The redheads would feel pain differently

According to several studies or medical articles, redheads have a different and personal sensitivity in the face of pain. In addition, they would also need more strongly dosed anesthesia. But where does this curious difference come from?

Jealous of their flamboyant or mockery hair in childhood on their rarity, the redheads would indeed share a difference that you do not suspect: they would react differently to pain and anesthesia, according to a scientific article published last June.

More or less sensitive depending on the type of pain

Calculating the pain felt is not simple: there is no type of pain but several, and different thresholds for each of us. But according to the UCI Health University Center for American Health, the redheads would have a particular sensitivity in the face of certain specific pain.

According to the facts established by various studies, for example, redhead women are more sensitive to temperature -related pain but would however resist the beneficial effects of lidocaine, a skin anesthetic. Other research suggests that these populations are less sensitive to the penalty imposed by an electric shock or a needle bite.

A greater need for anesthesia

Another astonishing fact according to several observations made by anesthesiologists, redheads would generally need 20 % more anesthesia than the rest of the population to stay on sedation or even need more local anesthesia to no longer feel the pain.

On the other hand, they would be more sensitive to painkillers from morphine or fentanyl opioids.

A genetic explanation with this difference

But where does this different perception come from? The explanation would be to be found on the side of genetics as explained by the UCI Health.

“The two parents must transmit a recessive genetic line so that their child has red hair. They inherit mutations in the melanocortine 1, or MC1R receiver, on chromosome 16. MC1R is responsible for the production of the Mélanine skin pigment, which redheads cannot produce due to the mutation. This same gene is responsible not only for the color of the hair and the skin mesencephalon which determines the response to pain. ”

Another complementary explanation would be that the brain of the red and the reds treats pain differently, which would confirm that anesthesia and analgesia, both governed by the nervous system, would also be different.

Particularities that would gain better known: if only 1 to 2% of the world’s population is red, their differences should be taken into account in the event of medical treatment: an anesthesia must thus be better monitored, as is the sensitivity to opioids. The objective would be to adapt the proposed doses so that they are effective and not dangerous.