Scientists Find New Painkiller From Saliva 398
dptalia writes "Scientists have found a new pain killer based on human saliva. Apparently 1 gram of the new drug provides as much pain blocking as 3 grams of morphine. The drug blocks the breakdown of the body's natural pain killing mechanism. Scientists say the molecule is simple and synthesis is expected to be simple."
Going back to the old days? (Score:5, Interesting)
There's a whole store of herb and animal lore that's been systematically quashed for decades (well, since the great witch hunts really), and science is only just getting round to looking at it now.
There's a lot to be said for 'complimentary' medicine for lesser ailments (although the modern pharmaceutical treatments are definitely magnitudes more effective for front line serious treatment). Rather than just decrying it, perhaps it should be investigated more thoroughly?
3 grams of morphine? (!) (Score:5, Interesting)
300 mg morphine will render just about any human being unconscious and apnoeic pretty quickly.
3000 mg will knock you out cold, stop you breathing, and drop your blood pressure precipitously, more or less instantaneously.
In which sense, numerous things have have the same pain-killing effect as three grams of morphine.
Being hit by a freight train, for instance.
Re:Going back to the old days? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Going back to the old days? (Score:5, Interesting)
I've been moaning about that for years, and without exception, every pet owner and every vet considered me nuts. I noticed that if you lay a plate of food on the ground and have a dog lick it clean, a thin clear coating builds up on the surface of the plate. Give it a day or two, and washing the plate hot soapy water doesn't remove the coating as you'd think it would.
Mind you I don't know what's in saliva, and as this article suggests, few have stopped to consider the subject long enough to study it. What I do know is that the standard procedure of treating a dog for an injury or skin problem involves topical antiobiotics in combination with a cone that's placed over the dog's head (if a dog has any self respect, it's lost in minutes after the cone goes on). Licking, according to established wisdom, defeats the purpose, infects the wound or injury, saliva is full of germs, blah blah blah. Dogs have been around longer than veterinary medicine, and I doubt there's many wild animals that have membership in an HMO. Put another way, they've been doing fine for longer than we know. And for reasons we can only hope to discover. I let my own dogs lick any itches or wounds they have, and have yet to find something that hasn't healed as it should. I can't say the same for pets of relatives and friends who went the cone-head route.
I could add something on how oral sex relates to the topic at hand, but instead I'll continue with Stuff I Learned About Dogs that similarly runs contrary to a veterinary advice, established wisdom, or published literature. I expect Science will catch up to this, as it will in other areas.
1. Dogs don't need a lot of water. Unless you feed them a steady diet of dried corn meal packaged up as dog food.
2. Dogs don't need or want a steady diet, and feeding your dog "table scraps" (aka "real food") doesn't cause upset and diarrhea. By comparison, if you eat nothing but Corn Flakes every day for 10 years, chances are an ordinary hamburger will cause problems.
3. Dogs are creatures of habit, but seek out a change in regimen when possible. Don't feed your dog in a bowl. Hide the food around the house and make them search for it. Great fun. Even better, roll some soft-boiled eggs across the kitchen floor and let them catch their food. The expression on their face after that first bite is priceless.
4. If given the opportunity, dogs will discover they enjoy fruits and many vegetables (green leafy stuff being the exception, and apples and tomatoes perennial favourites). The best food for dogs is pizza. Yeah, pizza. Pizza has lots of fat (more important than protein for any active dog), it's chewy (all dogs like to chew), and if there's lots of toppings, the scavenger instinct is satisfied. Best served warm, of course.
Obviously, I have way too much free time on my hands. Maybe I can become a scientist.
Re:Indeed (Score:5, Interesting)
If you're going to kill through suffocation, there are few more cruel ways than using CO2.
Unlikely proposition (Score:5, Interesting)
The human body's pain regulatory system is tightly bound up with a behaviour-rewarding system. Certain actions which are evolutionarily beneficial (to the species or the tribe, even if not to the individual) trigger a release of endorphins, the body's own homebrew morphine analogues which are also produced in response to pain. When an individual is not in pain, stimulation of the endorphin receptors produces a highly pleasurable sensation.
Opiates such as morphine or heroin are chemically similar enough to endorphins to bind to the same receptors. This makes them good painkillers. It also makes them good ways to induce pleasurable sensations for recreational purposes.
Beside any psychological effect (which may well be habit-forming in its own right), continued over-use of opiates can cause a reduction in the body's endorphin production. When the artificial painkillers wear off, the body is not ready with natural painkillers and so normal bodily functions produce heightened sensations -- the blood can be felt flowing through arteries, the ends of bones can be felt moving past one another, and so on. The exact manifestation of symptoms is a person-to-person variable. Most people find this state unbearable and so seek out more opiates rather than wait for the body's endorphin production to stabilise. This is physical dependence (the body cannot function normally without drugs). At £1 a breath, a heroin habit is not a cheap habit unless you are a rich rock star.
Some people have found that they can naturally produce endorphins in more than sufficient quantities to mask pain, and actually deliberately harm themselves to trigger an endorphin release. (Gripping ice cubes tightly in the hands is one of the least-dangerous ways to cause temporary pain sensations and so trigger endorphin production, and is recommended by some agencies for persistent self-harm practitioners). Others have found that by deliberately performing (what they perceive to be) altruistic acts (such as helping an old lady across the road, whether or not she actually wants to cross the road), they can stimulate endorphin production.
