Redheads Need More Anesthesia than Others

Natural redheads need 20% more anesthesia than other people report scientists. "Redheads are likely to experience more pain from a given stimulus and therefore require more anesthesia to alleviate that pain." said Dr. Edwin Liem of the University of Louisville in Kentucky. Anesthesiology is still very much a mystery to scientists, and picking the right dosage that keeps someone out without killing them is still very much an art. Studies like this will help them determine how anesthesics work and why.

Comments

The real reason.

[President A. Lincoln]

They're just more pissy, thats all. Blondes go under real fast because theres not as much brain to put asleep.


Cheers,
Abe.

I'm going to the Dentist this week.

[teamhasnoi]

I'm going to dye my hair, print this article for my dentist, and I'll be FLYIN HIGH!

Thanks Slashdot!

What about... sex?

[boa13]

Do they need 20% less stimulation? :)

Re:What about... sex?

[Anonymous Coward]

My wife is a redhead. For her, more stimulation is better. (She's getting a Sybian for christmas. If you don't know how STIMULATING one of those can be... well, you need to do some "research".)

Another interesting thing... one orgasm is 'it' for her. After she has finished, she is so sensitive that she cannot tolerate being touched sexually. Perhaps that is somehow related to this research... (nerve sensitivity?)

Re:What about... sex?

[cscx]

She's getting a Sybian for christmas

Sounds like someone isn't getting the job done...

Re:What about... sex?

[the way, what're you]

She's getting a Sybian for christmas

Sounds like someone isn't getting the job done...

You know it's really for himself...

Re:What about... sex?

[AndroidCat]

Do some more research and you'll see! Plus, it's fun!

I haven't tried that line before. "It's not for me, you understand. This is for Science!" Hmm, it just might work.

Or in role-playing: Today I'll be the mad scientist and you be the sweet young innocent trapped in his experiments to measure pleasure thresholds. Now where's that lab coat?

Re:What about... sex?

[poot_rootbeer]

She's getting a Sybian for christmas
Sounds like someone isn't getting the job done...

Oh yeah, like YOU can vibrate and rotate at independently variable speeds...

at last, an answer!

[bradkittenbrink]

so that's why I spend so much on alcohol...

About red hair

[SexyKellyOsbourne]

Red hair is a phenotype particular only to scarce areas of Northern Europe, mostly in Scotland, Ireland, and Scandinavia -- even there, it is not entirely common.

Blazing red hair is a very recessive trait created entirely by past inbreeding in Europe -- and past inbreeding is a common heritage for Europe, as well, since most Europeans can trace their ancestors back to a very small group of perhaps a dozen Ice Age survivors. It requires not only a 3rd-level hair gene (0-3 for red), it also requires a very low lightness gene (0 for platinum blond, down thru 12 to pitch black), which is extremely recessive as well.

Since the trait is so recessive, the extinction of redheads is predicted to be sometime in the late 21st or early 22nd century, due to population implosion of the native populations of northern Europe and the traits being lost due to interbreeding with those with dominant dark-haired traits.

It's no surprise that redheads have other strange recessive genes that we are only now discovering -- this could prove to be very interesting, and could help a lot in future gene therapy.

Re:About red hair

[johnstein]

wow, i shoulda posted my response below as a reply here. (redheads losing their hair sooner). in fact i now remember a friend i knew from school who had light redish-blonde hair, however he kept it cut very short since his hair was thinning too.

heh, this revelation probably isn't so insightful for those geneticists out there, but it makes me more and more relieved that my mother's brown hair genes won the battle of my head.

-John

Re:About red hair

[The Tyro]

There is considerable genetic variation among racial groups with respect to many drugs.

For example, certain persons of american indian descent have an enzyme deficiency that results in certain paralytic drugs having a greatly prolonged duration of action. Naturally, this is not always something you want in a normally rapid-on/rapid-off neuromuscular blocking agent...

There are also racial tendencies with regard to what classes of blood pressure medications work best with certain racial groups.

This kind of variation (along with anatomic variants) can make the practice of medicine very challenging. Don't go into medicine if you don't like surprises!

Re:About red hair

[Quirk]

You wrote: "since most Europeans can trace their ancestors back to a very small group of perhaps a dozen Ice Age survivors."

I know this is the case for my family (german/danish). We've traced our family line on both sides to a brother and sister who barely avoided a slow cold death by crossing the Alps into the area around Cannes.

