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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."
I had this done after my Lasik surgery. Worked well.
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Sometimes after eating Jalapenos it feels like I have a surgical wound the next day!
~S
But I like the fiery feeling in my cuts, you insensitive clods!
Or am I the one who is insensitive, now that my nerves are numb?
they use a mix of anesthetic and the capsaicin so that you'r not in horrible pain. The nerves are over-stimulated in a way, this leads to them being numbed [like after eating too many spicy peppers] and it has already been used as a topical treatment for pain, I think there's even one pain treatment available to the public already based on this.
Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
The hottest pepper record has been broken.
In the Scoville Organoleptic Test, the Bhut Jolokia pepper scores over 1,000,000
For several years Capsaicin has been used to treat a type of male incontinence. Squirting a bit of it up a catheter apparently is enough to force some of the nerves in the bladder into the right state to stop the muscles being over-relaxed.
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?
...require fewer narcotic painkillers as they heal hmmm, I think I'll pass on the pepper sauce, doc. Just keep the vicodin coming.If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
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I've found that this :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sichuan_pepper
works well as an anesthetic. It's commonly use in Gong Bao Ji Ding (US:Kung Pao Chicken) in China, and, along with ginger, makes it way more tasty than the poor imitation available in the west.
Max.
Except you're not. This is about how capsaicin can be used to prevent long term pain in the weeks after surgery, while that one was about how it can be used to deliver new anesthetics that won't leave you numb. You don't even have to have read the articles to know this, just the summary. Why people post when they only read titles is entirely beyond me.
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.
Pouring salt on someone's wounds is not okay but pepper is fine?
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Interesting: Garden Russian Roulette.
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Nope, you haven't seen it before. That non-dupe is about a completely different anesthesia-related use of capsaicin. The purpose there is to enable the distribution of an anesthetic that only works from the inside into the cells.
The purpose here is to give the nerve endings such an intense blast of pain that they go numb for days or weeks. This would be horrendously agonizing to the patient, but they're already under anesthetic and so don't notice it. Then, those nerve endings being numb for a few weeks reduces the need for post-surgery narcotics.
Same drug, same general area of research (anesthetics), completely different usage.
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is what came to mind. Now it's hard to sit down.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
/sigh
I guess it won't be long 'til I start getting emails about the magical wonders of exotic capsaicin from the habanero fields of Central America and how I can satisfy my lover with an erection lasting for 6 hours at a time...
Fact: Everything I say is fiction.
Except if they're using medical-grade extract of capsaicin, you're talking a Scoville Rating of 100K-300K for a Habanero pepper. Nordihydrocapsaicin is 9.1 million Scovilles, and pure capsaicin is at least 15 million.
In short, I think the doctors and chemists know more than you do.
This goes along with some other unlikely firsts, eh?
"Let's eat those things from the chickens butt, but first, put them in hot water for a while."
"I bet the white liquid from the cows teet goes great with cookies, let's have a go!"
And now:
"Hmm, this guy is in serious pain...let's pour salsa in him!"
Who will protect these patients from spice loving cannibals after they leave the hospital?
Chuck Norris' cries pure Capsaicin, too bad hes never cried.
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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.
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girlfriend reference on slashdot...
3
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Somehow modding the above as "flamebait" seems extra-appropriate.
I once consumed a chip full of this hot sauce and my tongue was numb for a day. A day later it payed the compliment to the other end.
As I grew up, I heard stories of how my parent, especially, my father, was treated or has seen treatment of wounds using home grown peppers on their farm. This isn't something that comes as a surprise, since most hot peppers have some/varying levels of Capsaicin in their composition. Anyone from a developing country can attest to this, in fact, many American Indians can also attest to this, tobacco and coal as a means of treatment. Fairly interesting seeing its use by modern medicine as well.
I appreciate the informative reply - only thing missing is a link for the lazy.
BTW, what happened to Slashdot? I thought I was there, but then I got a worthwhile reply...?
Fact: Everything I say is fiction.
Drink milk.
Seriously. Drink a nice glass of milk if you want to get rid of the burning. Water does not help. Milk does (due to the fat). Drinking pure olive oil should also help (but taste like shit:).
Capsaicin is soluble in oil, not water, or something.
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There's a lot of posters writing about their experiences after eating habaneros and the like, either out of curiosity or on a dare.
Well, here's a great tip next time you're on a dare, or in a thai or mexican restaurant: Keep a piece of candy nearby. If the burning sensation becomes too much to bear, unwrap the candy and pop it in your mouth, the sudden sugar coating on the tongue will overwhelm the taste buds with a near-opposite sensation, canceling most of the pain.
Lil' Thindime, lilting a lacrimose lament, krashes the kwaint konfines of Kokonino Kounty