Redheads feel less pain: people with ginger hair are less sensitive due to genetic peculiarities

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The study reveals that redheads have a higher PAIN threshold than blondes or brunettes because their pigment-producing cells in their skin do not have the function of a particular receptor.

  • Redheads have a defective receptor on skin pigment cells that stops them from tanning
  • But it also has a hormonal effect that affects the pain threshold
  • The end result is that ginger produces more opioid signals than people with other hair colors and complexions and has a high pain threshold.

By Joe Pinkstone for Mailonline

Posted: | Updated:

Ginger people can tolerate more pain than brunettes and blondes, and a new study has found out why.

It has been found that the skin cells that determine a person’s pigmentation, called melanocytes, are critical in deciding a person’s pain threshold.

Redheads have a genetic mutation which means their melanocytes have a defective version of a key receptor and therefore cannot make dark pigment to tan.

The effect that can affect it is a chemical imbalance that leads to a cascade of different hormones that ultimately enhances the effect of opioid receptors that block pain.

The end result is that ginger produces more opioid signals than people with other hair colors and complexions and therefore has a high pain threshold.

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Redheads have a genetic mutation which means their melanocytes have a defective version of a key receptor and therefore cannot make dark pigment to tan. But a shocking effect of this is a chemical imbalance that leads to a cascade of different hormones that ultimately enhances the effect of pain-blocking receptors (stock).

Redheads have a genetic mutation which means their melanocytes have a defective version of a key receptor and therefore cannot make dark pigment to tan. But a shocking effect of this is a chemical imbalance that leads to a cascade of different hormones that ultimately enhances the effect of pain-blocking receptors (stock).

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital examined red-skinned mice in a laboratory.

The skin cells of rodents are similar to those of humans and the cause of red hair is comparable in the two species.

Dr. David Fischer led a previous study that found that people with burning hair cannot create dark pigment and tan as a result of a loss of functionality in melanocytes.

Ginger, the rarest color of human hair, like all people, has a melanocyte receptor called melanocortin 1 that protrudes from the cell surface.

Ginger, the rarest human hair color, like all people, has a melanocyte receptor called melanocortin 1, which mediates the production of dark skin pigments. But in redheads it is defective. This leads to a different hormonal level than people with other complications and results in a high pain threshold (stock).

Ginger, the rarest human hair color, like all people, has a melanocyte receptor called melanocortin 1, which mediates the production of dark skin pigments. But in redheads it is defective. This leads to a different hormonal level from people with other complications and results in a high pain threshold (stock).

Getting gray “is caused by stress”

Scientists have finally shown what conventional wisdom has been telling us for decades: that stress causes hair to turn gray.

However, researchers at Columbia University also found that the process can be reversed in hairs that have recently turned gray.

Reducing stress could prevent gray hair, scientists say, and it is hoped that medications can be developed to further prevent the unwanted process.

The study found that hairs all over the scalp can reverse the gray. He also discovered that the beard and pubic hair can regain their color after they start to turn gray.

Scientists believe that the root of the staining problem comes from changes in the metabolic pathways that make up the body’s proteins.

These pathways are heavily influenced by the hormones produced when a person is stressed and therefore relieving stress can undo the process.

Its normal role is to control when the body begins to produce dark brown or black pigments.

However, in redheads it does not work, causing the pale skin of many ginger that never turns bronze and is prone to sunburn.

But Dr. Fischer found that these defective receptors also alter the production of a chemical called POMC that is then degraded into various hormones.

These hormones create a balance between pain-inhibiting and pain-increasing receptors.

In redheads, damaged melanocortin 1 receptor causes less POMC to occur and therefore have lower levels of hormone derivatives.

This means that the balance in redheads is at a lower concentration than that of people with other hair colors.

Therefore, this increases the impact of other hormones (not produced by skin pigment cells) that increase the effect of pain-suppressing opioid receptors.

As a result, redheads have a high pain threshold, the researchers conclude in their study, published in Science Advances.

“These findings describe the mechanistic basis behind previous evidence suggesting varying pain thresholds in different antecedents of pigmentation,” says Dr. Fisher.

“Understanding this mechanism provides validation of this previous evidence and valuable recognition for medical staff when caring for pain-sensitive patients who may vary.”

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