Re:About red hair

[Anonymous Coward]

> Red hair is a phenotype particular only to scarce
> areas of Northern Europe, mostly in Scotland,
> Ireland, and Scandinavia -- even there, it is not
> entirely common.

Nope. I know from friends and relatives that red hair is also found among North Indians (especially among Kashmiris), though it is certainly in the minority. My own hair is dark brown with red highlights. But then again, Indians seem to have a wide range of phenotypes in everything from eye, skin, and hair color to the shape of eyes and faces.

Indians in many ways appear often to be more a collection of thousands of micro-ethnicities than a single ethnic group. Though these micro-ethnicities shade into each other at the boundaries, there is a lot of variation between them. It would be interesting to see if the results presented in this study (conducted on people with European ancestry) could be replicated with Indians that have red hair. After all, it could be that this has nothing to do with red-hair in general, but only with a particular way of getting red hair.

Re:About red hair

[Jugalator]

this could prove to be very interesting, and could help a lot in future gene therapy.

It could also help archaeologists understand the predecessors of Homo Sapiens better, if the research saying the "redhead gene" might come from neanderthals is true.

I mean, if redheads are slightly more sensitive to pain somehow, I think it is very likely that neanderthals were as well. And this is things we would never know from "common", material studies alone.

Besides, isn't it thought that blondes are making room for brunettes as well, for reasons similar to what you mention?

Re:About red hair

[FishBoy23]

Man, imagine if you would've kept going and traced back to your GRAND-parents...

Re:About red hair

[msaavedra]

Your understanding of heredity is a little bit off. The examples you give are perfectly consistent with red hair being recessive, black hair dominant. Here's a simplification of how it works: imagine we have a gene with two alleles, let's call one 'R' for red, the other 'B' for black. Each person has two copies, so the redheaded parent has RR, the black-haired parent has BR. If you look at all the combinations the children could have, 1/2 would be BR (and have black hair), and 1/2 would be RR (and have red hair). For more information, draw a Punnett square, which should spell it out more clearly.

Note, however, that in real life, things are not quite that simple. Hair color is determined by the interaction of a number of genes. Thus, people don't have either pure black, pure blond, or pure red hair. There are many subtle variations.

Also, the other poster, troll or not, was completely wrong about redhead genes fading out because they are recessive. Genes do not change frequency within a population because they are recessive or dominant. If you read up on Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium why this is true should be clear. Note that in very small populations (under say, 10,000), genetic drift and other random changes in the gene pool could wipe out some variants, but redheads number in the millions worldwide; their genes are not in danger of vanishing any time soon.

Re:About red hair

[Alsee]

If black hair is the more dominant gene then how do you explain my family, parents red and black hair, 3 children all red ?

It means the parent with black hair has a dominant black-gene and a recessive red-gene, and the red-headed parent has two red-genes. Each child has a 50-50 chance of red or black hair. Three of a kind is not particularly unusual.

Red being a recessive gene means that redheads only have red-genes, a pair of redheads can only have redheaded children. People with black hair could have a hidden red-gene, and a pair of people with black hair could have a red-headed child.

-

Re:About red hair

[dj28]

Uh, the Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium theory doesn't work. There are five factors that can throw Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium off course: mutations, gene flow, genetic drift, non-random breeding, and natural selection. As you can see, Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium doesn't hold up in real life. Since genetic flow is a factor to people with red hair, then it will indeed change the allele frequency. So, the other poster is completely correct in his conclusions, and you are misguided.

Re:About red hair

[AndroidCat]

And if you have the gene for Malignant Hyperthemia Susceptibility, certain anaesthetics cause every muscle in your body to spasm, your core temperature skyrockets and you die. Don't talk to me about surprises!

Luckily, when my brother was having his appendix out, it was by the chief surgeon of Toronto General, who just happened to be a friend of Dr. Britt, who at the time was one of the foremost researchers into MHS. He knew exactly what to do. (Ice bath, keep the heart going...)

I almost certainly have the gene too, but the 100% test involves sampling a chunk of muscle tissue from a leg. I'll pass!

Re:About red hair

[AndroidCat]

Scotland in my case. I could see the Maritimes having just a bit of a Scottish background. :^P

Dr. Britt has since retired back to Britain or Ireland. Do you know of any current experts in the Toronto area? It's mainly for dental work -- all the current pain-killers are supposed to be safe, but some dentists freak when you tell them and want some expert to pass the blame to. (One dental surgeon's assistant backed up and said "Is it ongoing?" [Subtext: Can I catch it?] Yeah, ongoing all my life lady, come closer and I'll give you some MHS luvin' and cooties!)

