Julianne Moore's Freckleface Strawberry Goes Musical!

Julianne Moore's Freckleface Strawberry is going musical. See the article in the New York Times.

Also, check out the children's books on Amazon:

Blessed with Red: Clarifying This Blog's Purpose

I recently had an exchange on a Redhead World forum where someone assumed that I believed redheads are made of fairy dust, that if anything goes wrong with our health that I believe it always has to do with us being redheads, and that I am an extremist and do not support western medicine practices. I want to take a moment to regroup and clarify my background and what I'm trying to accomplish in writing this blog.

My background is in nutrition, specifically holistic nutrition. I attended Bauman College of Holistic Nutrition and Culinary Arts in Berkeley, CA. The scope of what I’m able to do on this blog is to provide nutritional information or give information concerning proper nutrition -- the role of food and food ingredients, including dietary supplements. In other words, I give advice as to how diet and lifestyle can support overall wellness. I do not have medical training, and therefore cannot give medical advice in relation to the diagnosis, prevention, treatment, or cure of any disease, pain, deformity, injury or mental or physical condition. I strongly encourage everyone to consult their doctors about any health conditions they have and before they start any new dietary, nutritional supplement, or exercise regimen.

Personally, I consult my physician and use western medical treatment to complement my holistic diet and lifestyle regimen. I especially consult a physician and get conventional medical treatment anytime I have an acute issue so as to get it under control, but I use my holistic dietary and health regimen to maintain my long term wellness. I see no reason why we can’t benefit from both worlds! I mean why suffer?

But I also want to mention that we often are too quick to dismiss the importance of diet and lifestyle in relation to our overall health and wellness. I often see Dr. Oz and the Doctors on TV tell people that the first step for intervention for any pre-diabetic or high cholesterol condition is to change to a healthier diet and embark on an exercise routine. Yet people often rather take a pill because it is easier, yet pills often have undesired side effects that diet and lifestyle does not have.

It has been my personal experience that I’m more sensitive than other people, and I believe that some of this sensitivity is related to the red hair gene. Studies show that the gene responsible for hair color/skin pigment also manages inflammation. For redheads, this gene doesn’t work, which not only gives us red hair, but may make us prone to more inflammatory conditions. This definitely includes sunburn and skin cancer, but it also may include other inflammatory conditions. I discuss the relation of the red hair gene and inflammation a little further in my post Redheads, Inflammation, and Celiac Disease. I have formed this inflammation theory based on studies I have read, but again, it is a theory. I am not a medical scientist or medical doctor, and I have not proved it.

Now there are many many, many, many other genes in the body that also regulate inflammation so inflammatory conditions may not be an issue for all redheads because these other genes may make up the difference adequately for many. I also think that it is a bit of a slippery slope and it’s too easy to blame red hair for health issues when there is no genetic proof or history of it in a person's family. Correlation is not necessarily causation. Our genes plus the environment in which they operate are much more complex than that. Nothing is ever that simple.

There are so many health-related “myths” out there about redheads, and I come across them all of the time. They intrigue me and sometimes they annoy me. For instance, when I go to my gynecologist and she tells me that I bleed more easily because I’m a redhead, I have to seek out the source of this myth and whether there is any real scientific merit in it. See Redheads, Postpartum Hemorrhage, and Bruising.

The goal of my blog is to explore these redhead myths and tease out whether there is any scientific merit in any of them. Also, if there is anyone who is happening to read the blog with the condition we are discussing, I will also suggest how to nutritionally support wellness related to the issue and welcome them to share their comments and experiences, but nothing that I post is intended to replace or substitute for a physician's care. I may impart my personal belief, experience, or pose questions here and there with an editorial comment, but I will always present the facts and defer to the science over my personal belief or desire.

World's Largest Redhead Gathering in North America & Redhead Networking

You can attend the World's Largest Redhead Gathering in North America on August 6, 7, 8, 2010 at the Dublin Irish Festival in Dublin, Ohio. There will be special redhead events on Sunday, August 8, 2010!

Also, here's a list of websites for further redheaded social networking:
Redhead World
Realm of Redheads
Red and Proud
Redhedd.com

Mythbusters: No Pain, No Gain

So I finally watched Mythbuster's episode entitled No Pain, No Gain. First, they visited Stanford University to determine what pain testing methods they would use for their experiment:

1. Heat pain tolerance
2. Electrical pain tolerance
3. Capsaicin pain tolerance - the active ingredient in spicy hot chili peppers
4. Cold pain tolerance

They settled on testing cold pain tolerance by setting up a contraption that would measure the amount of time that a person could tolerate leaving their hand in ice water, which was maintained at 1 degree centigrade.

Myth: Women Tolerate Pain Better than Men
CONFIRMED!
On average, women could withstand cold pain for 100.4 seconds, while men could only withstand it 84.3 seconds. I've always believed this; women are made to withstand childbirth after all!

