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Does capsaicin affect the thermal sensation of males during immersion in 18 degrees C and 22 degrees C?
E Glickman-Weiss1, A G Nelson, C M Hearon
1Exercise Science Laboratory, Kent State University, OH 44242-0001, USA.
Abstract:
Animals respond to acute local or systemic administration of capsaicin with strong nociceptive reactions. The present investigation examined the thermal sensation in males who were given capsaicin (CAP, 2 mg x kg(-1) body weight) vs a placebo (PL, a maltodextrin capsule) before immersion in cold water. Seven Caucasian males ages 20-28 years were immersed in 18 degrees C and 22 degrees C twice (PL vs CAP) for 120 minutes. The following were examined: metabolism (VO2; L x min(-1)), rectal temperature (Tre; degrees C), and thermal sensation (TS). For VO2 there were no significant differences between treatments (PL vs CAP) when the variables were pooled jointly over the two immersion temperatures (18 degrees C and 22 degrees C) and across time. However, for Tre there were significant differences detected across time (p = 0.01) when Tre was pooled jointly across two treatments and two immersion temperatures. Postanalysis of variance revealed specific significant differences between 5 minutes (mean +/- SE; 37.2 +/- 0.07) and 120 minutes (36.0 +/- 0.09). For TS, there was a trend (p = 0.0699) which demonstrated differences between immersion temperatures only when TS was pooled jointly over the two treatments and across time, whereby TS was lower in 18 degrees C (6.2 +/- 0.5) than in 22 degrees C (3.7 +/- 0.6). From these data it appears that although Tre differed across time and temperature, respectively, a CAP feeding did not affect differentially the TS and metabolic response of males during acute cold water immersion.
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