[CH] Toxic Capsaicin...
Jonathan T. Smillie (jsmillie@tickets.com)
Fri, 20 Aug 1999 08:52:14 -0500
At 01:27 PM 8/19/99 -0400, Scott W. Schreiber wrote:
>One dose of capsaicin is sufficient to destroy almost all substance P (an
>important nerve chemical related to endorphins) in the dorsal root ganglia
>of the nervous system, and causes about a 50 percent loss from part of the
>spinal cord.
IIRC, this is in fact the BASIS of the use of capsaicin as a topical
analgesic... substance P is one of the neurotransmitters that processes
pain signals. The irritation caused by the application of the
capsaicin-bearing substance depletes the amount of Substance P available
for "recognizing" other pain signals, thereby lessening the perception of
the pain.
However, again IIRC, it's not as if Substance P doesn't get
remanufactured... the "destruction" of it is temporary. Which is of course
why, later on, you have to use more topical capsaicin to ease the pain
again...
It should also be noted that the research quoted is copyright 1986, and
there's been a great deal of water under the bridge since then... hell,
thirteen years ago, they were still publishing research that said tobacco
was good for you!
Jonathan