|
|
|
Could chili
peppers relieve pain?
Could the humble chili pepper hold the answer to arthritis
pain?
(As reported in BBC News)
|
|
|
“Scientists
at King's College, London are hoping they can harness the
active capsaicin in chili and adapt it to combat inflammation
and pain in arthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis is an
inflammatory disease, in which the body's immune system attacks
the joints, leading to pain, inflammation and stiffness. It
affects the quality of life for these who
suffer this pathologic
pain.
It affects about
600,000 people in the UK. “
|
 |
| Chili cream
ointments |
Remedies are also available for
painful joints,
frostbite,
post-herpetic neuralgia caused by
shingles.
|
 |
|
Chili muscle rub |
|
|
|
|
When
conventional
anesthetics
are injected into the spine; besides the targeted
pain receptor cells, they also interfere with other
normal nerves cells. This causes temporary paralysis
.
At present, despite
the intolerable
burning effect, chili has been used widely in folk medicine.
Drug
manufacturers ironically capitalize on its characteristic
burning effect to help reduce pains. Pains in view are those in
muscles caused by rheumatism, arthritis, simple backache,
headaches, strains and sprains.
The remedial products, sort of traditional and conventional,
come in different forms.
May it be in
The capsicum plasters are very popular amongst the Chinese and the
Japanese, and Asians. Well, I should say it works for me and many. Other products
include capsaicin’s perceived ability to
stop bleeding. In
this case, capsaicin
stimulates blood flow to the affected
area, reduces inflammation and associated discomfort.
Basing on such
capitalization on pain, users need to be cautious about the
duration of application. Follow written instructions
closely. Get the optimum time duration of application; such
that the sensation of pain created is just enough to
neutralize the same pain sensation to be treated! Overdose
of time would bring additional pain! |
|
Present researches carried
out on the soothing effect of capsaicin are of the ultimate
objective that one day, scientist will be able to develop a new
generation of painkiller.
This new painkiller would very
desirably just numb the targeted area without causing general
numbness and unconsciousness as arise from conventional local
anesthetics.
The Harvard research team
works on this vision. This is
how the experiment works:
|
|
|
The test drug injected into test animals has two active
ingredients:
It comprises the capsaicin molecule from chili and the second
molecule, the anesthetic component, Q. These two components
work together in unison.
Under normal circumstances without
the help of capsaicin, The Q component is too big to break through
the wall of the pain receptor to stop it from receiving the pain
signal.
Capsaicin assists by opening a channel in
the cell wall of the pain receptor cells. The Q molecule then
goes in and intercept the pain signal. Thus pain is not felt.
The beautiful advantage is that capsaicin can
only open the walls on the pain receptor cells, and not the normal
nerve cells.
This produced the much desired effect of
exact
targeting the pain area
under treatment without inflicting
paralysis on to other normal parts of the body.
In far
anticipation, this ideal painkiller could one day, allow women to
give birth painlessly using an epidural which does not paralyze the
lower body.
Also it would
allow a patient to have open-heart surgery while remaining
conscious!
Dr Story Landis, the director of the National
Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in the US, said that
patients in chronic pain might also benefit.
"It holds the promise of major future
breakthroughs for the millions of people who suffer with
disabling pain."
|
|
Since chilies are so
promising in the field of health and medicine, you may want
to try some chili recipes for your daily food intake:
|
