Hot peppers to reduce cancer risk?

Q: Will eating hot peppers really reduce my risk of cancer?

A: For centuries, capsaicin - the molecule in hot peppers that makes you sweat and tear up - has been added to creams, solutions, nasal sprays, and dermal patches in very low concentrations for the temporary relief of aches, pains, joints with arthritis, and backache.

The capsaicin releases endorphins in the body, which helps alleviate pain.

What's more, recent studies indicate that capsaicin can also have beneficial effects on one's metabolism, diabetes, and cancer risk.

To lower the risk of those issues, weight management is important, and there is evidence that capsaicin can be helpful in preventing weight gain.

Animal models have suggested that capsaicin can decrease one's appetite, make one feel more full, increase the output of energy, and shift the body from carbohydrate to fat usage.

In other animal models, it has been demonstrated that capsaicin can slow prostate cancer-cell growth and increase cancer-cell death; however, that link has yet to be made in humans.

But given that hot pepper consumption can be traced back as far as 5000 B.C. and that capsaicin is deemed safe by the FDA, eating foods enriched with capsaicin not only could be more beneficial to your health overall, but also could reduce the risk of cancer.
- Dianzheng Zhang