I never really understood how people built up a tolerance to nicotine or spicy food. Maybe something to do with nerves?
In: Biology
I’m gonna take a bit of a guess at this one as it’s a great question I’ve often wondered, and I honestly don’t think we truly know the answer, at least for spicy food (but I’d be interested to hear people claim otherwise). I have read people talk about spicy food tolerance building up because sensory receptors are deactivated or desensitized. I don’t think this is satisfactory or proven. There is the sensor organ (your tongue), but there is also the processor of that signal (your brain). I believe there is evidence that it is in fact you’re brain / processor that is “desensitized” – or at least, it pays less attention to the signals over time. Reduced attention is to pain signals is known to reduce pain (recent innovations include conducting painful physio rehabilitation when people are playing computer games). Whether this is the same mechanism or similar for drugs I don’t know probably not – I expect much more is known about drugs as it will have been studied much more
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