NRSC 4132 Blog

In case you don't know what they are, throat lozenges are those chalky, powdery tablets primarily composed of zinc that you take to alleviate sore throat pain. Similar to a cough drop, they've been around for years and seem to be part of many people's remedy regimen to treat such symptoms of the common cold. Pain is one of those feelings that not many of us like to deal with or even think about. Whether you are taking aspirin, acetaminophen, or throat lozenges to manage throat pain, it is known that many options are abound in the marketplace.

Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional reaction that usually motivates us to seek some sort of "pain-killer." Sometimes it even gets to the point where we don't care to know or what extent we have to go to alleviate our pain--symptoms of such "pain-killers" disregarded. An extensive amount of funding and research has gone into the clinical aspects of pain management drugs including not only over-the-counter pain medications such as Tylenol and Advil, but chronic pain anesthetics with detrimental side effects. Such drug categories include neurolytic blocks, narcotics, opiates, and other analgesics. Side effects from all of these drugs, acute and severe, range from topical rashes and swelling to addiction and cardiac arrest. Holistic healing, be it through ?mind over matter? or ingesting natural antidotes, may be a way to avoid pain killers that bring severe side effects with them. According to comprehensive research involving zinc in last month's issue of Nature Neuroscience, perhaps there are some natural treatment methods of pain management.

Zinc, as previously mentioned, is a metallic chemical element that is readily available and affordable throughout the marketplace. In fact, it is so copious, that it is the 24th most abundant element in the Earth's crust, and the second most prevalent trace element in the body according to Nozaki's et al. investigation. Not only is it essential for life and crucial for cellular metabolism, but Nozaki et al. have discovered a role for zinc in brain functions such as neurological disorders and pathological pain management. The trouble with studying this element is the myriad of potential zinc targets on the molecular basis. Nozaki et al. noted that NMDA receptors are one of the potential synaptic targets for zinc effects of excitatory transmission and have key roles in both the physiology and pathology of the nervous system. Notably, these receptors contribute to pain transmission and the development of chronic pain.

As we understand, there are various subunits that comprise the NMDA receptor (NR1 and NR2 subunits). In particular, the NR2A subunit, which is widely expressed in the adult nervous system, has an intense sensitivity for extracellular zinc, or zinc taken in the body beyond endogenous levels of zinc. Using knock-in NR2A-H128S mice, they found that high affinity zinc binding to the NR2A subunit is enough to dampen NMDA receptor function in pain pathways throughout the central nervous system. Though Nozaki et al. have not found the precise location of the site where zinc diffuses in the vicinity of NMDA receptors, they did find that NMDA-dependent spinal long-term potentiation, a well-known substrate for hyperalgesia, is blocked by exogenous zinc.

This is an enormous discovery in terms of future experimentation and the potential role of the natural element zinc in place of dangerous pain-management pharmaceuticals. It's absolutely incredible to me how technology is unveiling Mother Nature's organic remedy for so many of the problems and illnesses in today's society. Not that I doubt the use of western medication and synthetic pharmaceuticals as treatment options for various illnesses, but I strongly condone taking natural elements found on this planet with a far shorter list of side effects. A lesson to consider: keep on sucking on those zinc throat lozenges when you have a sore throat!