Unless the pain-relieving and pleasure-inducing properties of endorphins are separable, any painkiller that attempts to mimic their action will be both usable recreationally and doubly habit-forming.
Re:I hope it's psychoactive (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Make it stop! (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Make it stop! (Score:4, Interesting)
The real problem is diversion. A significant percentage of all prescribed opiates are diverted to the black market. There are obviously only estimates and anecdotes, but for some drugs (CR OxyCodone) I've seen numbers as high as 30%. The drugs that are diverted the most have more to do with street price than they do with the frequency of prescription. This is why CR OxyCodone is more of a problem than, say, Hydrocodone (Vicodin) or OxyCodone (Percocet).
It's the opinion of the FDA that heroin would be a nightmare of diversion problems. Furthermore, there isn't a CR form of heroin nor is there, to my knowledge, any Antagonist/Agonist combo that could help prevent diversion. Creation of such a formulary would probably increase the use of prescription heroin but it would cost a lot of money to produce and is, I'm guessing, seen as a risk by the pharma companies due to the serious stigma surrounding the drug.
In short, there's no clinical need for heroin in our current healthcare system. It's primary advantage (cost) doesn't outweigh it's many disadvantages. This is reinforced by the veritable nightmare of diversion that's plagued CR OxyCodone since it's release in the mid nineties.
Re:Make it stop! (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm posting as AC for personal reasons. I too was a sufferer of inexplicable chronic pain, but I beat it. My doctor and I worked through a few things, but nothing seemed to work. I cannot comment on all cases, but I can comment on my own. Besides the pain, I suffered from a few other things: chronic insomnia, chronic depression, and obesity. I know now all four were related. I couldn't work out because it hurt too much, which made me fatter, which made it difficult to sleep, which made it hurt more. Eventually I too thought of taking my life just to end the pain, but I did not. I asked my doctor about my depression, and we started treating it in a myriad of ways: exercise, eating healthy, and medication. The exercise was almost unbearable at first, but I stuck with it. I cut out almost all alcohol, fast food, and pre-packaged food. After I lost 40 pounds, I started to sleep better. The pain started to subside, and the meds helped with my depression. I do know that depression can manifest itself as physical pain, and there is no doubt that some of my pain was due to that. After 100 pounds, the day-to-day pain was gone. My fibro-mialga was gone too. After 130 pounds, all pain is gone, and I no longer need the depression meds. I can't say that there was a single cause, but everything together led to a destructive cycle. If you suffer from chronic pain and are overweight and depressed, I suggest massive life changing events. I am a lot happier with myself, though there is some fear that the love of food will take over and put me into another death spiral. Still, I can't live in that fear, and must just keep up with my new life.
Re:Make it stop! (Score:3, Interesting)
There have been some very notable drug failures in the past. It's not just an "off chance", it's a very real possibility. I don't want the next step after animal testing to be the general population. I know it sucks that we ask people with very serious problems to "take one for the team" by waiting 5-10 years. But you have to keep it in perspective. They have benefitted from all the OTHER people in the past who have done the same. The whole reason our medical science has progressed to the point it has is through rigorous scientific testing. If you get stuck with the short term perspective, it seems completely unfair. But you have to see the long term perspective.
The only cases where I support short circuiting a longer testing phase is for people who are very likely to die from their illness before the process is completed. Chronic pain is on the boundary due to the suicide issue noted. But I think it falls just barely outside, considering many (most?) people go on to live decades after they would have been willing to try experimental drugs that would have had unknown side effects.
Re:Make it stop! (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Make it stop! (Score:5, Interesting)
If you have any opiate dependency issues, I highly recommend looking into Suboxone. It's been described as a "wonder drug." One day you're an addict, doing whatever you can to scrape by, the very next day you're in recovery. No withdrawal. No pain. No suffering.
Every report I've seen is that it's recidivism rate is much lower than methadone maintenance.
Re:No, really, an important point (Score:3, Interesting)
I have Brachial Plexus Neuropathy. 10 years ago I got a MRSA infection following a Bankart Repair of my right shoulder. It took 3 months to clear up the infection, and in that time the cords of my right Brachial Plexus were damaged. Now I live in 24 hour constant pain, somewhat as if my arm is being torn off (it isn't).
I take Oxycontin twice a day, with Endone (more oxycodone) as a top up in the case of breakthrough. I go to my Pain Specialist every 6 weeks and get a series of nerve block injections, which give me 3 to 5 days relief (not counting the relatively minor discomfort of having 2 inch needle driven into my shoulder and spine).
I've found that light use of cannabis does increase the efficacy of the oxy. Too much (i.e. being "stoned") and it can be that the senses are heightened, which is a very very bad thing. Use every day diminishes the effectiveness.
I've found that occasional use (when I don't want to take anymore oxy but I have to get more relief or jump in front of a bus) works well. But grass is not that effective a painkiller on it's own, and seems to me to be most effective because (a) the spatial and temporal distortions can make the pain less important (i.e. it can relieve suffering but not so much pain) and (b) it increases the effects of the opiate based medicines.