How Redheads Work

hobber Mill. I did know that, did you? Yeah? But I don't think any of anyone else did. Wow. I had never told anybody that before. Is it that obvious? I just had a sense it's my T shirt? Isn't right? Well? For those of you who don't know who Dr harber Mill is, he is a sex researcher at the Universe City of Hamburg in Germany. Hello Germany. Uh and um Dr hopper Mill Uh did a study that I read about recently on the Daily Mail. So basically I'm just

letting it all hang out here. I followed the careers of clinical sex researchers, and I read the Daily mail. Um, but there there was a study he he did that I ran across um where he compared the sex lives of redheads with the sex lives of brunettes and blonds. And he found just statistically speaking, he he didn't really actually sadly, he did pose uh an idea of why because the case. We'll get to that in a second.

But he he found that redheads um have a noticeably act much more active sex life than any other people with any other hair color. Interesting, and the thing that that kind of got me was that, um, the same goes for people who die their hair red. And and get this, uh, the the esteem doctor said that women who are in a committed relationship and dye their hair red, that is a really big red flag to the guy. Oh that they may be stepping out there looking right.

Yeah yeah, So Emily ever done that? Uh yeah she she she went red a little for for a time. What was this? I think it was before we were married. Okay, yeah, right exactly. You're like, I knew my kid looked like the male man. Yeah, so um, this is what what were you getting at here? Well? Here, you're ready? So so the doctor basically says, well, redheads have a fiery temperament and and they're they're very passionate, which is just

so it is, and it's not necessarily true. And the more I looked into it, the more I lies that redheads are among the most maligned and stereotyped people of any hair colored, redheaded, blonde's the phrase red headed stepchild, redheaded step child. Um. Did you know also that there was a uh there actually twice there's been this this big news cycle about redheads going extinct. Yeah, I've heard about that two thousand five and two thousand seven, which

is not true. No, we just should say that right away. No, there was one in two thousand seven. That's the most recent one that that said that. Um, the Oxford Hair Institute, which sounds so official. Um, it's said that that redheads will be extinct by twenties sixty, right, because of the recessive gene that carries red hair. In theory that could that could die out. Do you want to get into genetics? Do you uh prefer not to, but I think we have to. Let's do it. Okay, let's just give a

brief overview redheads are. That's a phenotype. It's a it's a physical trait. You can see it, you can you can sense it. Um, they're they're genotype. The genetic trait that that makes them red heads is this, Uh, it's a recessive gene. It's a mutation in the MC one

our gene. Yes, and that is the melanocortin one receptor gene. Okay, So the m c R one gene is responsible for a certain pigment productions, and red heads actually uh overproduce a red pigment called THEO melanin, and that which gives them their red hair, and they underproduce you melanin EU melanin, which uh gives them a pale skin. It's a darker brown. It's a it's a brown pigment, right, which is underproduced. And it's actually a genetic mutation it is. Did you

know that? Okay? So, like you said, it's also receptive, recessive, which means it can skip generations and uh then reappear you know, much later. Yeah, you or I could actually have a mutated m c R one gene. And although neither one of us has red hair, we'll never know

until we have kids with red hair. If either one of us comes up with a kid with red hair, it means that you and your wife both had this recessive gene, it got together and the kid had to have this mutated gene because of the the chromosomal contributions by the parents. It means infidelity. Again. Yeah, it depends, you know, I mean it could have It could have been. It depends on what Emily did back when she dyed her hair red, right, although you probably know by now

right if she had a child. Yeah, yeah, I've been around the whole time. Okay, alright, So, um, so they are not becoming extinct. Not true, No, they could, though it would take something on the order of an evolutionary bottleneck, which, as we all know, um would basically make all of us mouth breathers because all the rampant familial inbreeding that

would it would take to you know, expand the genetic pool. Again, it's entirely possible if everybody who had the recessive UM gene, the MCR one mutation, um, if all of them died out, there goes redheads. Technically, that's the case with everything exactly now. There there may be a higher likelihood in an evolutionary bottleneck, or it might take a less of an evolutionary bottleneck for redheads to die out because they are it is

