So, if you repeatedly subject your pain receptors to capsaicin, they become desensitized to it over time. You have to keep upping your dosage to get the same re

So, if you repeatedly subject your pain receptors to capsaicin, they become desensitized to it over time. You have to keep upping your dosage to get the same response. That's actually why it's not a "Chest hair thickening macho demonstration", because Ed Currie is not some amazing monk, suppressing immense pain by sheer force of will, but rather a trained athlete who is simply in less physical pain. Through the same vein, the entire country of India or Thailand is not magically more pain tolerant than the parts of the world with less hot peppers in their food. Their nerves have just adjusted their thresholds.