My father has his teeth done at a hospital clinic but that's expensive. Email me or post if you know: androidcat99@hotmail.com.

There might be some bonus to the MHS genes -- Like how the genes for Sickle Cell give you resistance to Malaria if you don't get the full dose. It's hard for me to judge how other people's bodies work, but adrenaline does hit me like a pile-driver, so perhaps some ancestors made fine berserks? (As always, the pay-back is a bitch afterwards.) Bonus: I don't have to drink as much coffee to get completely jazzed!

The large calves might be due to the equivalent of a constant electro-stim "workout". Again, hard for me to judge, but another possible bonus is that during certain acts when muscles clench, they most certainly do, oh yeah!

disease? disorder? Condition, allergy? There is a blood test that can find 100% negative, but if you fail that, you only might have it. Sorry to hear about your girlfriend's family loss. As I said, we were damned lucky when my brother found out the hard way.

Re:About red hair

[AndroidCat]

Thanks!

"Bad" genes is funny things. If they had no benefit and only harm, they'd remove themselves from the pool eventually. (Like Queen Victoria's genetic time-bomb to her in-bred descendants.)

Some, like Sickle Cell as I said above, have a benefit if you don't get the double reenforcement. (Trivia: There's a different gene from Africa that also gives resistance to malaria, and has the same problem when reenforced.) The games theory math for these genes must be very tricky -- on the one hand, they provide a benefit in half-dose and so tend to spread. On the other hand, if they spread too much, they reenforce and tend to kill the host. (Perhaps there are no bad genes, just genes that are misunderstood?)

Mother Nature is the ultimate kludge-artist: "Okay, if I hack this gene, it'll increase blood-flow. It'll cause problems later, but that's tommorow's problem, sucks to be you." I mean, she wired the eye receptor cells with the I/O coming out of the front of the cell! Hopefully all that "unused" genetic information will turn out to be code comments (as well as version control).

Re:About red hair

[Spasemunki]

The 'Aryan' people who moved into India and provide the genetic background for a lot of Northern Indians were from Persia, not Europe. And while some of these Persians did continue to migrate into Europe later on, I don't think they made it as far as Scandinavia, where the red-headed gene has its genesis (red-heads in Ireland and other parts of Europe are largely a product of intermixing with Vikings). There aren't many red-headed Iranians that I know of, so it seems unlikely that Indian red-heads come from Persian stock.

On the other hand, there were a lot of European genes that moved through Asia Minor, India, and into Central Asia and China along the Silk Road. They've found ethnically Caucasian mummies in China that are a result of this migration and mixing. Unless the Kashmiri red-heads are a product of a local mutation that was concentrated in the population, it seems more likely that these genes were brought from Northern Europe much later than the Aryan immigration from Persia. The Vikings got around, so it seems reasonable that they might have sent some genetic material into the near-east and the subcontinent one way or another.

Re:About red hair

[MAurelius]

Thanks for posting your experience with MH, which is every anethesiologist's nightmare. I know, because I'm an anesthesiologist. Obviously, it's critical that everyone like you with a strong family history of this disease, tell their anesthesiologist before any surgery!!

At the risk of being off-topic, I also wanted to say that people like you can be safely anesthetized without triggering an MH episode. I just had a patient like you last week with a similar family history. At our hospital, we have a special vapor-free anesthesia machine, which supplies only oxygen and Nitrous Oxide (N2O), which are both safe. We use muscle relaxants that are known to be safe (succinlycholine is NOT safe) and in my case last week I ran infusions of propofol and alfentanil for the six-hour lumbar spinal fusion (patient in prone position). The young man (37 y/o) did fine and woke up with no memory of the surgery and relatively little post-op pain. The patient had an epidural catheter for post-op pain control, using morphine by continuous drip.

Marcus

I Doubt It

[e8johan]

This proves that correlation studies can be used to find many results. You can find that statistically, red-heads feel pain easier, but this does not say anything about any single individual.
There is a reason to why one says "lies, damn lies and statistics. Correlation has been used to "prove" many things such as racist ideas (superiority due to colour), intelligence from weight etc. A good correlation between two parameters does *not* prove that they are connected!

