I know that both things can cause discomfort in the mouth, and in the case of capsacin, it can continue to be uncomfortable-to-painful as it exits, but is this merely a matter of perception or is there/can there be actual damage to tissues?
I am prompted to ask because I have found the sour candy of my dreams, ("X-Treme Sour Smarties" - kick ass!) and the only bummer is that my tongue can’t take it after a few small rolls. I am forced by physical discomfort to set them aside for anywhere from a few hours to more than a day while my tongue recovers the ability to tolerate them. When I ignored my tongue’s complaints, it felt like I might actually have damaged my tongue, especially on the side of my tongue, and I couldn’t tolerate even the relatively mild acidity of a fresh tomato without pain that was pretty intense, given what it was originally caused by.
The fact that the sensitivity lingered so long leads me to the conclusion that I actually gave myself a kind of mild acid burn… did I?
And what about capsacin? Given that it can still cause pain during a bowel movement (oh, you haven’t experienced that? Good times.) is it damaging the lining of the gut, or it merely some kind of phantom perception of pain that is removed from actual damage?
I’ve always thought that pain receptors tell us when something is actually causing damage, even in a mild way…am I mistaken?
And while I’m thinking about it… the acids of the stomach are pretty powerful, it seems unlikely that citric acid could be more damaging than the body’s acids. And how does the acid of saliva compare with acid in the stomach?
And (now my brain starts hyperlinking…) what protects the stomach itself, but not the esophagus? After all, it’s stomach acid in the esophagus that makes heartburn, right? So I guess the intestines have the same protections as the stomach, or they would be wounded by the stomach acid passing through…
I need to understand!
(And does anyone have any tips for helping my tongue recover from the citric acid burn(out) faster? Those smarties are damned addictive and right now my only answer is to shift around to different parts of my tongue… )
And while I’m thinking about all this, why are tongues so shaggy on the sides? Is it just me? I know, I’m starting to sound like I either smoked a great deal of pot or I’m 5 years old: Why? Because xyz. Why? Because abc. Why?