British anesthesiologist Jaideep Pandit said that people with red hair feel heat-related pain more intensely. They are also more sensitive to some pain medications. In this respect reports Live Science.
It is believed that people with red hair require 20% more general anesthesia to remain in a calm state (medicated sleep state). There is also an opinion that local anesthesia has a worse effect on such people. But research shows that redheads are actually more sensitive to opioid analgesics like morphine and fentanyl.
Pandit added that people with red hair experience certain types of pain differently than other people. Red-haired people feel the pain from burns more acutely, and the sensations from electric shock are less pronounced for them.
Most likely, this is due to mutations in the melanocortin-1 receptor gene – MC1R. This gene controls the type and amount of pigment in hair, skin and eyes. Additionally, a variant of this gene called redhead MC1R causes melanocytes (skin cells that produce the pigment melanin) to produce less of a substance called POMC in mice. POMC is divided into several hormones that affect sensitivity to pain and opioids by regulating the activity of specific receptors.
Mice with low POMC levels had increased sensitivity to pain and decreased sensitivity to some non-opioid pain medications. It has been suggested that similar mutations in MC1R could potentially affect human pain perception.
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