Researchers have found that adding capsaicin to a lidocaine derivative called QX-314 it had the ability to enter nerve cells but only the pain-sensing nocieptors.
So what is capsaicin? Simple, it's the potent ingredient in chili peppers. Seems QX-134 doesn't have the ability to get through the nerve cells and that's where the chili pepper come in. Pain sensing neurons have the TRPV1 receptor which only opens when stimulated by excessive heat or a spicy compound.
So far this combination has only been tested on lab rats so more work has to be done to establish if it will work on humans. If so then a "cocktail" of anesthetic and capsaicin will have to be developed to mitigate the painful effects of the capsaicin.
"Eventually this method could completely transform surgical and post-surgical analgesia, allowing patients to remain fully alert without experiencing pain or paralysis," Clifford Woolf, M.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital, the study's senior author.
[Source: WebMD]
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I knew they could clear sinuses but had no idea chili peppers had anesthetic prowess as well!
Posted by: Easton Ellsworth | October 5, 2007 8:18 AM | Permalink to Comment