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Researchers at the Penn State University College of Medicine in Hershey, have discovered a connection between the nerve receptors on your tongue and those present in the heart. Traditional Chinese medicine has long taught that the tongue is the sprout of the heart, or in other words, yeah, there's a connection there.
Hui-Lin Pan, Ph.D., the study's lead author discovered that a substance that makes chili peppers burn the tongue stimulates receptors on the surface of the heart, telling you that you're having a heart attack. He says "These findings might be very important in developing drugs for patients with chronic heart pain that is not relieved by traditional treatments... By blocking these nerve receptors, we may be able to relieve chest pain."
I find this insight to be rather fascinating for two reasons. Firstly, there is a very specific connection in traditional Chinese medicine between the Heart (capitalized to remind the reader that I'm writing about the TCM concept of the Heart rather than the biomedicine blood pump) and the tongue. We actually say that "the tongue is the sprout of the Heart". This has two clinical implications, one being problems with the sense of taste, and the other being problems witih speaking and/or self-expression. In each case, we'll look to see what's gumming up the works in the Heart.
Additionally, the Heart is considered one of the Fire organs according to five element theory in which many of the internal organs belong to one of five different elements (fire, earth, metal, water and wood). Apparently, this research was done on capsaicin, the molecule in chile peppers that make them feel hot... as fire.
So, we have fire, the heart (as well as the TCM Heart which includes some cognitive functions as well as pumping blood), hot peppers, and the tongue. TCM has no problem linking all of these items. Seems perfectly reasonable from the TCM perspective.
Because this particular article doesn't appear in any on-line Newsweek site, I'm going to go ahead and quote directly from the February 9th, 2004 edition...
When you bite into a hot pepper, nerve receptors in your mouth let you know about it. It turns out that similar nerve receptors are present in the heart and may be responsible for the chest pain associated with a heart attack. A study by researchers at the Penn State University College of Medicine in Hershey demonstrated that a substance very like capsaicin, the substance that makes chili peppers hot, stimulates receptors on the surface of the heart, telling you that you are having a heart attack. "These findings might be very important in developing drugs for patients with chronic heart pain that is not relieved by traditional treatments," says Hui-Lin Pan, Ph.D., the study's lead author. "By blocking these nerve receptors, we may be able to relieve chest pain."Posted by alstone at April 28, 2004 11:54 PM