A new study by British researchers suggests that people suffering peripheral pain - which produces stinging sensations, numbness, weakness, burning pain - can get respite by taking
Need a break from unbearable peripheral pain? A new study by British researchers recommends capsaicin cream, an active constituent of chilli peppers, that will give people suffering peripheral pain - which produces stinging sensations, numbness, weakness, burning pain - some much-needed respite. Peripheral pains often accompany disorders like diabetes, AIDS, shingles and arthritis; cancer patients can have peripheral neuropathies after receiving their therapies.
Now a team at Oxford University has found that 40 percent people can get some relief from pain by having topical capsaicin cream containing medication.
Sheena Derry and Andrew Moore led the researcher, which compromised nine studies with 1,600 adult volunteers.
The team said that capsaicin cream could be used when the treatment has not been affective.
The report has been published in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library.
However, Scott Zashin, a clinical associate professor of medicine at the Southwestern Medical School at the University of Texas, had a different take on the use of capsaicin.
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Zashin said the report ignored the "the fact that there are little data looking at the benefit-to-risk ratio of the high dose capsaicin. In addition, patients receiving the high-dose formulation required pretreatment with a local anesthetic preparation. It is unclear if this product is any better than other over-the-counter pain gels and may be more irritating with side effects such as burning."
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