After having a discussion on turmeric last week, I was interested in looking for other alternatives to NSAIDs. While doing some research, I came across a website that discussed the pros and cons to certain NSAID alternatives. One listed here was diclofenac, which is one of the alternatives we will be discussing in class today, but the one that I wanted to focus on was capsaicin and how it affects the body.
Interestingly, capsaicin is known for depleting substance P within our body. Substance P is a neuropeptide that is associated with pain and inflammation. Capsaicin interferes with the retrograde transport of NGF to the cell bodies of sensory neurons and in doing so, it results in decreased synthesis of substance P. Decreased concentrations of substance P means less pain.
I would like to know if capsaicin is in fact, an alternative to NSAIDs in treating symptoms. After looking around for some studies regarding this, I was unfortunately only able to find studies that discussed the depletion of substance P, but in regards to blocking respiratory rhythm in neonatal rats in vitro. If anyone knows of, or finds a study dealing with capsaicin, its efficacy, and the placebo effect studies, please post.
Here are the two links that I was talking about earlier:
1. http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2011/02/alternatives-nsaids-pros-cons.html
2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2581820
I am really interested in the use of capsaicin for reducing pain. My initial assumption would be that the pain felt from the capsaicin would lead the mouth to believe it is on fire releasing hormones signaling pain reduction naturally in the body also I personally would be focusing on the pain from eating the peppers instead of any other pain I would be feeling. I would like to see this proven in human studies. I have seen more and more lay articles on the use of capsaicin so it would be nice to have more credit attributed to this. This is also a healthy alternative because it provides some nutrition in comparission to the NSAIDs which can be harmful after prolonged use.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to see exactly if/how capsaicin works to curve pain stimuli. Some work seems to suggest that it interacts with the pleasure pain pathway. For instance it is suggested that these chemicals stimulate the pain pathway, which in turn stimulates the release of endorphins curving the initial stimulus. One study noted that the effect of endorphins was curved when Narcan was given. Narcan is a drug that competes for opiate and endorphin receptor sites. A study conducted by Dr. David Julius (first link below) showed that capsaicin binds a protein on the membrane of pain and heat sensing neurons. This activates Ca2+ channels a causing depletion of substance P. While substance P is depleted both pain stimuli and neurogenic inflammation seem to be blocked. There are capsaicin analgesic creams which reportedly to work. However, I am not sure how you could deliver this substance to deep tissues such as the joints.
ReplyDeleteA few studies:
Caterina MJ, Schumacher MA, Tominaga M, Rosen TA, Levine JD, Julius D (October 1997). "The capsaicin receptor: a heat-activated ion channel in the pain pathway". Nature 389 (6653): 816–24. doi:10.1038/39807. PMID 9349813.
Geppetti, P.; Nassini, R.; Materazzi, S.; Benemei, S. (2008). "The concept of neurogenic inflammation". BJU International 101: 2–6. doi:10.1111/j.1464-410X.2008.07493.x. PMID 18307678.
Kissin, I. (2008). "Vanilloid-Induced Conduction Analgesia: Selective, Dose-Dependent, Long-Lasting, with a Low Level of Potential Neurotoxicity". Anesthesia & Analgesia 107 (1): 271–281. doi:10.1213/ane.0b013e318162cfa3. PMC 2497455. PMID 18635498.