Why is it we can use anesthesia to block out pain receptors, but we don’t use a form of anesthesia to help with after work out pain?
In: Chemistry
The options are local or general anaesthetic. Sports generally stress large parts of the body and not just near the surface so local anaesthetic would not be particularly effective.
General anaesthetic is much more complex and dangerous to administer, and would also impair the athlete’s ability to recover, for example by stretching or feeding themself.
There are certain sports where pain relief is commonly taken, for example in high level singlehanded offshore yacht racing it is common to take painkillers from the start.
Taking pain relief over long periods has damaging effects especially to your kidneys so taking drugs unnecessarily could be detrimental to an athlete’s career.
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