Northwest Knee Warmers
Kalli Phillips here, one of the creators of Northwest Knee Warmers.
I'm also a physician, so I'm no stranger to scientific literature. I
just wrote a piece for our blog about this very subject. Here it is:
Why do we embrocate?
The reasons we embrocate vary from the aesthetic to the scientific.
That’s right, there is actually science behind our ingredient choices.
And we aren’t talking about Dr. Google/Wikipedia science here either.
The primary active ingredient of all three strengths of Northwest Knee
Warmers is of course capsaicin oleoresin. This is an extract made from
chili peppers and it gives our embrocation its heat. But that’s not
all it does.
Capsaicin is also an analgesic. That is, it reduces the perception of
pain. This is an effect that accumulates with regular use. Studies
have shown that pain perception from arthritis continues to decrease
over a 2 week period of daily application.
Other studies have shown that the application of capsaicin to the skin
covering a muscle can reduce the pain perception of that muscle. If
you’re a geek like us, you will enjoy this technical study here, and
an abstract here.
A translation of those studies boils down to a fairly simple concept.
Each type of sensation we detect is passed from the skin to the brain
by a specialized nerve. We have vibration-sensing nerves, temperature-
sensing nerves, touch-sensing nerves, pain-sensing nerves, and so on.
Our pain-sensing nerves use a chemical substance to relay the message
of pain to the brain. That substance is called “substance P”. If our
pain nerves are strongly stimulated over time, they start to run out
of substance P, and are less able to relay the message of pain.
Capsaicin stimulates our pain-sensing nerves, but one of the most
interesting characteristics of capsaicin is that unlike ginger or even
garlic in high concentrations, it does not cause tissue damage via
chemical burn. So even though you feel the burn, you aren’t actually
doing any damage. Capsaicin’s ability to deplete substance P is the
reason we hear from users of Northwest Knee Warmers that when they
embrocate before a hard workout or race, they experience much less
fatigue than usual afterwards. We haven’t been able to find any
corroborating research for this, but it is something we hear often.
Another interesting point is that the body does not build up a
tolerance for this effect. That is, using it frequently does not
diminish the pain-relieving effect. But one thing that the body can
develop a tolerance for is the warm sensation. We have a feeling that
this is part of the reason there is such a strong demand for our
“Maximum” strength from the long-time embrocation users around
Portland. (You know who you are.) The “warmth tolerance” builds up
with multiple daily uses, not the more typical 3-4 uses a week, and if
application is discontinued for a few days, the tolerance wears off.
We are kept awake at night thinking about how to make the best
embrocation possible. Not just an embrocation that doesn’t offend your
significant other’s sense of smell (very important), not just an
embrocation that feels like butter, and uses the purest all natural
ingredients out there, but an embrocation that has a body of science
behind it. We think we’re well on our way.
The links can be found on the actual blog post: http://northwestkneewarmers.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/why-do-we-embrocate/
We appreciate any feedback, as well as those of you who are ribbing
the embrocaters. We can take it!
Kalli