rare um. But yeah, they're They're definitely gonna be around beyond. Yeah. I know quite a few redheads myself. So do I know virtually none. I'm actually trying to think right here. I can't come up with a single redhead. Yeah, I know, couple. Actually we don't have anyone on staff either, do we. This is gonna drive me crazy. Well, of course Candice are old partner. Forget I don't know she's she really is. And you know what, she kind of proves the good

doctors stier. She's fiery, she's spunky girl. She definitely is is Okay, So redheads are gonna be around for a while, including Candice, I imagine. Yes, And uh they they are as as we said, my very shaky thesis for this podcast are much maligned. I've got another piece of supporting evidence that redheads are often mistreated. Yes, I know where you're going here, do you? Yeah? Okay, so you want to tell him about this this study. Yeah, it turns out that and this is a cool little fact that

you can share with your friends and family. Redheads actually require more anesthetic when undergoing surgery. Yeah, and apparently the medical establishment, especially among anesthesiologists and an esthetist. Uh, this is common knowledge, but there hadn't been an actual study quantifying this before two thousand two, and these University of Louisville researchers conducted this kind of UM are cruel, little archaic, maybe, Yeah.

When I read this, I thought there's got to be a better way to find this out, but you know, maybe the not. Yeah, So what we're talking about was, UM, this this Louisville study, they took twenty female subjects um, ten brunettes, I believe, ten redheads. All of them were on virtually the same menstrual cycle, which ruled out any hormonal explanation for for this, because apparently UM hormones can contribute to your susceptibility or rejection of anesthesia. And um,

they gave them all the gas. They gave him what is a desk flurane um, which is a general anesthetic gas. And they knocked these women out and then they got medieval on their asses. They used I looked at I looked this up. They used bilateral intradermal needles to deliver the electric shocks. So basically they were poking these women with needles and delivering shocks, electric shocks into their body

to see if they would react and feel pain. Yeah, because when you're when you're unconscious, it's much different from from sleeping. When you're unconscious, your pain gateway is shut down. Just why they do it for surgery. You don't want someone digging into your chest cavity and be able to feel it. Right, And it's it's it's it's a different state and actually scary enough. We don't fully understand how uh, anesthesia works on the brain. We don't know enough about

the brain. We just kind of know it works. You know, we've figured out, I guess through trial and error patients dying left and right, what the what the right ratio is for the average person. Right, it's a tough job. Very Oh, it's yeah, have the highest insurance premiums and they also make some pretty good coin definitely. Yeah. So if you're thinking of trying to get into the medical field, you want to make a bunch of money, go anesthesia and redheads. Exactly. So okay, let's get back to this.

So they're they're sitting there um delivering shocks to these redheads and actually brunettes. Everyone in the UM in the study was treated equally cruelly. And um, they're they're delivering shocks, and and they they would decrease the gas or increase the gas depending on the reaction until they stopped getting pain reactions. So then the other really kind of startling aspect of the study was that one of the researchers

described the shocks as um intolerable to a conscious person. Right, So these weren't like little like oh I just like the nine volt battery. These are electric shocks that you would be like, you know, you'd come at somebody who did this to you and you can move. So they just keep shocking them over and over again. And then they wrote down, you know, the ratios, and they came up with, as you said, redheads need more on average, Yeah, which is pretty substantial. It is substantial. But I mean,

what's what's what's the deal? Why? Well, before we move on to that, just quickly, I wanted to point out that another study a couple of years later, UM said that the same thing happened in men. So if you're a man out there, you're gonna need some extra gas. It's not just for women. But because we don't know exactly how anesthesia works, we don't know exactly why this is true. Yeah, we they've just finally linked it, right, they said there is a link, but we're not exactly

why that link is there. Well, which is the MC one our gene, which is what we were talking about earlier. That that that that genotype has been linked directly to anesthesia for the first time exactly, So why what? What are some of the uh, some of the reasons they've they've given, Well, yeah, they don't know for sure, but um, they have one explanation that, um, that gene is also involved in hormones that stimulate pain receptors, which would make

