. And yes, I think you're right. Gin; scotch; wine; laudenum; all the essential ones (but not necessarily in that order).

    Steve - Hi Ginge! (You've just won the wittiest comment of the week award, which I'm currently fashioning from a goblet of pink glycerine of thymol and mercury amalgam).

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  5. I'm a brunette with natural red highlights and I have got a very high threshold of pain - but then I would say that :)

    You do sound scientific though - is this your thing?

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  6. Fancy - My thing, as a town and country planner, was to talk (or write) a lot of complete bull from a position of breath-taking ignorance, and sound as though I knew exactly what I was talking about.

    I was good.

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  7. How interesting! I always used to dye my hair red but I don't suppose that counts.

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  8. Sarah - That might require a whole new line of research. At the dentist it would probably help for the average filling, but not so well for root treatment.

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  9. Ha! Well I have no red hair at all.....but I am supposed to have a high pain threshold.....on the other hand, I am very fond of Gin and ibuprofen....
    Hmmmm...!!

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  10. My ex has red hair, he sure caused a lot of pain but I guess that's not quite your point is it? (And then there's the fact that my "best friend" ran off with him, she dyed her hair red too...)

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  11. Yes, glad we solved that one!
    It's 6pm SOMEWHERE! Have a Da Kine on me . . . . Aloha-

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  12. Being someone with a particular fondness for redheaded women, I feel their pain.

    Redhead blokes though, I couldn't give a monkeys for. No offence or owt. ;-)

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  13. Justme - That sounds like an interesting cocktail. I must try it.

    Amanda - Thereby proving herself to be a scarlet woman... Blue not your favourite colour, then?

    Cloudia - Slainte, and thanks!

    Rol - 'Relief' pipped 'miffed' at the post.

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  14. I went out with a town planner once - well, not once, quite a few times. Wouldn't it be funny if he were you.

    Is the initial of your first name 'M'?

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  15. I remember before I had an operation I was told that a redhead would scar hideously but I probably wouldn't, maybe the first study was retrospective and the redheads later looked down at where their white-coated experimenter had gone at their arm with a blade, and on seeing the hideous scarring had claimed that the pain was unbearable. But then maybe the pain testing was more of a kind of flick/pinch/kick sort of thing rather than attack of the blades...

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  16. Fancy - That would be weird! My surname begins with M. Were we very formal? Normally I'm an R. As in Rod, or Roddy, or Roderick. (Or even Ruaraidh if I'm feeling gaelic). But I suppose I might have known him...

    Mega - I wonder what they tell the redheads? "You'll scar hideously" isn't the ideal pre-op reassurance. I'm putting my money on your flick/kick/pinch theory. Or chinese burns.

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  17. This is why I color my hair too, but the red pigment still stick out its head and play havoc.

    BTW, what do they mean with red haired/pigmented women having a higher tolerance? That is complete prejudiced as far as I'm concerned. My low pain tolerance is a practical joke amongst family members.

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  18. My youngest is a red head; this could explain a lot .....

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  19. I'm just too sensitive for this world! (poetic swoon)

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  20. Extra - You did make rather a fuss over that itzy little hermit crab.

    Completely - Speaking from my own perspective, she deserves special treatment and plenty of chocolate.

    Laura - But, we suspect, below lies the heart and stomach of a king...

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  21. I'm afraid I had to turn the noise down, Brother T. Rather painful to my ears. My hair (what's left of it) is grey. What does it mean?

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  22. Can Bass - Wise and distinguished, perhaps? (Or are you the wolf to our foxes?)

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