We often say that the sour, sweet, bitter, spicy and salty, the life of the five flavors is more exciting, and the sour, sweet, bitter and spicy salty of food represents the five tastes. However, for human sensations, spicy and sour, sweet, bitter, salty these four tastes are completely different, spicy is actually a pain sensation.
Spicy is a kind of pain, and this statement may surprise many people.
"I like to eat spicy, do I have masochistic tendencies, can't I find happiness myself?"
"Since spicy is pain, why is it so refreshing to eat spicy?"
Have you ever wondered why you should eat hot pot with cold "happy fat house water" - Coke? Why does eating a chili butt feel a fiery sting, but eating a candy butt doesn't feel sweet? This is because spicy is a pain sensation, the buttocks (around the anus) have a rich pain nerve, there is no taste nerve, and the mouth has both pain nerves and rich taste nerves.
Because spicy is a kind of pain, is a burning sensation, is a stimulus to the oral mucosa, often eat spicy food, will feel that the oral mucosa is hot and spicy, drink some cold drinks, the purpose is to reduce the burning stimulation of spicy food on the oral mucosa.
Pepper contains a large number of capsaicin components, into the human mouth can act on the tongue pain fibers, and activate its receptor protein, in this process, the important role of the ion channel protein is TRPV1, TRPV1 can be activated by capsaicin, mustard and other chemicals and other harmful thermal stimulation, when these ion channels open, cations into the cell, cell depolarization to produce action potential and then activate the pain nerve pathway, thereby causing spicy sensation.
Why do you feel so enjoyable eating spicy food?
Since spicy is a pain sensation, this pain and burning sensation will make the brain produce a false concept of body injury, in order to balance this pain, the body begins to release analgesic substance endorphins, and endorphins can make people have a relaxed, pleasant feeling. If you continue to eat, you can also release more endorphins, making people feel relaxed and excited, so there will be spicy addiction. In addition, after eating spicy saliva secretion increases, sweat secretion increases, heartbeat speed, intestinal peristalsis accelerates, people's appetite increases greatly, there will be more and more want to eat the phenomenon.
Capsaicin mainly acts on the cell membrane to feel pain TRPV1, if the intake is too large, it will lead to a weakening of the sensitivity of this part to pain stimulation, so long-term spicy people have a stronger tolerance to spicy, will be more and more able to eat spicy.
You might not think that capsaicin, which causes pain, can be used for pain relief!
In 2009, the FDA approved the Capsaicin 8% Patch (Qutenza) for the treatment of postherpetic neuralgia, the first prescription drug it approved to contain a high concentration of synthetic capsaicin. Capsaicin appears first in contact with the skin, followed by numbness that makes the pain disappear. The mechanism of capsaicin pain relief is: capsaicin will activate capsaicin receptors, so that after a little pain in the body, it can accelerate the depletion of various neurotransmitters in the nerve endings, thereby reducing or eliminating the transmission of pain stimulation to the central nervous system and achieving the goal of alleviating chronic pain symptoms.
At present, capsaicin paste is widely used in postoperative neuralgia, osteoarthralgia, postherpetic pain, and diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain.
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