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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.
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...
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 even had a doctor's confirmation of this.
Interesting. Please, go on.
We went to the same Chiropractor.
Fail
Required reading for internet skeptics
Capsaicin is the exact chemical body uses to transfer pain-information.
Not so. I don't occur naturally in the human body. Instead there are a number of substances, including histamine, bradykinin, and prostaglandins which "transfer pain-information." Then there's the nervous system.
Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
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.
_
How long have you been waiting to do this?!
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."