SCANDINAVIA - BIONIC INBREDS

By viceland

JohannesA recent study has found that people in Lapland don't feel pain. It started when an orthopaedist working in Sápmi witnessed locals laughing off traumatic injuries. He saw a young boy fall two stories without whining. Then he saw a girl fall off a wall and just get up and brush herself off, even though her arm was sliced up like bacon.

A subsequent study identified a condition called 'Hereditary Lapland Pain-Insensitivity'. It is caused by a genetic mutation that fucks up the nerve endings and is often seen in communities were inbreeding is common. We called up a guy we know who’s always getting in the most brutal bar fights and asked him what he knew about it...

VICE: Have you heard about the Hereditary Lapland Pain-Insensitivity?

Tough guy: No, but I’m from up there, and we’re all extremely resilient. I used to work as a mailman, and during the winter it would be –35°C and blizzards. It was two hours of hell. You just have to toughen it out. Frostbite is no biggie.

VICE: So you think it’s more of a mind-set then a DNA thing?

Tough guy: The winters are pain. You just need learn how to toughen it out.

VICE: You have a high pain threshold, right? Are you ever afraid you’ll injure yourself because you’re so insensitive?

Tough guy: It’s not so much that I’m afraid, as I am counting on it. You can’t be afraid of pain and get into a fight. That doesn’t work. I guess it’s adrenalin too. But when I’m fighting I don’t feel a thing.

VICE: Do you know anyone else with a high pain threshold?

Tough guy: My mum. She’s from even further up north, and she don’t feel a thing. She doesn’t even think giving birth is painful.

By viceland 6 years ago

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