Capsaicin (Hot Peppers) in Sugar Free Candy In what often must seem like a wicked twist of fate, most patients who receive radiation or chemotherapy to the head and neck develop serious oral lesions. The treatment necessary to make them better, at least initially, can make them feel worse. These sores of the mouth, or oral-mucositis, are not only painful but "also can limit adequate nutritional intake and can decrease wilingness of patients to continue treatment," according to the study Capsaicin for the Treatment of Oral Mucositis Pain, which appeared in the bulletin Principles&Practices; of Oncology in January 1995. In1994, Yale University Ph.D canidate Tracy Karrer had the idea to study the effects of capsaicin on desensitization of the mouth in relation to taste, touch and temperature in human beings. Working in conjunction with Yale professor Linda Bartoshuk, PH.D, they tested how much capsaicin it would take to desensitize the mouth mucous membranes. Yale medical student Wolffe Nadoolman make a good idea even better by suggesting that the capsaicin be packaged within a candy to make it more palatable. While all of this information is very promising, Bartoshuk cautioned that many more in-depth clinical studies must be done before the FDA can approve the "cancer candy" as a treatment. "There are many areas of pain that I believe capsaicin can effectively help treat, from burn victions, to people who have suffered side effects from radiation or chemotherapy." Golden Farm Candies has been manufacturing a sugar-free cherry cayenne in hopes of aiding cancer patients with these side effects.
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