redhead

On Sept. 30, we wrote that “Blondes are Dying Out,”click here. Now it’s been discovered that people with red hair feel more pain, and also need 20% more anesthesia during operations. Doctors think it?s because the genes that cause red hair also help manage pain.

This is especially important when redheads have surgery. Dr. Edwin Liem studied the effects of inhaled anesthesia on women aged 19 to 40. He watched for unconscious arm or leg movements in response to electric shocks and found that women with red hair needed more of the drug to stop these reflex movements compared to those with dark or blond hair. “In a nutshell, redheads are likely to experience more pain from a given stimulus and therefore require more anesthesia to alleviate that pain,” he says.
read more