Land of Gregs

Another quick one today, as both my hands and throat have been extremely painful over the weekend. This, however, gives me today’s topic – Substance P.

Substance P (Image created by wikipedia user Fvasconcellos)

Substance P is a neuropeptide that most people have never heard of that transmits pain and inflammation information from the sensory nerves to the spinal nerves(mainly).
The problem is, in some conditions, the levels of substance P appear to be much higher than they should be for the pain causing stimulus. The reason for this is not very well understood, but it is known that medications which affect the neurotransmitter glutamate, which coexists with substance P, can help reduce the level of pain in some of those conditions.
The other substance that can affect it is capsaicin – the “hot” (it actually works as a cell irritant to create that feeling) component of chillis. This is why a number of treatments for conditions like arthritis use capsaicin in a gel form to “recalibrate” the sensory nerves to transmit less substance P.