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Redheads Feel Pain Differently Than the Rest of Us
schwit1 writes "If you think redheads are inherently different, well, you'd be right; they're better than you. In fact, they have a higher pain threshold than most of us, and can handle spicier food, too. It turns out that gingers are less sensitive to stinging pain in the skin, according to researchers who injected capsicum, the active ingredient in chilies, into the arms of patients. Professor Lars Arendt-Nielsen, one of the researchers, said, 'Our tests showed that redheads are less sensitive to this particular type of pain. They react less to pressure close to the injected area, or to a pinprick. They seem to be a bit better protected, and that is a really interesting finding.' The finding also means redheads can handle spicier food, reports Science Nordic. It lends some scientific weight to previous suggestions that gingers have a different pain response to the rest of, which were even investigated by MythBusters."
That's what happens when you are without a soul.
This report jibes with my own ongoing research into the pain threshold of redheads. In the videos, they seem to almost enjoy the pain. It is quite fascinating stuff!
"I'm not like other people. Pain hurts me" - Daffy Duck
All this time I thought that calling someone a 'ginger' was pejorative.
Redheads need more anesthetic to dull pain: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1362956
Greater response to pentazocine: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=153647
And morphine: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1736101
So there's clearly something about MC1R that differentiates pain / killer response; but please stay off the soulless daywalker stuff. It's not helpful and just sounds juvenile.
Oh wait, this is slashdot, I forgot. Whereas you had to invent kick a redhead day, why don't we have kick a geek day? Oh, because that's EVERY DAY... :-)
Ha, best of all the captcha is "placid".
You know, we've come a long way. We used to put people down for a host of things. About a century ago we got over the notion that women weren't smart enough to vote. Not so many decades ago being black and flirting with a white woman could get you killed. I'll bet more than a few of you are acquainted with the idea that "nerd" was not a badge of honor way back in high school. Like I say, we've come a long way, but it's somehow still cool to put down the "gingers".
Grow up already.
And not to be totally off topic, but this notion of people with red hair having a differing response to pain has been known for a long time. Wikipedia has references going back at least decade. I'm pretty sure I've known about this for longer than that. Finding older refs is left as an exercise for the reader.
according to researchers who injected capsicum, the active ingredient in chilies
TFS is wrong, as specified in TFA the ingredient is capsaicin
Cue the obligatory "you must be new here" for expecting editors to edit...
Are they testing someone in the same genetic pool that isn't a ginger? Because different ethnic groups are going to be conditioned to respond to and express things differently.
Personally, I have brown hair and a very high pain threshold. Everyone in my family is the same way and none of us are gingers. I further don't think it's genetic in our cases. We have an ingrained and conditioned intolerance to whining in ourselves and others. It's just a family thing. We don't express it and we don't respond to it.
So to take this seriously, I'd need to know they were doing an apples to apples comparison to remove cultural and ethnic distinctions.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Yes, but not the upholstery. http://xkcd.com/508/</obxkcd>
Protoplasm. Quiet Protoplasm. I like quiet protoplasm.
Time to rethink all of your redhead BSDM fantasies.
Actually I'd call bull on this one. My exwife ...
Oh your ex wife! OK then we'll just disregard the all the studies with those unnecessarily large sample sizes then, shall we?
I guess that explains why my wife has rules about how much chili powder and cayenne I'm allowed to use in the chili.
-- Two men say they're Jesus. One of them must be wrong. - Dire Straits
This isn't saying it doesn't hurt. It's saying that for people without your hair genes, it hurts even more.
Well it's saying that for people with our genes as a population it hurts less. Of course I (and OP) would have to borrow a blonde body for a while to be sure on an individual level, but it's apparent to me that I deal with pain better most people I know. I'd always put it down to stoicism though, but perhaps I am actually feeling less pain.
Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
I even had a doctor's confirmation of this.
Interesting. Please, go on.
We went to the same Chiropractor.
Fail
Required reading for internet skeptics
Red-haired women (FTA notes most studies have been conducted on female mice and female women) have a resistance to capsaicin. Compared to whom? Blonde-haired white people? Brown-haired white people?
How about Koreans, NONE of whom have genetcially-derived red hair? Or Latinos? Or Vietnamese? One could to this all day.
blog
Reduction in skin pain seems very useful when you're at a much higher risk of sun burn.
Are you sure she was really a redhead? There's a simple test you can perform, but sadly this comment box is too short to explain it to slashdot readers.
I had fire engine red hair when I was little, but it's more brownish-red now. The last cavity I had, the dentist had to give me three shots of local in my gums to numb the area. Not real pleasant. When I was around 10 I had a cyst in my jaw that had to be surgically removed, which they put me under for in the hospital. I had no problem going under, but woke up in a hallway next to several passed-out people on gurneys. As you can imagine, I was a bit disconcerted by this. A nurse finally walked by and looked over in surprise, "You're not supposed to be awake yet!" No, I guess not. Now at least I have an explanation...
My exwife was a red head and she had one of the lowest pain tolerances I've ever seen.
Are you sure you didn't accidently try to give her anal?
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