Red Hair - Red Hair of Pathological Origin

Red Hair of Pathological Origin

Most red hair is caused by the MC1R gene and is non-pathological. However, in rare cases red hair can be associated with disease or genetic disorder:

  • In cases of severe malnutrition, normally dark human hair may turn red or blonde. The condition, part of a syndrome known as kwashiorkor, is a sign of critical starvation caused chiefly by protein deficiency, and is common during periods of famine.
  • One variety of albinism (Type 3, aka rufous albinism), sometimes seen in Africans and inhabitants of New Guinea, results in red hair and red-colored skin.
  • Red hair is found on people lacking pro-opiomelanocortin.

Read more about this topic:  Red Hair

Famous quotes containing the words red, hair, pathological and/or origin:

    The remnant of Indians thereabout—all but exterminated in their recent and final war with regular white troops, a war waged by the Red Men for their native soil and natural rights—had been coerced into the occupancy of wilds not far beyond the Mississippi.
    Herman Melville (1819–1891)

    When the galactic sea was sucked
    And all the dry seabed unlocked,
    I sent my creature scouting on the globe,
    That globe itself of hair and bone....
    Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)

    Analysis does not set out to make pathological reactions impossible, but to give the patient’s ego freedom to decide one way or another.
    Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)

    All good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity.
    William Wordsworth (1770–1850)