sense kind of obvious route if you ask me. Uh, and there I believe that another one that said that the pigments themselves actually cause an increase in pain sensitivity. Yeah. I think that was the one where they said, there's a there's it's such an abundance of this pigment things like to go bind to other things in our body,

and um, they're they're looking for something. Maybe they're the pain receptors in the brain are um similar to the to the pain receptors that these pigments would normally attached to so it overstimulates the brain makes more sensitive to pain. Yeah. Yeah, so either way, if you're a redhead, I feel bad for you. I don't. I don't like pain. Yeah, but being red heads kind of cool. It's like being left handed. I wish I was a left handed redhead. Wow. Instead

I'm just a right handed burnette. I know. We're just kind of average guys, are average average dudes. There. There actually is one other good thing that came out of this this study. Um it may actually spur development of um a kind of anesthesia that's taylored just for redhead's. Interesting. That's called pharmacogenetics. You heard of this, Yeah, okay, So it's basically designing drugs to tailoring them to somebody based on their genetic makeup. Right, that makes sense. It does

make sense, like it would. It definitely falls into that controversy about genetic testing, though, doesn't it. You know, so it's kind of a fine line, like keep red heads out of pain, or you know, choose only blonde haired, blue wide children in the future. Right, the boys from Brazil eventually weird, you know what I would call that if they actually do manufacture. This what they call it red gas. Nice, That's what I call it. Nice. Yeah, you couldn't call it red death would be you'd have

a terrible market share when red gas is pretty good. YEA, Well, look for red gas in the future. Um And if you want to know more about red heads and anesthesia extinction, that kind of stuff, you can type those words in in any kind of clever combination in our handy search bar at how Stuff Works dot com. And don't go anywhere, because Chuck's got something for you. I think it's called listener mail. Listener mail time. See Josh, We're back here

mere seconds later. And um, I have an exceptional listener mail here. This is what I've titled it. And keep a little folder of exceptional mail. And I've been holding onto this one for a while. And you might remember this from our buddy Greg Storkin who wrote us at top ten. Remember that, Oh yeah, this is one of our first mask So I'm gonna give this. I'm gonna give Greg his too. I'm not gonna read all ten, but he basically wrote a top ten reasons why he's

obsessed with stuff you should know. So I'm just gonna go over a few of my favorites. Uh, you purposely leave early for work and then take side streets along the way, simply to have more time to listen to your new episode. So this guy's further in his commute. Uh. You hum the jazzy theme song as you go about your day, which I do as well. You have more fun learning from Josh and Chuck than you did from

your super hot organic chemistry professor, which is awesome. A little piece of you dies when you hear the theme music fade back in signaling the end of the episode. It's pretty sad. And his number one reason was you have a full fledged man crush on Josh and Chuck. And we bring this up because we've had, oddly quite a few men write us and say they have man crushes and we're super hot organic chemistry teachers. It's just just weird. But the man crushed phenomenon is is a

real thing. I know you have quite a few bromance Yeah, I know, Actor John Leguizamo. You're very hot for him. I don't like to talk about it. And one day that I will meet John Leguizamo, I'm not really holding out hope. I don't want to touch him or anything. It's more just like being next to him, you know what I'm saying, to have him like punch me in the store and be like, Hey, Josh, how's it going. I think that's what a man crushes. It really means.

It's what you want to do, is you want to go out and have a beer with this, Like I have a tremendous man crush on George Clooney. Yeah, because I want to go hang out with George Clooney and talk about basketball and drink a beer. You know, you know it's underrated these days, but there is such things platonic law. Yeah, if he kissed me, I wouldn't. That's not platonic. Yeah, but I wouldn't. It's George Clooney. It

would be a good story. It depends on how forceful a kiss was, right, true, and how shading he like, Well, if you wanna tell Chuck or I about your recent romance or who you have am and crush on, or you want to send us a top ten list, and by the way, Greg, you can't expect a T shirt for that top ten list, but definitely send us to your size and your mailing address. Uh to the email address for button to give. Actually, you've already got it,

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