Re:I Doubt It

[JMemmert]

I concur with the above statement and would like to add some more comments.
I am a dark blonde with no redheads in my family for roughly three generations back (No jokes about inbreeding here, please. ;-))
My tolerance for novocaine, diazepam (valium) and a host of other anesthetics is about 12x normal (tripple the dosage, 1/4th of the duration) and has puzzled more than one specialist. The result of careful analysis has shown that my body eliminates most anesthetics at a much higher rate than normal.
My pain level is no higher or lower than average though my sensitivity to stimuli is much higher than average (I can read a photocopy with my fingertips, sometimes even writing in ink).
Based on that point of data, I'd say that equating sensitivity to stimuli to sensitivity to pain, as it has happened in many posts is probably not a good (i.e. valid) idea. I should be screaming of pain most the time if this were true.
Only empirical evidence with a very limited set of data, I know, but as e8johan stated: "but this does not say anything about any single individual".
The next question is whether sensitivity to pain has any relevance to the effect of an anesthetic.
If I remember correctly, local anesthetics work vastly different from general anesthesia by targeting different areas in the body.
[1] states that Novocaine et al. supress the transmission of stimuli through the nerve while general anesthetics act in the brain ([2] has something about some anesthetics triggering the sleep cycle, for others, I don't know).
Desflurane now is a geneal anesthetic, acting in the brain. So, any reference to "I can do this, I can do that" that does not duplicate the function of a geneal anesthetic is useless...
This means that my impressive tolerance for Novocaine et al. does not have any significance for the research performed as it targets a different type of anesthetic. The same goes for many other comments along the same lines, including alcohol.
Alcohol acts as an inhibitor ([3] states: "Alcohol acts primarily at the GABAa receptor to facilitate its action, thus in essence creating enhanced inhibition.") but does not have a sufficiently strong effect that the person affected could consciously compare it to a geneal anesthetic...
As for the use of alcohol as geneal anesthetic, which would be the next logical argument... it's not been very effective prior to complete unconsciousness and the level and speed of alcohol absorption plays a huge role. That also rules out any comment along the lines of "I can drink more than an ox".

I won't ask for people to check what they're writing for relevance... after all, I enjoy many of the comments I read here, but it is considered bad style to criticize the work of others without enough commonalities between the work and the critical remarks.

Re:I Doubt It

[Alsee]

A good correlation between two parameters does *not* prove that they are connected!

It prooves they are correlated. :)
I'd consider that a connection. I assume you meant to say it doesn't prove causation.

-

Re:I Doubt It

[Fjord]

I agree with you, kind of. The problem here is that they are trying to assign causation: redheads need more anethetic because they feel more pain. There's nothing here that supports that. Instead, taking a needle and pricking people with verious hair colours would determine a hair-color/pain senstitivity link. There are just too many other factors, most notably how redheads process the anethesic. Maybe they need more because they have a higher tolerance for outside chemical changes.

But it does show that redheads need more anethetic on average, that's what correlation is.

This article is a big steaming pile

[rhodesbe]

I am a redhead who is dating a redhead, and who has red haired relatives all over my family tree. I can tell you that redhead pain sensitivity is no more or less than anyone else. You can believe what you want, but just remember: If you tell an irishman he can't handle pain, he'll cut his own balls off to prove it, then he'll shove them down your throat and stomp your ass into a mudhole so you remember. Believe me.

Redneck Redhead Study?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Redheads are likely to experience more pain from a given stimulus and therefore require more anesthesia to alleviate that pain."

It took scientists to figure this out?! I thought we'd all known for years that redheads, especially ladies, experience more pain from the simple act of a stranger saying hello than they do from passing a kidney-stone. Why, the last time I tried to say "hey, how are you?" to a lovely redheaded girl, I thought I was about to lose my manhood in a horrific accident! Short fuses, and all...

Then again, these were scientists from the University of Kentucky. Who better to study redheads, than rednecks?

On a serious note, this doesn't surprise me too much. Redheads are well known for having extremely sensitive skin. Ever see a redhead with a tan? If you have, it was a rarity, most redheads go straight from pasty-white to fire-engine red; freckles (another sensitivity based reaction to the sun) are more common among redheads than folks with locks of other colors. So it seems logical that this would extrapolate to other areas of pain and sensitivity.

Bart Wilkins

I can see it

[The Bungi]

Taco: holy shit guys, there are more stories about Micro$oft [with emphasis on the '$' - Eds] than Linux today!!1!!

Chrisd: I know.

Taco: well, do soemethiung abouttit man!!1!

Chrisd: Some poor schmuck submitted a storie a few minutes ago about the effect of anesthesis on readhe...

Taco: yeah, post that. Do it!!1!!

