As it turns out the “hot” in chiles can relieve pain under certain circumstances.
For example, it reduces pain in arthritis patients when topically applied as a cream repeatedly over several weeks and can be used to treat the neuropathic pain of post-surgical neuralgia. It has also been used to treat nerve pain due to sores inside the mouth from cancer therapy.
Apparently capsaicin works by elevating the threshold for pain (the level when pain is first felt) in the area where it's applied. The pain threshold can be further elevated by gradually increasing the capsaicin concentration in a series of repeated applications.
Another web site dealing with uses of Capsaicin (with a lot of information about chiles) is: http://www.fiery-foods.com/Dave/cap2000.html
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