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."

[paulat]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1538367/posts

From my previous post.

[cripplecreek]

In my experience they can inflict at least 25% more pain than brunettes and blondes.

[FEARED MUTATION]

Celts?

[Appalled but Not Surprised]

My Titian-haired wife is proof of this: she is still married to me in spite of the pain I cause....

[the anti-liberal]

Explains the fightin' Irish...

[spkpls4]

My husband and children would tell you they (redheads) inflict more than 25% more pain . . .

[Andy from Beaverton]

Must see: http://media.putfile.com/South-Park-Ginger-Kids/320

[Gay State Conservative]

Then how do you explain Maureen Dowd?

[cake_crumb]

Interesting.

[spkpls4]

Maybe she gets hers from a bottle . . .

[VOA]

My husband and children would tell you they (redheads) inflict
more than 25% more pain . . .

LOL...with this artilce, I now understand two readheads in my family...

[digger48]

In my experience they can inflict at least 25% more pain than brunettes and blondes.

That's exactly what I was going to write when I saw the headline. Seem's I have always ended up with redheads!

[cake_crumb]

"In my experience they can inflict at least 25% more pain than brunettes and blondes."

Maybe that's why hubby and I both get along. We both have red hair and get mad at the same things

[ChadGore]

I find your lack of pictures disturbing.

[Dashing Dasher]

I know how you love your red heads.

[mwyounce]

That's exactly what I was going to write when I saw the headline. Seem's I have always ended up with redheads!

They say "Blondes have more fun," but in my experience, it's much more exciting to be with a redhead.... Life is never predictable, that's for sure! Ha ha.

[SteveMcKing]

You meant 52%, I believe.

[SALChamps03]

This might explain why redheads are so wild in the sack!!!

[DB]

I've got red hair.

I don't seem to tolerate pain well. Inflicting pain, well that's different...

[Robert A. Cook, PE]

Oh.

MoDO inflicts MUCH MORE than her share of the 25% more pain......

[Servant of the 9]

In my experience they can inflict at least 25% more pain than brunettes and blondes.

So true.

So9

[cripplecreek]

I've always liked brunettes and redheads but I married a blonde. She evens me out like lithium.

[paulat]

I find your lack of pictures disturbing.

Sweetie...I ain't postin' no chick pics....

[eleni121]

I sincerely hope one of my tax money helped fund this crap.

[aft_lizard]

[DougSc]

Dowd is a BIG pain the the a$$.

[digger48]

Seems I've ended up with redheads without KNOWING they were redheads, if you know what I mean.

[CindyDawg]

Ah, guys do yall see anywhere is this article that states this is about women?:')

[TASMANIANRED]

Consider yourself blessed.

[cripplecreek]

Ah, guys do yall see anywhere is this article that states this is about women?:')

Trust me, it is in my imagination.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

My dad is redheaded and heavily freckled from top of head to toes.

He has needed to have a knee replacement for about 15 years, and won't do it.

Maybe this research explains why he's managed to last so long without it.

[Alberta's Child]

Interesting ping. LOL

[theFIRMbss]

[paulat]

[JRios1968]

Uh oh, you mentioned MoDo...

[CindyDawg]

Two of my sons are red headed . 3 of my 4 grandkids are red headed. The 4th is a strawberry blond.

[mmercier]

I dated a red head once. She was able to cause 25% more pain than any girl I ever knew.

[MotleyGirl70]

Ninety percent of the redheaded women I've ever know are evil. Especially those in the workplace--I don't what it is. They're extra b!itchy.

Just my personal experience.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

My dad looks just like his great uncle...lots of Scots blood in this side of the family...after all they are Donaldsons intermarried with Wallaces...somewhere back there a healthy dose of Viking blood, no doubt.

[Theresawithanh]

I'm a brunette, albeit from a bottle now, and I'm a weenie when it comes to pain. Doc, gimme the strongest stuff ya got!

One of my best friends is a redhead, and she is fiery, fun and fierce!

[MotleyGirl70]

Oops. Typo.

I don't KNOW what it is.

[theFIRMbss]

>I find your lack of pictures disturbing

"Don't try to frighten
us with your sorcerer's ways,
Lord Vader. Your sad

devotion to that
ancient religion has not
helped you conjure up

a sexy redhead
or even a sexy ghost
of a dead redhead!"

[paulat]

Ah, guys do yall see anywhere is this article that states this is about women?:')

The only three red-headed men I can think of are: Carrot Top; Conan O'Brien and Arthur Godfrey.

Conan doesn't do it for me...Godfrey's dead...and Carrot Top is questionable as a male human....

[July4th64]

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. When ever I go to the dentist, they get out the elephant darts. I never get bit by mosquitos because I feel them and kill them 80% of the time before they get me.

[CindyDawg]

How about bald guys? Some red heads shave their heads because they don't like getting teased.

[RedBeaconNY]

and some'd rather whip you @$$.

As a redhead, I take option 2.

[RedBeaconNY]

you = your

[theFIRMbss]

>Some red heads shave their heads because they don't like getting teased

A real man would just
put his excellent good looks
to work earning cash!

[CindyDawg]

Huh. I was born with copper colored ringlets. I'm a relaxed reddish blond now. Aren't chemicals amazing? Anyway, I hurt like everyone else, I guess but people think I don't. It's just that drugs go right to me and I would rather not take them until I get to the point that I can't stand it.

[MotleyGirl70]

Red heads don't do it for me either. I prefer men with dark hair.

...and Carrot Top is questionable as a male human....

Lol!

Some of his shtick is funny if you haven't seen a hundred times.