What is it about?
A capsaicin cream was applied to people's upper lip until the burning reached 8/10. Following this the cream was removed and on one side of the upper lip a base cream with 30% mannitol was applied, on the other side, the same base cream but no mannitol. Every minute for 10 minutes, participants rated their pain on each side of the upper lip. On the mannitol side the pain decreased much more quickly. By three minutes, the probability that the two creams where the same was less than 2%. By 10 minutes the probability that the two creams were the same was less than 1/1000.
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Why is it important?
A mannitol cream can very quickly reduce the burning pain caused by capsaicin. Mannitol is a very safe sugar alcohol molecule. When used as a cream, it provides powerful pain relief with virtually no side effects. As, currently, most oral medications for pain relief have a multitude of side effects and topical medications, such as capsaicin can damage nerves while others are not very effective, the use of topical mannitol may provide a major advance in the treatment of pain.
Perspectives
Of the 25 people who were tested, most could tell the difference between the right and the left upper lips in a matter of minutes. Only two of these were unable to tell the difference between a mannitol side and the placebo side. Most people who volunteered for the study were either visiting physicians or patients who were being treated with the cream and wanted more as it was very effective in relieving a multitude of their conditions from headaches to peripheral neuropathy.
Dr. Helene Bertrand
University of British Columbia
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Topical Mannitol Reduces Capsaicin-Induced Pain: Results of a Pilot-Level, Double-Blind, Randomized Controlled Trial, PM&R, May 2015, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1016/j.pmrj.2015.05.002.
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