Redheads Feel Pain Differently Than the Rest of Us 265
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."
I thought this had been covered several years ago. (Score:5, Informative)
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".
Capsaicin (Score:5, Informative)
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...
Re:Groan.... (Score:2, Informative)
A friend of mine has some "Dave's Total Insanity Private Reserve." Holy fuck that stuff is hot. I touched a toothpick to my tounge that had been dipped into the bottle. First my tounge went numb, about 20 minutes later the pain started and I had this wonderful aftertaste. All in all, it was not a totally unpleasant experience.