New Study Reveals Redheads Have Higher Pain Tolerance
A new study from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) discovered that redheads could handle pain better than others. This may sound strange, but researchers believe they’ve found why this occurs. In humans and mice with red hair, their skin’s pigment-producing cells lack a specific receptor’s functioning. Without this receptor, changes happen, which cause an imbalance in pain sensitivity and tolerance.
Researchers believe these findings may help in developing future treatments for pain management. This groundbreaking study finally uncovers why redheads seem to deal with pain better than people with other hair colors. These findings have been published in the magazine Science Advances.
The skin of people who have red hair and other species with red fur have pigment-producing cells called melanocytes. This cell contains a variant form of the melanocortin 1 receptor. The cell surface houses this receptor, and if circulating hormones called melanocortins activate it, pigment changes occur. It triggers the melanocyte to produce brown or black melanin pigment instead of yellow or red.
Previous work by David E. Fisher, MD, Ph.D., uncovered an interesting fact about melanin pigment in redheads. The study found that redheads have trouble getting a tan due to inactive variants of the melanocortin 1 receptor. Fisher is the director of the Mass General Cancer Center’s Melanoma Program and director of MGH’s Cutaneous Biology Research Center.
For this study, Fisher and his colleagues wanted to investigate why redheads have a higher pain tolerance. To do this, they studied a strain of red-haired mice that, along with humans, have inactive melanocortin 1 receptors. These mice also had higher pain tolerances than mice with other hair colors.
The team discovered why the inactive variant of this receptor resulted in a better capability of managing pain. In the red-haired mice, deactivation of this receptor caused lower levels of POMC (proopiomelanocortin) molecules to be secreted from their melanocytes. This molecule contains various hormones, including one that increases pain sensitivity and one that inhibits pain. These hormones strike a balance between opioid receptors that block pain and melanocortin four receptors, increasing pain sensitivity.
You might conclude that having low levels of both hormones would cancel each other out in red-haired mice and humans. However, the body produces other hormones and chemicals not related to the melanocyte, which activate opioid receptors. Having lower levels of melanocyte-related hormones leads to an increase in opioid signals, which help block pain. Therefore, pain tolerance in redheads goes up as well.
Fisher says this:
Fisher says that the findings may revolutionize treatments for controlling and managing pain by working with the body’s natural processes. For instance, perhaps new medications will become available that block melanocortin four receptors that send pain signals to the brain. Then, people with other hair colors would benefit from what redheads get to enjoy naturally.
“Our ongoing work is focused on elucidating how additional skin-derived signals regulate pain and opioid signaling,” adds co-lead author Lajos V. Kemény, MD, Ph.D., a research fellow in Dermatology at MGH. “Understanding these pathways in depth may lead to the identification of novel pain-modulating strategies.”
The National Institutes of Health, the Melanoma Research Alliance, and the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation helped fund this research. Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation supported the study as well.
In addition to having a higher pain tolerance, redheads have other unique quirks about them. All hair colors are beautiful, but people with red hair benefit more in specific ways.
Redheads don’t have a functional melanocortin 1 receptor, which helps detect pain. Activation of this protein creates brown or black melanin pigment; lack of it causes red or yellow. Lack of this receptor, along with a rise in opioid signals, increases their tolerance to pain. Researchers believe that this finding will improve treatments for pain management in the future by targeting this receptor.
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