Spice up your joints and get moving!
Do you like things spicy? Does a sprinkle of chilli in your dinner get your taste buds tingling? Why don’t you try spicing up your joints with a topical chilli based cream? Capsaicin is one of the main active plant chemicals of the chilli plant (Capsicum annum), and is well known for its pain blocking activity. Recent studies have concentrated on the use of capsaicin topically for the treatment of osteoarthritis.
The capsaicin in cream form, when applied to sites of pain, can block the peripheral nervous system receptors which feel pain. It can also block, and deplete the production and transport of Substance P, a pain messenger, in peripheral sensory neurons. With continued use, over time this can lead to a decrease in the perception of pain. When capsaicin is used topically, applied to sites of osteoarthritic pain, great benefits have been found in terms of pain reduction and reduced tenderness in joints.
Here’s what the studies say…..
- A double blind randomized study of 70 patients with painful osteoarthritis (OA) and 31 patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) in the knees applied capsaicin cream daily for 4 weeks. The study found after 2 weeks with capsaicin treatment, an overall 80% reduction in pain in those receiving capsaicin treatment compared to placebo. There was a 33% reduction in OA pain in the OA group and a 57% reduction in RA pain with patients that applied the capsaicin cream when compared to placebo.
- A large randomized study of 113 subjects with OA pain applied Capsaicin cream four times daily, over the span of 12 weeks. Capsaicin cream was shown to be superior to the placebo for osteoarthritic pain relief, even after just 2 weeks of treatment. Joint tenderness also gradually decreased over the length of the study.
- In another randomized placebo controlled trial on 100 patients with mild to moderate knee osteoarthritis, capsaicin gel was shown to be an effective treatment in relieving osteoarthritic pain compared to placebo.
Are you suffering from Osteoarthritic pain? Then suffer no more! These studies show a great advantage for using a Capsicum annum, or Chilli based cream for relieving Osteoarthritic pain. Give it a try today, relieve that pain and get those joints moving!
