I'm a redhead and a few people I met with for my pre-op appointments told me, in reference to coming out of the anesthesia and common post-op maladies, "You have red hair, it will be a piece of cake for you!" The coordinator was telling me about what general anesthesia would feel like, and she said, "I always have poblems, but my son is a redhead and it's always a breeze for him, you shouldn't have any problems either." I figured - whatever. In actuality they were right. I spent less than an hour in recovery. I never had gas pain, never had nausea, etc. Today the hospital called to check up and make sure I felt ok, and I told the nurse I was fine and she said, "I figured you would be, I remember you had red hair."

WTF? Is there actually some real validity to this, or is it a bunch of medical practitioners buying into hooey?

I would ask them why they would assume that, i have never heard of it myself.

That's awesome! LOL, think dyed hair counts?

I think dyed hair counts... I had streaks of Corvet Red and violet in my hair.... And I went shopping the morning after my surgery

I don't know... but I had died my hair a week before my gall bladder surgery about 2 years ago and when I left the bed I recovered on I had hair dye all over the pillow. Had actually soaked it thru and thru! I have no idea what caused this!?? It has never done that at home and I get my hair "did" about once every 6 weeks!

Weird, really weird. Can't remember what color my hairs is or was when I had surgery, and does it mean your natural or your color at the time or surgery, LOL.

Natural hair color (and skin color) can be a predictor of incision scarring, but I've never heard the anasthesia recovery thing before.

Tammy

I have heard that natural red heads can sometimes require more anethesia...so maybe recovery is tied to that. I don't know the science behind it though.

How bizarre! I'd love to hear what makes them think that...

I'm a natural red. I have never heard the thing about easy recovery, but when I had my C-section, I had lots of bleeding. The nurses told me that they had known all along I'd be a bleeder because of my red hair.

In fact, my tonsillectomy was more expensive because they wanted me to have an extra anesthesiologist around because of my hair color (just in case).

I think people just LOVE making generalizations and since its not OK to point out religion or ethnicity anymore...

Did you know Catholics are 20% more likely to be hit by lightning?

hmmmmmmmmm, wow, never heard anything like that. I have to ask my aunt. she is a surgical nurse. I wonder what my recovery will be like when I am banded. I have pink and black hair.lol.

Wow, that is pretty interesting. I too, would love to hear the reasoning. I have redish hair (more brown but with red highlights - it was much redder as a child). However, I have never had any problems with anesthesia.

Red hair can be a predicter of certain things. For instance it is generally thought that a red haired person has a higher pain threshold. This point was actually tested by inflicting pain in various degrees and the natural red heads went the highest consistantly. Body systems are often linked with certain physical traits and we generally don't think of it as that way.

try this it might help

http://www.or.org/RecentEvents/ornews/IMPACT_SPR2003.html