Andrew Huberman· PhD
Redheads have a higher pain threshold than other individuals, and indeed, that is true. There's now a study that looked at this mechanistically. There's a gene called the MC1R gene, and this MC1R gene encodes for a number of different proteins. Some of those proteins, of course, are related to the production of melanin. This is why redheads often, not always, but often are very fair-skinned, sometimes have freckles, not always, and of course, have red hair. This gene, this MC1R gene is associated with a pathway that relates to something that I've talked about on this podcast before during the episode on hunger and feeding, and this is POMC. POMC stands for proopiomelanocortin, and POMC is cut up, it's cleaved into different hormones, including one that enhances pain perception. This is melanocyte-stimulating hormone. And another one that blocks pain, beta endorphin. The endorphins are endogenously made, meaning made within our body. Opioids, they actually make us feel numb in response to certain kinds of pain. Now, not completely numb, but they numb or reduce our perception of pain. We all have beta endorphins, we all have POMC, et cetera, but redheads make more of these endogenous endorphins.