A peppery preventive for pain.Capsaicin capsaicin /cap·sa·i·cin/ (kap-sa´i-sin) an alkaloid irritating to the skin and mucous membranes, the active ingredient of capsicum; used as a topical counterirritant and analgesic. cap·sa·i·cin n. , the chemical that puts the zing in chili (language) CHILI - D.L. Abt. A language for systems programming, based on ALGOL 60 with extensions for structures and type declarations. ["CHILI, An Algorithmic Language for Systems Programming", CHI-1014, Chi Corp, Sep 1975] peppers, can block a person's ability to feel pain without producing numbness, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a new study. The finding suggests that physicians may one day slather slath·er tr.v. slath·ered, slath·er·ing, slath·ers Informal 1. To use or give great amounts of; lavish: slathered gifts and attention on their only child. 2. a. capsaicin-like compounds on the skin of burn patients or smear it into the incisions of individuals undergoing surgery. Richard A. Meyer of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, located in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, is a highly regarded medical school and biomedical research institute in the United States. in Baltimore and his colleagues injected a capsaicin analog under the skin of one inner forearm of each of eight volunteers. The volunteers received a control injection of an inactive substance in the other inner forearm. The volunteers reported reduced pain in the capsaicin-treated forearm immediately after receiving a burn on each arm equivalent to touching a hot stove. Moreover, on the day after the burns, the subjects said the treated arm was much less sensitive to touch and heat than the control arm. Meyer says capsaicin works by killing small-diameter nerve fibers, the ones responsible for pain. However, it has no effect on large-diameter nerve fibers, he says, and so does not totally numb a treated area. Capsaicin has also proved beneficial in treating cluster headaches (SN: 7/13/91, p.20). Meyer and his colleagues are working with Procter & Gamble scientists to develop drugs based on capsaicin analogs. |
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