Stomachs on legs are proud to present

Doctors are dripping capsaicin, the chemical that gives chili peppers their fire, directly into open wounds during some highly painful operations.

These experiments use an ultra-purified version of capsaicin to avoid infection -- and the volunteers are under anesthesia so they don't scream at the initial burn...

The hope is that bathing surgically exposed nerves in a high enough dose will numb them for weeks, so that patients suffer less pain and require fewer narcotic painkillers as they heal.

"We wanted to exploit this numbness," is how Dr. Eske Aasvang, a pain specialist in Denmark who is testing the substance, puts it.

I love the idea that the cure for blinding pain is higher doses of blinding pain.

See: The Baltimore Sun

Most days staff meals can be a touch painful

3 am

In Bed

Eau de vie

Vieille Prune

Lorentz

Tres drunk

Sokapeap la'aw

Because I don't want you to think of me as all death and bottom jokes here is a slightly serious recipe

I'm teetering on the verge of a cold. Having a cold in the tropics feels all wrong. When I lived in Siem Reap, Cambodia my friendly local Japanese restaurant owner made me this. It's yummy, alcholic and just the thing for a cold.

Tamago-zake common cold remedy for adults

INGREDIENTS:
• One egg
• 3/4 cup sake
• 1 tbsp sugar or honey

PREPARATION:
Pour sake in a cup and heat in a microwave. Mix an egg and sugar well. Add the egg mixture in the hot sake.

*Makes 1 serving.