No wonder I’m a wimp!
Science October 15th, 2002 |According to a report to the American Society of Anaesthesiologists, natural redheads (yup, like me) have a higher sensitivity to pain.
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.
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p>So hey, I’ve got an excuse for wimping out now, right?
Ow.
Quit it.
Ow.
Quit it.
Thanks to /. — there’s some more interesting info on redheaded genetic quirks in the comments, too!
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2 Responses to “No wonder I’m a wimp!”
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Michael Hanscom
Ryan Waddell
Michelle
Curt
Jess
October 15th, 2002 at 3:57 pm
Odd. You are one of the least wimpish people I know.
Love
Dad
October 16th, 2002 at 1:19 am
hm, from what i read on cnn, its not that you’re more sensitive to pain (ie you “hurt” more than yellowheads, whiteheads, brownheads, and blackheads (ha)) just that its harder to block your pain receptors. if you’ve spent any time learning about things like prozac and how they work (sucking up chemicals so your cells don’t get them, or like anesthesia, flooding your cells with a chemical to ‘help’ them with something) then you can understand that anesthesia chemicals attach to your cells and keep them from sending or receiving pain signals, or some such idea.
the reason why it is harder to block your receptors is because you have some wierd deficiency with melatonin, which explains why redheads burn better than they tan. this same deficiency creates an excess of melatonin in your system, and they think that this has something to do with it - the anesthesia and melatonin are intereacting in such a way (I’m guessing the melatonin latches on to the anesthesic chemicals and nullifies them) so that the pain can still get in. that means that you have to be given more chemicals for the same job.
phew. the same explanation done better can be found at CNN.
So your Dad is right - you’re officially not a wimp!