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You Have Taste Receptors In Your Lungs
timothy points out news of a study from the University of Maryland's School of Medicine that found bitter taste receptors on the smooth muscle lining airways in the lungs (abstract in Nature). Quoting:
"The taste receptors in the lungs are the same as those on the tongue. The tongue’s receptors are clustered in taste buds, which send signals to the brain. The researchers say that in the lung, the taste receptors are not clustered in buds and do not send signals to the brain, yet they respond to substances that have a bitter taste. ... 'I initially thought the bitter-taste receptors in the lungs would prompt a "fight or flight" response to a noxious inhalant, causing chest tightness and coughing so you would leave the toxic environment, but that’s not what we found,' says Dr. Liggett. ... The researchers tested a few standard bitter substances known to activate these receptors. 'It turns out that the bitter compounds worked the opposite way from what we thought. They all opened the airway more extensively than any known drug that we have for treatment of asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).'"
For Dunhill over Pariament and Davidoff over Benson & Hedges!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Let's see what they come up with from this.
'It turns out that the bitter compounds worked the opposite way from what we thought. They all opened the airway more extensively than any known drug that we have for treatment of asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).'
Expect anything bitter and volatile to be classified as a controlled substance that can only be distributed on the condition that a pile of money is given to one of the major campaign contributing drug companies. You see, they need the money so they can continue doing life-saving research into finding new boner drugs and sleeping pills that they can convince us we need.
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
As if I didn't have enough justification for an aversion to public restrooms. Now I know that when I go into one and it smells like someone slaughtered a cow in there, my lungs will be tasting that. Thanks a lot, University of Maryland!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
When I was premed we experimented on fish with several neurotransmitters. Since I was in a frat, I eventually found myself doing shots of them (about 0.1cc each). They all tasted bitter.
They also gave me some stomach upset and one or two caused a little abdominal cramping. And I have become steadily more weird. Though since I started out weird enough to do neurotransmitter shots, so maybe I was headed here anyway.
--
make install -not war
Just before sipping, I take a (slow!) deep breath and I can "taste" the vapors all the way down in my lungs. With other drinks, it is not as satisfying... Some whiskeys aren't good for this.
It's not very often that researchers stumble onto something cheap and simple that could potentially save hundreds of millions of lives. I sure hope it pans out in practice.
Proud member of the Weirdo-American community.
Any chance this is why the coffee for asthma remedy is supposedly effective? Perhaps inhaling the vapors for a bitter fluid are doing just what they described here?
I'll never be trapped in a dark room with Radicchio again!
Could this be WHY vicks vapor rub works so well?
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
So, All along the Bitrex they put in airdusters has been helping people reach an extra high?
Towelie got hooked on that stuff and now inhales up to 2000 cans of computer duster a day.
On other news, kids have been caught on a new trend sniffing pepper from a prostitutes ass. They claim its to relieve their asthma.
There's too much dead skin cells between your fingers and the food.
when someone farts & I tell them eww gross I can taste it...
...brings it home.
We've known it for years (decades, even) that there are taste receptors in the lungs. People with no taste/smells can taste things if they inhale deep enough. Also, there are taste receptors in the sinuses, on the roof of the mouth, and under the tongue as well.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
Seems this could be why beer and coffee go so well with smokes, they make it easier to breathe while puffing on that chimney stick.
"There are no facts, only interpretations." --Friedrich Nietzsche.
I wonder what might be the reasoning behind this system evolving/remaining intact in humans. I can't really think of an exogenous substance that we inhale naturally that would activate such a response and confer an advantage to us. My best guess would be that the natural ligand for these receptors is something that is produced locally in the lungs in scenarios where bronchiodilation is desired (ie sympathetic stimulation). as someone else pointed out, many of the common neuroreceptors are alkaloids, and would probably activate these receptors. From the abstract, it sounds like these receptors are Gq (IP3 and calcium) receptors, which is interesting because the "classic" receptors that dilate the smooth muscle in the lungs are Gs receptors that stimulate increased cAMP. In smooth muscle, more calcium generally leads to stronger, not weaker, contraction. cAMP leads to relaxation, explaining why epinephrine and albuterol have their effects.
/med student
didn't have time to read the whole paper. exam on this stuff tomorrow though, wonder if I can use this on an essay question?
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun the frumious Bandersnatch.
I think you do underestimate how fast the molecules travel. Buman noses only require a small number of molecules to detect some scents.
Simple test. Do the same thing, but block your nose and hold your breath this time. Can you smell stuff with your hands.
If you still can perhaps you do have smell receptors in your hands.
BUT to be sure try it blindfolded with random items (someone else will have to help) to see whether its in your mind. Or even some sort of synaesthesia.
The idea that occurred to me while reading the summary is maybe this partially explains the sense of well-being gained from being in a forest or some leafy natural environment.
As we know, most plants taste bitter - perhaps plants are also releasing bitter tasting gasses which help to open up our lungs.
if the abstract is a bit bare
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101024144132.htm
You know when you smell something so bad that you can taste it in your mouth? Yeah, I think there's a connection there haha!
I wonder if it's the bitter taste, or the caffeine that is effective. Or is it both?
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
I'm sure someone already patented this, so they will claim money from every person that reacts in this way.
In the meantime, surely there are enough hints here for home remedies:
I mean, really... if this doesn't spawn a series of home remedies, of which the public will quickly determine which ones work (and which ones kill or have nasty side effects), then the whole "home remedy" movement should probably go hide under some crystal pyramids.
It's not like you can't obtain a vaporizer, or any number of other tools you might need for such antics. I suspect most of them would already be in the bathroom, medicine chest, and kitchen of any well equipped home.
And there are many home remedies that work very well indeed. Cayenne pepper included in various home-made candies will do more for a sore throat than many OTC remedies; A Tums, intended for tummy acid issues, will do wonders for many cramping episodes, as will large amounts of milk or other calcium-rich substances; Etc. If the report is accurate, perhaps we'll have something else to add to the list of "here, try this" home remedies.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Maybe the ol' grandma trick of sniffing fumes from a weird stew of seemingly random herbs wasn't that silly after all.
I am a supertaster (highly sensitive to bitter tastes), and I also have asthma. Reading this made me wonder if there might be some connection. Any other asthmatic supertasters out there?
This is all just BS, as he tucks his horse racing form under his arm, with all the 1X10^6 horses circled, and heads out the door with a hand full of bitter smelling herbs.
So much for the old "did not inhale" defense!
"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!', but 'That's funny'" -Isaac Asimov ...lifted from http://www.jsur.org/
This is hardly news to anyone who's ever had the distinctly horrible experience of "Nerds" going down the wrong pipe...
When my local news reported this (via a medical doctor), the talking heads cut him off and suggested that inhaling food might be a good idea. They didn't give the doctor a chance to respond to their idiocy before continuing on to the next story.
That may be true of most traditional drug companies but what about the Natural remedy companies like Ricola? I'm sure they would love an all natural treatment for asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease!
Nick Powers
Encryption: I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend your right to encrypt it...
That's why Buckley's works so well. There's enough bitter in that to knock a person down. But it works..
So the solution is clear: Get a big food company like General Mills to market the bitter inhaler.
YES, and they can market it as a breath mint... that has been shown to increase breathing function! lol
ok, so that's why inhaling with salvia tea works...
luckily herbs is something that parma industry will have a hard time getting complete control of... though they might if they manage to get patents on common plants, like monsanto already does...
I could swear I've been able to taste some of the more nasty flatulences
While brown nasty and gross snuff may be popular for a related reason.
"Nicotine has a bitter taste and a sharp odour."
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. Mark Twain.