We all know pepper can cause extreme burning sensation that can last for minutes, even hours. It’s this heat, that draws so many to add chili peppers to their meals, and it’s also the reason for their many medicinal properties, including pain relief.
Chili peppers’ heat comes from capsaicin, a compound produced to protect the peppers from fungal attack. Capsaicin is colourless and odourless, but when you eat it, capsaicin tricks your brain into perceiving heat where it touches your body. Birds, interestingly, are not affected by capsaicin, and this allows them to widely disperse chili seeds for the plants’ survival. Virtually every other mammal, however, is – although humans are believed to be the only animal that chooses to willingly eat them.
Capsaicin in chili pepper helps alleviate pain in part by depleting your body’s supply of substance P – a chemical component of nerve cells that is involved in transmitting pain signals to your brain. It also works by de-sensitising sensory receptors in your skin.
This is why it’s used in topical pain-relieving creams and patches. It’s actually the very intense burning sensation that–ironically–ultimately relieves pain.