Chrisd: Are you sure???

Taco: Do it, dammit!!!1!1!

Chrisd: OK...

Obligitory Kids In The Hall Reference

[zephc]

Red-Haired Girls

[Setting: A Tree-Filled Field in the Woods.]
[The It's A Fact Girl jumps in front of the camera and into a close up.]

It's A Fact Girl: It's A Fact.

[The It's A Fact Girl runs back into the woods, in sped up motion. When she stops, Scott as The Queen of England leans over in front of the camera and smiles as she addresses it.]

Scott: Hello. When I was a little girl, if a child was born with red hair, she was considered irreparably evil and drowned as a witch. It's a fact!

New Department?

[BoBaBrain]

Redheads Need More Anesthesia than Others

What section is this, ChrisD's lurve tips?

I don't buy their conclusion.

[Dynedain]

I'm blonde, but can see light tinges of red in my facial hair...it comes from my grandmother who's a natural strawberry blonde; my uncle is definately a redhead.

What I've noticed is that when it comes to alcohol, caffiene, and other intoxicants/stimulants, I need a much higher dosage to feel the effects. I have a higher alcohol tolerance than antyone I know, matched only by a binge drinker who weighs 60 lbs more than I do.

I don't think that I'm more susceptible to pain either. Friends frequently refer to me as the guy with the 'asbestos hands'. If anything, I have a higher pain tolerance than most.

Drugs, just like pain and other nerve stimulus (I have very strong willpower over being tickled even though I am quite ticklish) seem to require stronger amounts to affect me to the level as the average populace.

I guess I can attribute this to my redhair or Dutch genes, being one and the same.

Re:I don't buy their conclusion.

[exploder]

What I've noticed is that people seem to have a great need to feel unique, and making up wacky-ass medical anomalies seems to be a popular means. "Oh, tylenol doesn't work for me..." or "My body eliminates anesthetics at 4x the normal rate" or "anesthetic gel actually CAUSES me pain" or this git above. You're not a beautiful snowflake, get over it.

Isn't this a bit of a generalization?

[mysticalreaper]

I've got red hair, bright red. I've got freckles too, though fewer now than when i was a kid. I'm 20 now. Anyways, the only thing that i've noticed about having red hair is that you get sunburnt easily. Other than that, nothing. In fact, i think i have a higher than average tolerance for pain. It's hard to compare levels of pain with others, of course, but I don't find myself hurting more than others at all.

The article states that, in general, redheads felt more pain. But what if i don't? What if i feel less pain than average? Directly linking hair-color to pain reception is tenuous at best, and it seems like doctors messing with my anestheisa beacuase of my hair color could be bad, with the threat of coma.

I've never heard of hair color affecting ANYTHING before. Sure race affects some things, like reactions to certain drugs, and diseases. Sex and age as well will determine the best treatment. But hair color? What about eye color, does that factor in?

It seems like this is a broad generaliztion, and i don't think this can be the deciding criteria for pain reception. I don't buy it this first time round, if only based on personal experience.

Their conclusion is flawed

[Dynedain]

Another comment now that I've read the article.

They claim their findings indicate redheads are more susceptable to pain.

Based on what is presented in their article, an equaly valid point can be made:
anesthesia is less effective on redheads.

Both are legit conclusions from the presented evidence. Either redheads could feel more pain, or their bodies may not absorb/be affected by intoxicants as much.

Explains why the redheaded cultures are known for impressive drinking skills.

Re:Their conclusion is flawed

[Anonymous Coward]

Yep. fair. I'm *very* redheaded -- mom and dad both very red.

When I had to have a major op as a kid, they had to give me a whole bunch of anesthetic to put me out. The normal "count down from 10" act didn't work. I had to have three attempts that I remember. When I had my lower wisdom teeth out, the normal 5 injections in the jaw went up to 40 injections before I lost enough feeling to start, and they had to keep topping me up, and it still hurt.

I'm also extremely resistant to ibuprofen, paracetamol, codeine, morphine, and a whole bunch of other pharms. Aspirin's the only one that works, and I need about twice the dose of someone else my age/height/build. My alcohol tolerance has always been extremely high. Marijuana has no effect on me whatsoever. I'm allergic or resistant to most medicines I've ever had.

More importantly, my mom has have _woken up_ during a major operation. Luckily they noticed quickly and put her under again. She also has similar resistance to pharmaceutical drugs.

