Redhead Reactions
by It is often said that redheads have a more fiery temperament than others with different hair color. This brief articles shows how they are also different in many other respects too.
New research shows that redheads are less sensitive to skin pain than perhaps blondes and brunettes are. This discovery helps to see that redheads basicly react differently to pain than other people with different hair colors.
Specifically, researchers have found that redheads are less sensitive to the searing pain in the skin that are induced by capsaicin, the active ingredient in chili, which is injected under the skin to create pain.
It’s not as painful for them either when pressed close to the painful area with a nylon string or stick. It is as if they are a bit better protected from pain. In other areas, redheads seem to be tougher than people with other hair color:
- They respond less to an electrical shock
- They are more susceptible to anesthesia
- They respond stronger painkillers
But in other areas they are weaker:
- They are more sensitive to cold
- They are less susceptible to anesthesia injected into the skin
- They get more teeth ache and are more afraid of dentists
- They have higher risk of developing multiple sclerosis and endometriosis
- Some studies indicate even that redheads are more ill, either because they would rather keep out of the sun and therefore lack in vitamin D or because their system to absorb vitamin D is poorer than other people.
Redheads react apparently more strongly to pain from heat and cold and find it difficult to be affected by local anesthetic – but are partially protected from the pain of chili and an electric shock and can easily be affected by morphine. This is mainly because different types of pain and different drugs produce different reactions, depending on how the person is put together.
We have some small pieces of the puzzle, which suggests that a redheads pain system is different and it is probably also important for how they react to drugs too. And it’s really, really important to know that redheads are less effected by local anesthetic, but there’s a better effect from morphine.
Doctors have for years noticed that redheads reacted differently to various treatments, but that suspicion has only substantiated in recent decades – is it the redheads genes?
This could mean, that the future of medicine will perhaps become more tailored to suit the individual patient, for example. the redheads. The future of so much medical care is within the Personalized Medicine and individualized treatment, which would instead treat the patient’s genetic profile.
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