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Capsaicin Tested On Surgical Wounds
Ponca City, We Love You writes "Bite a hot pepper, and after the burn your tongue goes numb. The Baltimore Sun reports that Capsaicin, the chemical that gives chili peppers their fire, is being dripped directly into open wounds during highly painful operations, bathing surgically exposed nerves in a high enough dose to numb them for weeks. As a result patients suffer less pain and require fewer narcotic painkillers as they heal. 'We wanted to exploit this numbness,' says Dr. Eske Aasvang, a pain specialist who is testing the substance. Capsaicin works by binding to C fibers called TRPV1, the nerve endings responsible for long-lasting aching and throbbing pain. Experiments are under way involving several hundred patients undergoing various surgeries, including knee and hip replacements using an ultra-purified version of Capsaicin to avoid infection. Volunteers are under anesthesia so they don't feel the initial burn."
Very interesting. I can say as a doctor I've never seen this used before though, but it reminded me of a few things:
:)
During surgery the patient is unconscious, and thus feels no pain, but good surgeons recognize that local anesthesia is still necessary. It's a bit counterintuitive, and I remember being puzzled back in medical school that the surgeons would still numb the area before doing any work despite the patient being unresponsive regardless. The thought is that nerves are damaged and there are changes / responses to the painful stimulus that persist despite the individual being unconscious; in a way, you still have neuronal pain signals if you don't give local anesthesia. It also prevents the patient from waking up with pain in the operative site before you can give other types of painkillers.
Lidocaine (and capsaicin to some degree) would prevent the nerves from ever signaling -- they block the sodium channel that is necessary for nerves to fire. No firing -- no pain, *and* no no neuronal changes, and hopefully no long term pain. Lidocaine wears off after 2 hours or so, while it seems that capsaicin has much longer densitization effects.
Of note, capsaicin is also used in "pepper spray" self-defense products advertised to women in particular. I wonder if one could become numb to this after repeated sprayings. Hmmm, anybody on slashdot may be able to answer this from experience?
Slashdotter, ID #101. UIDs are in binary, right?
Does this mean that in poor populations where peppers are common (such as in Mexico), they could be used to numb or sterilize wounds? Or would this be counter-productive?
I know many people who don't have access to a first aid kit but who eat peppers every day.
Interesting: Garden Russian Roulette.
Your ideas intrigue me; I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
is what came to mind. Now it's hard to sit down.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Capsaicin is sold as ground chili pepper in capsule form at health stores, and seems to work very well at stimulating cardiac functions in general, as well as unclogging arteries in the long run. Plus, considering that it's natural, with none of the weird side effects that come with most pharmaceuticals, Capsaicin pills work as a supplement to standard medical treatments.
I'm sure they'll find new properties of Capsaicin as time goes on. However, the corporate rub is that Capsaicin, like hemp, is a naturally occurring substance and therefore cannot be patented... unless (bite your tongue) they 'modify' the current laws.
Lil' Thindime, lilting a lacrimose lament, krashes the kwaint konfines of Kokonino Kounty
I can personally attest to the effects of the sichuan pepper, having eaten dishes made with this pepper in the Hubei region of China. I have enjoyed hot peppers of a variety of types in many of the foods I have eaten over time and consider myself to be a real lover of hot foods. The sichuan peppers really threw me for a loop though because they are the only peppers that have ever had a numbing effect on my mouth. Sure they are hot, but not noticeably hotter than alot of other peppers; but they have a slightly peculiar secondary flavor, and a strong numbing effect.
The food in the Hubei province is really, really, REALLY good. Having travelled throughout many parts of China and enjoyed the diverse food in all the places I went, Hubei food was definitely at the top of my list. The sichuan peppers weren't the reason for that; they were OK but nothing special. It was the type of food, the zestiness of it, the really unique ingredients (beans in Chinese food? How weird!). There is a chain of Hubei food restaurants in Beijing called Jiu Tou Niau (not sure about the spelling there), which means "nine headed bird", and they are just awesome.
I think a lot of that depends on your biochemistry. I'm a runner and I get runner's highs very easily and they last for quite some time after working out. It turns out that the endorphins created during exercise are opioids (or at least similar to opioids) and I have lots of opioid receptors in my brain. After two different outpatient surgeries I had I was given opioids post-op and my wife tells me (I don't remember) that I really loved them. She's also had narcotics and they just make her nauseated and constipated. So from my limited sample set (and from my wifes neuroscience research) I think that there's just large variability among people in their reaction to narcotics.