Can Drs. And Scientists Find Relief for Chronic Pain Sufferers by Studying the Naked Mole Rat?

Now this is one weird, ugly, creepy looking animal! He is called a naked mole rat and has been discovered about 6 feet under the earth in dark burrows of East Africa. He is very ugly with very sharp teeth in the front. They claim he is very gentle, loving and cold-blooded which is a unique oddity for a mammal.

Thomas Park of the University of Illinois in Chicago said that they are pleasant and easy going to work with. What is extremely unusual about this creepy little guy (the naked mole rat, not Thomas Park) is that he seems to be immune to pain. Because or their nearly useless eyes, they are very sensitive to the touch. He says that they are very easy to work with and very gentle. You can see the little guy's photo on Yahoo news.

The amazing discovery that they have made is that the little naked mole rat is missing the chemical substance P, which registers burning pain. When they tested lemon juice and other acidic substances such as pepper juice, he did not flinch. If you would do this to other mammals they would pull their little toes back and lick them.

They believe that because of their high levels of carbon dioxide, breathing in massive amounts of it living underground, that they have become very acidic making them immune to burning acidic pain.

They are hoping that this discovery may prove helpful in finding remedies for those of us who are chronic pain sufferers.

Acid works on the Capsaicin receptors that act on the acid sensitive ion channels that register burning pain. How does that affect us? Hopefully Drs. and Scientists will be able to help humans find pain relief from studying these ugly, but gentle little creatures. They believe that their tolerance to carbon dioxide along with some other ugly, undesirable, mammals such as the Mexican free tailed bat and the Alaskan marmot may help them to help us find relief from chronic pain.

I don't pretend to understand all the scientific jargon about how all this works, but if studying this little animal can help those of us who have chronic pain, and not hurt him in the process, hey I am all for it!

Be sure to read the entire article on Yahoo news and see this little guys photo.