Hot Springs
My wife and I took a quick break at Gold Fork Hot Springs, south of McCall, Idaho. The hot springs are laced with lithium salts, but I began to wonder if the more profound healing effects of hot mineral waters are due to the warming of inflamed, or perhaps chilled and hibernating, bodies. The heat sensors in your skin respond to vanillin-like molecules, e.g. hot pepper capsaicin, or elevated temperature to cause a sensation of warmth. Thus the vanillin receptors are proteins embedded in the membranes of nerves and they bind the molecules of the appropriate shape, the receptors change shape and start an electrical signal that moves to the brain. We experience that as warm or hot, depending on the intensity of the signal. The nervous system also responds by a returning nerve signal that releases anti-inflammatory hormones in the tissue from which the original hot signal arose. This is the reason that heat applied to an inflamed wound will reduce swelling, redness, etc. Capsaic...