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: Fantapants
Famous quotes containing the words red, hair, pathological and/or origin:
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And I vow we sniffed the victuals as the vessel went about.”
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)
“O Time and Change!—with hair as gray
As was my sire’s that winter day,
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The dear home faces whereupon
That fitful firelight paled and shone.”
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)
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—Hans Magnus Enzensberger (b. 1929)
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—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)