Hot pepper anesthesia

The future of anesthesia may rest in a chili pepper cocktail, according to new animal research from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. More specifically, capsaicin (the active ingredient in hot peppers) and QX-314 (the normally inactive derivative of local anesthetic, lidocaine), when used together, target only pain-sensing neurons, blocking their signals to the brain. This would allow patients to remain wide awake during a paralysis-free, numbness-free and pain-free surgery.