I'd have to go with "anesthesia is less effective on redheads". I'd also flag it (Score: -1, Well Duh). More research from the Institute of the Blindingly Obvious.

Posting anonymously, because I've already moderated some of the more bigoted posts in this article. Some people don't realise the reason redheads tend to have short tempers is the amount of shit they get from bigots while growing up -- something the bigots obviously don't do.

Anecdotal experience

[bollucks]

I'm a specialist anaesthetist and for many years we have anecdotal reports of redheads being more resistant to anaesthesia. We certainly find clinically that this is the case and also there is information that they are more likely to suffer a severe allergic reaction (anaphylaxis). Many of these anecdotal reports are what start these interesting studies initially conducted on small samples and lead to serendipitous discoveries of how things work.

If you hate those 1-800-CALL-ATT ads

[Ilan Volow]

Keep in mind that you'll have to make the tranquilizer dart 20% heavier to make Carrot-Top less annoying

Angie Everhardt in surgery

[pjammer]

Patient: Uhm - WHAT are you doing?

Doctor: Well, Miss Everhart I need to verify that you're a 'real redhead' before we proceed with the operation to ensure proper dosage ...

I just can't win...

[shepd]

>and that topical gel stuff they put on your gums before the injection? That actually CAUSES me pain.

Five bucks says it feels like your mouth is on fire wherever they apply it. I find it useless, too. Can't they find a better way to inject than to go an inch into the joint in my gums? I can't imagine there's anywhere else it could hurt more... And they make sure your muscles are as as stretched as possible for maximum pain (ok, they don't do it on purpose, and I could always lay off the candy). :-/

"Don't worry, it just feels like a mosquito bite". Yeah, like a mosquito bite on my crotch, maybe.

Carbocaine sounds great, but with previous experiences with other prescription pain killers, I'm wary to try it.

Last major dental surgery was having wisdom teeth removed. After waking up, I puked lots of blood (I'm told I was a real winner for the amount -- and the first in the last while) and was given Toradol for the pain.

After two Toradols I sat in a seat for a while trying to catch my breath while my heart was racing (probably a stupid thing to do -- next time I'll get my ass to the hospital instead). So again, I lived with the pain, and used that super-duper tylenol they prescribe you instead.

Maybe I'm just an over-sensitive, over-complaining loser, though. Or it could be the fact I haven't been in hospital for anything serious for a couple of decades. No, the first one sounds more realistic.

Thanks for the suggestion anyways. I'll ask about it...

I'm with you

[Wee]

What I've noticed is that when it comes to alcohol, caffiene, and other intoxicants/stimulants, I need a much higher dosage to feel the effects. I have a higher alcohol tolerance than antyone I know, matched only by a binge drinker who weighs 60 lbs more than I do.

I don't think that I'm more susceptible to pain either. Friends frequently refer to me as the guy with the 'asbestos hands'. If anything, I have a higher pain tolerance than most

I don't buy it either. I'm pretty blond-ish (I've got reds in my beard and mixed in with a bunch of light colors in my hair) and I'm rather light-skinned. I'd describe myself almost exactly as you describe yourself. I even have a friend like yours with a higher tolerance than myself (although he's recently stopped drinking). I hardly feel pain and when I do it's usually too late.

I've broken all of my fingers (most twice), most of my toes, a few ribs, both ankles and both wrists. I have a 10" long "depression" in my skull from when I cracked it playing football in the house at age 6 (dove for a "pass", hit the little metal striker plate on the door jamb). I had a double hernia at 18 months old. When I was growing up, I'd say I had a cast/splint on something for about 3 months out of every year. For the longest time, everyone thought I was really fragile. Turns out I just didn't feel it when something broke, and so never had that "Don't dive into a tackle with your fingers sticking out" negative reinforcement. I'd break something and not notice until I couldn't bend a joint or it hurt later on when I moved it in some way.

I've even broken fingers and not known it. I once went in to the emergency room for a sprain or whatever and they discovered an old break I didn't remember. That was when I did go into the emergency room. After a while, I stopped because it was too expensive (and I had a full set of splints anyway). That's why to this day I can't touch type; I took typing class three times but could never complete it (twice for fingers, once for wrist).

