Red Heads Are Not Only Crazy But More Likely To Get Cancer As Well

It's a hot summer day at the beach and all you want to do is run into the cold ocean to cool off but there's always that one adult yelling at you to put sunscreen on before hand. We've all experienced that moment where we're thinking to our selves "I don't need sunscreen I won't be in the sun long anyway." Applying sunscreen is a hassle but for redheads this may actually save your life!

Skin cancer is the abnormal growth of skin cells- most often develops on skin exposed to the sun.

Skin cancer can be cause by the UV radiation from the sun coming in contact with your skin. Sunscreen acts as a protective layer between your skin and to some of the UV radiation the sun admits. It helps block the negative effects that UV radiation can cause on our skin cells. In a recent study it was shown that people with the red hair gene along with the pale skin and freckles gene are more likely to develop skin cancer due to a larger amount of genetic mutations. The red hair variation of the

MC1R gene had 42 percent more mutations than those without the red hair gene.

This difference in percentage between those with these genetic mutations and those with out would be equivalent to an extra 21 years of exposed sunlight. Redheads who also have pale skin and freckles have two copies of the MC1R gene whiles non redheads who are pale skinned and have freckles only have one copy. Those who only have one copy are also at an increased risk for developing skin cancer. 400 people's DNA, who have tumors, were sequenced and it was found that just having one copy of the MC1R gene increased the genetic mutations greatly. In the future more studies will be run to try and lessen the risk for developing cancer for these people with the copy of the MC1R gene. About 2 percent of the world are redheads meaning there are a lot of people at risk for developing skin melanoma, one of the most fatal types of cancer.
 

Redheads feel pain differently than other people

DailyMail has published an article that Danish study was conducted that proved redheads feel pain differently than other people.  The research has shown that redheads are more sensitive to cold, suffer from more toothaches, and are less responsive to anaesthetics.  The findings also indicated though that they are less susceptible to skin pain and can handle spicy food better than others.  It was suggested in recent years that redheaded women felt pain differently from blondes and brunettes.  Scientists theorized that it was because of the 'redhead' gene.  Professor Lars Arendt-Nielsen of the Center for Sensory-Motor Interaction at Aalborg University has questioned any further consequences given the gene's close association with the central nervous system and has stated:

'It seems that MCR1 is involved in central functions in the brain, and we know that subgroups like MC2R, MC3R and MC4R, which are also linked to redheads, have considerable involvement in brain functions. This could be the key to explaining why redheads are a little different to other people.'

More information can be found at this article.