Myth: Swearing Increases Tolerance to Pain
CONFIRMED! (but I have my suspicions)
On average, the five subjects could tolerate about 30% more cold pain when they swore than when they didn't swear. However, since the same five subjects immersed their same hands during the non-swearing sessions as they did for the swearing sessions afterward, I wonder if the thermal nociceptors (pain sensory receptors) in their hands might have habituated and adapted naturally. When winter comes, we all have to habituate to it. The same temperature doesn't seem so cold the second or third time around, does it?

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST......

Myth: Redheads Have a Lower Pain Tolerance
BUSTED! In fact, possibly the reverse???
On average, non-redheads tolerated 79.1 seconds of cold pain, while the redheads could withstand 132.2 seconds of cold pain. I always knew redheads were bad-asses!

So this brings up some interesting questions. In my blog entry entitled Redheads and Pain Tolerance, I cite the studies of Dr. Edwin Liem whose experiments showed that redheads were more sensitive to pain, including cold pain and heat pain. The discrepancy between Dr. Liem and Mythbusters may be related to methods, possibly to type of pain tested, or may not have anything to do with pain at all.

There are different types of nociceptors for different types of pain - thermal, mechanical, chemical, and sleeping/silent. The Mythbusters experiment only used thermal stimulation; whereas, Dr. Liem's experiments used both electrical stimulation and thermal stimulation. It also seems that the equipment Dr. Liem used to test thermal pain tolerance was more sophisticated than Mythbusters (or complicated depending on how you want to look at it). Also, possibly to account for the myth above that women have a higher pain tolerance than men, Dr. Liem restricted his redhead study to women only, whereas Mythbusters tested both male and female redheads. Any of the above could account for differing results.

Also, Dr. Liem's original experiment, which showed that redheads need more anesthesia in surgery than others, may not have accounted for differences in metabolism rates of the drug used for the experiment (desflurane). Some people may metabolize the drug faster than others and therefore will require more of it (thanks to Celtic Curls for hooking me onto this theory).

In any case, this Mythbusters episode only raised more questions for me than it answered. And my redhead studies continue.....

What is Mythbusters Up To? Busting a Redhead Myth?

Alas, I am inconsolable. I saw a post on a forum from January that the Discovery Channel show Mythbusters was looking for natural redheads in the Bay Area to volunteer. The problem is that I saw it in April and am too late. I wonder what they are up to? There are several redhead myths that they could test, many of which have been posted on their web forum. I wish they could have a regular segment on their show dedicated to redhead myths, and I could guest star. One can only dream.....

I want to apologize for not regularly posting, but unfortunately this is a hobby and the job and life tend to take my focus away, but I will not give up on this blog. It is a passion and I have many many posts to come, but must wait for time and inspiration. Please stick with it and me and check regularly.

Redheaded Self-Acceptance with the Help of John Hughes and Molly Ringwald

I happened to pick up the March 2010 issue of Vanity Fair while in a waiting room today and there was this really great article on John Hughes called
Sweet Bard of Youth by David Kamp. After being horribly picked on for most of my childhood, it was really great to be a redheaded female teenager in the 80s mainly because of John Hughes and Molly Ringwald. They really helped me accept myself, embrace differences among people, and enjoy life.

Thank you John and Molly! John, you will be missed.

Therapeutic Diets for Redheads

As I mentioned in my previous post on Redheads, Inflammation, and Celiac Disease, we all know that a redhead's skin is subject to burn in the sun, but a redhead's digestive tract might also be vulnerable to the stress and inflammation of everyday digestion. Identifying and avoiding food intolerances and allergies can be very therapeutic for a redhead's overall health. Below are some therapeutic diets and cookbooks that can help keep digestive inflammation in check.

Gluten Free Girl and the Chef Blog

What Makes Red Hair Red?

The chemical compound found exclusively in red hair which causes the “red” is trichosiderin which was first isolated in 1945 by Dr. Peter Flesch and Dr. Stephen Rothman from the University of Chicago. This compound is made up partly of iron. So it would seem that “rusty head”, which implies the oxidation of iron, may be a more appropriate nickname for redheads than “carrot top,” which would mistakenly suggest that beta-carotene causes red hair. I guess my Grandpa Leo had it right when he affectionately called me rusty head while gently giving me a noogie.

Does this mean that redheads need more iron in their diet to produce more red hair? Something to ponder. Good dietary sources of iron include red meat, fish, poultry, lentils, beans, leafy green vegetables, soy, chickpeas, and black-eyed peas. Animal protein sources of iron tend to be more absorbable than vegetarian sources of iron. It's not recommended to take iron supplements unless a blood test confirms that you are low and a doctor recommends it.

Also, there is yet another gene that Europeans may have inherited from the Vikings that causes a condition called hemochromatosis. It causes people to retain iron, which can be very dangerous. If you are a redhead AND you have hemochromatosis, you probably have too much iron, actually almost an endless supply to produce the "red" in your hair. Doctors recommend that those with this condition donate blood regularly to help maintain normal iron levels.

Redhead Books That You or Your Children Might Enjoy