I don't get cold very easily. I mean, wiping ice off a windshield is no big deal. Hot isn't terribly bothersome, either. Reaching into a campfire to move a log around or into water to get corn (or whatever) isn't something I normally think about not doing. It takes a couple more beers than most people to get a head of steam going, and I never ever throw up from drinking. I'm not ticklish. When I get a splinter, I just take it out with a scalpel and a small incision because it's easier and quicker than digging around. A healthy splash of rubbing alcohol afterward isn't bad at all. I've had a tooth (accidentally) removed without anesthesia. That hurt a lot. It takes a couple Vicodins to do any good. Curisouly, aspirin works very well for most stuff. When I get a headache, it's migraine-quality.

Long story short, I don't buy the relationship between hair color/skin tone and nerve responsiveness. I know I'm only a sample of one (and a highly biased researcher :-) but the theory just doesn't hold water. I am not more susceptible to pain than most people.

BTW, I haven't broken anything in four years. If the lack of negative physical feedback didn't teach me to be careful, the feedback of "no type, no money" sure did. I still do stuff like play paintball, it's just that I tend to think a little more carefully about what I need to do before I do it.

Oh yeah, I'm not Dutch. Scotch-Irish/English, with a teensy bit of Polish.

-B

Re:I'm with you

[Foosinho]

I have a 10" long "depression" in my skull from when I cracked it playing football in the house at age 6 (dove for a "pass", hit the little metal striker plate on the door jamb).

I think we've found the reason for your apparent lack of pain receptors!

the extinction of redheads

[Tumbleweed]

OH no - SAVE THE REDHEADS!!!

(No redheads were harmed in the making of this post.)

Women only studied so far....

[Goonie]

Wonder if the results are generalizable to men as well.

I vaguely recall reading somewhere that male and female responses to pain are somewhat different (beyond the obvious differential responses to anaesthetics caused by different body weight). Any of the anaesthetists who've posted care to comment?

Re:Warning: Bad Irish Joke

[Dr. Spork]

Ireland is not where most of the redheads are. In fact, Scotland has far more per-capita redheads, and IIRC even Belgium has more. It's just a stereotype in the USA, because here, most of the redheads really are of Irish descent. But that's only because Ireland has sent so many more immigrants to the US than the countries more densely populated with redheads. (Irish-Americans far outnumber the entire population of Ireland!)

Re:Blondes vs. redheads

[Shalome]

That's strange.. about 10 years ago my optometrist told me that blue-eyed blondes are somewhat more sensitive to pain, especially related to the eyes. He said he has more trouble fitting blue-eyed blondes for contacts (especially hard lenses), and that they tended to experience worse night vision and painfully poor tolerance for high light-levels, expecially with contacts in.

Then again, he could have just been trying to make me feel better when I wimped out on hard lenses (I could only open my eyes in darkened rooms when I had them in, even after two weeks of "getting used to them"). I'm fine with soft lenses, though!

Anesthesia? Surely not!

[main()]

> "Redheads are likely to experience more pain from a given stimulus and therefore require more anesthesia to alleviate that pain."

Huh? I can't think of anything more likely to *induce* pain than listening to that man-faced, pop-singing gasbag, Anesthesia.

Si

Re:Brainy Blondes do exist!

[Bowie J. Poag]

http://www.brainyblonde.com?

Error 404: File Not Found

Cheers,

Re:What about... food?

[swv3752]

I agree mostly. I like Dutch spicy mustard. Most other caucasins don't realy like it. My entire dad's family likes spicy mustard but my mom hates it. My dad is Dutch, while my mom is Lithuanian and Scottish. German spicy mustard has sugar added and I hate it. I think there is a bit of genetic predisposition going on. That sure doesn't explain my love of Mexican and Oriental food though.

Re:Brainy Blondes do exist!

[moebius_4d]

OK, so you're sexy, mostly blonde, and geeky enough to post here. But brainy? Proof please.

I see your domain name is owned by Vibe Media of Beverly Hills, with an Admin Contact of "Kari, Alix" AKA Entertainment Marketing of L.A. So you'll pardon my initial skepticism that this is your homepage and your post here is just to get on everyone's bookmarks for when the logic puzzles and chemistry experiments go up on the site.

I'm a natural redhead...

[_outcat_]

...and I have found this to be true in my case. Whenever I go to my dentist he's always surprised how much anasthetic I need. I get the dosage. We wait like ten minutes or so, and it's still not numb. We wait longer. Still nothing. Finally he gives me another dose. Two hours after the filling/procedure/whatever NO PAINKILLERS exist any longer anywhere in my body, and my mouth hurts.

