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mrsD · 11-17-2011, 02:12 PM

I searched this concept about nerves giving off heat and found this:

http://scienceblog.com/12738/physici...d-more-likely/

Quote:

Every medical and biological textbook says that nerves function by sending electrical impulses along their length. “But for us as physicists, this cannot be the explanation. The physical laws of thermodynamics tell us that electrical impulses must produce heat as they travel along the nerve, but experiments find that no such heat is produced,” says associate professor Thomas Heimburg from the Niels Bohr Institute at Copenhagen University. He received his Ph.D. from the Max Planck Institute in Göttingen, Germany, where biologists and physicists often work together – at most institutions these disciplines are worlds apart. Thomas Heimburg is an expert in biophysics, and when he came to Copenhagen, he met professor Andrew D. Jackson, who is an expert in theoretical physics. They decided to work together in order to study the basic mechanisms which govern the way nerves work.

There are heat sensing nerves in the skin as well as cold ones. This article explains that sensations occurring in both may arise along the axon as well as the end points in the skin.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21050282

In general heat sensing neurons are over ridden by cold ones. That is why menthol which stimulates the cold sensory neurons, overcomes sensations of heat when applied to the skin. (when no actual cold is present). It is why menthol is included in many pain rubs, and why Biofreeze feels cold when it does not general cold temperature.