The science behind capsaican
If you have ever eaten a hot chilli pepper you will remember the burning sensation like your mouth is on fire. Quite surprisingly the chemical that causes that hot pain, capsaicin also offers pain relief.
Tibor Rohacs, who is an associate professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School researches using capsaicin to calm painful nerves, muscles and joints.
Rohac and his team have published a paper in Science Signaling, and reported that a nerve mechanism is activated by capsaicin that blocks pain signals. “This study gives one potential piece in the puzzle of how capsaicin works as a local analgesic,” he said.
The NJMS laboratory have been studying the ion channels that are found in sensory nerve terminals that respond to heat and other stimuli. In particular, their work has focused on an ion channel that is called TRPV1, the so called capsaicin receptor, and the Piezo2 ion channel that mediates touch sensation.
“TRPV1 is a heat sensor, at least physiologically, and it has a chemical activator, capsaicin, which we all know is in chili peppers,” Rohacs explained. “They feel hot because they activate a heat-sensitive ion channel and they trick you into the sensation of heat. And it’s also pretty painful.
“The idea is basically that this pain-causing, heat sensor ion channel does something to the nerve that in the long run sort of silences them or desensitizes them,” he said. “The desensitizing effect, I believe, has a number of different components and different timescales.”
Rohacs said capsaicin has been studied due to its calming effects on the nerves. “We found that capsaicin completely silenced the Piezo2 channels that are activated by mechanical stimuli,” he said. “This may be an important part of how capsaicin inhibits mechanical pain.”
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2015-04-uncover-pain-relief-secrets-hot-chili.html#jCp