Maybe this sensitivity has a correlation to the stereotypical "redhead temper." I know I'm a bit prone to fits of rage myself. (Yeah, okay, I've got a horrible temper and no one should ever be a passenger in a car that I'm driving because a sweet little redheaded girl turns into a demonic monster from hell behind the wheel screeching all kinds of obscenities especially when I'm in New Jersey but that's another stereotype for another day. I digress.) I'm such a wuss about pain, so I might have just started reacting more to negative things. Hence the temper.

I don't know, just my two cents..

what about black people?

[AssFace]

And no - I am not about to say some racist thing.

I just recall in my days of competitive running that I was taught at the OTC that people with genes from one side of Africa have certain body makeups and are mostly fast twitch fibers, and people from the other side are mostly slow twitch.

What does that have to do with any of this? The odd thing that they also noted was that natural red heads had nearly identical makeups to the fast twitch section of people that they studied in Africa.
This meant that if you were at a track race and were looking at the top runners winning a sprinting race - the odds were going to indicate it more likely that the people of African decent (aren't we all if we go back far enough?) would most likely be genetically from the same area, and the white people would most likely have red hair.
And once I started looking for it, I was impressed that it actually rang true - lots of fast Irish guys.

I've never seen much mention of anything pointing out red heads since that study until now - usually hair color isn't thought to mean much in the grand scheme of things (aside from my preferring blondes).

Re:Brainy Blondes do exist!

[uncoveror]

Yes, brainy blondes do exist: natural blondes. It is the bleach blondes who are stupid because bleaching hair causes brain damage.

Re:Brainy Blondes do exist!

[macdaddy357]

What do you call a smart blonde? A golden retriever.

Me at the dentist

[macdaddy]

My dentist has always told me that I take an incredibly high dosage of the stuff they shoot in your gums when you have cavities filled. When they pulled my wisdom teeth last year, the pulling took about 10 minutes, max. Getting me numb pushed through 2 of his other appointments. Usually he gives you some shots and goes to work on someone else and returns when he's done there. That way the shots have time to take effect. Well when he did mine, he gave me a little extra like normal. Then went on to the next person. He came back and started poking around, asking if I could feel it. I could feel it and told him. More shots. He left again. Came back. Still could feel the prodding. More shots. He left, came back. Finally it was numb enough to procede. I always have needed a lot of that stuff to get numb. He could have simply played a tape of my old english teacher talking and I would have been right out. Nope. Always wants to do it the hard way. :-)

Re:What about... food?

[operagost]

asians and indians in general seem to be able to take more spicy and salty food before the food starts to taste bad to them, whereas i've noticed caucasians in general can't take one bit of spicy food, and their threshold for salt is quite low.

You've obviously never been to the southwest US. It's full of gringos who've become accustomed to the taste of jalapenos (and worse). I love it too, even though I've lived my whole life in the northeast US. I suggest it's nurture, not nature.

Pheromones

[Robotech_Master]

I found an article on the 'net some time ago which noted that blondes and redheads produced different (more effective?) pheromones than brunettes. It was quite an interesting article, from about the mid 1970s; unfortunately, when I try to google on it now, all I find are human pheromone perfume advertisements.

Re:Brainy Blondes do exist!

[macdaddy357]

So, being Kevin Mitnick's sidekick on a radio show qualifies her as brainy? Will it work if I put Anna Nicole Smith on a show with Bill Nye, The Science Guy? Did you notice that there aren't many redhead jokes? That's because the last guy to tell them got killed.

Hmmm I wonder...

[twoslice]

If your an anesthetist, do you get to check if she is a real redhead before the operation? Cause, I mean that would be a really cool job!

20 % more chloroform

[ellem]

For the little red haired girl in accounting...

Yesssss my precioussss

Nerve Toxin & Virgin Tongues

[NickFusion]

The active ingredient in hot peppers, capsaicin, is a nerve toxin. Large doses (as in a lot of hot food) damage the nerves in the tounge and throat. The net result is that you are less sensitive to hot food, and need more "hot" to produce the same sensation as that first jalapeno on your virgin tounge.

Capsaicin

[Camel Pilot]

Long term exposure to Capsaicin such as extreme hot sauce may cause pain receptors to become "desensitized".

However, pain receptors are completely different from taste receptors. In fact, Capsaicin fakes out the pain receptors as it simulates real damage. This tricks the brain into producing endorphins, which promote a pleasant sense of well-being or even an alterted state of consciousness. The endorphin high can make spicy foods mildly addictive (and for some, such as myself, a complete obsession).

Up there and down there are different places

[0x0d0a]

Pubic and facial hair can naturally be different colors.