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Hot Pepper Kills Prostate Cancer

brian0918 writes "U.S. and Japanese researchers have announced results of a study showing that capsaicin, the chemical that makes peppers hot, can cause prostate cancer cells to kill themselves. 'Capsaicin led 80 percent of human prostate cancer cells growing in mice to commit suicide in a process known as apoptosis, the researchers said.' This led to tumors one fifth the size of those in untreated mice."

13 of 401 comments (clear)

  1. Capsaicin - topical analgesic by Frankie70 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Capsaicin
    is an excellent topical analgesic also for neural problems, like Diabetic neuropathy.

    There is a substance P which transmits the pain to the brain. Capsaicin destroys substance
    P if you apply it for 4-5 days multiple times a day & hence for the next couple of weeks
    you will not have pain, then you have to report it. Instead of the expensive Capsaicin
    cream you can also use a paste made at home of red chilli powder etc. Or even McIlhenny's Tabasco

    I have meralgia parasthetic condition & nothing provides relief like chilli paste.

    1. Re:Capsaicin - topical analgesic by torkd · · Score: 1, Informative

      I think you're mixing up neuropathy with neuralgia.

      diabetic neuropathy is actually not painful - people will go on with an ulcer on their foot for weeks and not know it. it gets to be pretty bad actually. the first sign of neuropathy is that you will have numbness or tingling.

      neuralgia is painful. quite painful. people with trigeminal neuralgia come in complaining of quick lightning flashes of pain on their face.

  2. Capsaicin Molecule T-shirt by CFrankBernard · · Score: 2, Informative
  3. The wonders of capsules... by Kittie+Rose · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you take your medication right, you'll never taste an ounce of spiciness. All the "spicy" stuff will be kept inside a neat little pill casing, presuming the chemical IS all that spicy when isolated from the peppers. Just don't bite.

    --
    EpiAdv - if you like Pokey the Penguin, try this comic!
    1. Re:The wonders of capsules... by donscarletti · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yes, Capsicain is indeed spicy when isolated from peppers. It's what pepper spray is made from. Unfortunantly it doesn't have the flavour of chilis, only the heat.

      --
      When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
  4. Possible other uses for Pepper Spray.. by sinth · · Score: 3, Informative

    FTA reference;
    http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Capsaici n&oldid=43115117

    "Capsaicin is also the active ingredient in the chemical riot control agent pepper spray. When the spray comes in contact with skin, especially eyes or mucous membranes it is very painful."

    Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper_spray

    "Pepper spray (also known as OC spray (from "Oleoresin Capsicum"), OC gas, or capsicum spray) is a lachrymatory agent which is used in riot control, crowd control and personal self-defense, including defense against dogs. It is a non-lethal agent that can be deadly in rare cases. The American Civil Liberties Union claims to have documented fourteen fatalities from the use of pepper spray. The active ingredient in pepper spray is capsaicin, which is a chemical derived from the fruit of plants in the Capsicum genus, including chillis. Long-term effects of pepper spray have not been effectively researched."

    Apparently someone was curious.. (Mental image of evil scientist deviously spraying innocent mice with pepper spray while laughing .. deviously.)

  5. Re:Three to eight... by geekoid · · Score: 4, Informative

    it would be in a pill form, so there would be no taste or burning of the mouth.
    Now if your vomiting is from a reaction from something besides taste and burning mouth, you screwed.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  6. Re:Great... Just Great. by Olmy's+Jart · · Score: 3, Informative

    Uh... Actually... No...

    Fail that remedial biology? Your prostate is nowhere (topologically) near your asshole. Wrong path. It would have to go up and back down again. Large and small intestine vs bladder and urethra. Shorter route would be through your stomache. Of course, the other alternative is worse... Far worse...

  7. Remedial anatomy by martalli · · Score: 5, Informative

    A simple correction - your prostate is between your urethra and your rectum. In fact, the prostate makes most of the liquid in the ejaculate. If your prostate is too large (BPH), then the the urologist will sometimes do a TURP (also in the BPH article), where the urologist basically goes up your urethra and scoops out heaps of the prostate, in order to free up some space for the poor fellow to relieve himself.

    If concern for prostate cancer is raised, a biopsy is done with a terribly evil device that goes up the rectum and spears the prostate with six separate little needles. If they left a little capsaicin behind you would be so sore you wouldn't notice...However, the study as reported by the article was simply consumed capsaicin, not topically applied

  8. Re:Quick Google Scholar Search by some+guy+on+slashdot · · Score: 4, Informative

    We do, in fact, know what causes cancer. It's just random mutation of a LOT of DNA codons. The problem is partly that it takes so many mutations, in so many possible combinations, that we can't point to a single cause. But that doesn't mean we can't predict what things are more likely to induce those cancerous mutations. In fact, we have names for the series of things that are likely to cause mutation; carcinogens. You're right that we don't know to the exact decimal place how carcinogenic certain things are. But we do know that cigarettes are 1,000,000 times as carcinogenic as, say, a baked potato.

    Does this mean that smoking cigarettes will undoubtedly give you cancer, always, in every case? No. Does it mean that avoiding carcinogens will completely safeguard you against it? No. Because the mechanism is still completely random - you could smoke your entire life and never create a particular combination of mutations that causes your cells to divide uncontrollably, or you could get a bad set of transcription errors and end up with cancer anyway. But that doesn't mean you should discount smoking, industrial waste and radiation as health risks simply because we don't know if habanero peppers are slightly carcinogenic or not.

    The question is, if rolling a die a thousand times in a specific order would give you a horrible, disfiguring and probably deadly disease, would you rather roll the die 1 billion times, or 100 billion times?

  9. Chili Facts - For the Tech Minded by cyberjack88 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Chili Facts When the heat content of a pepper is measured in Scoville units, a bell pepper rates zero, a jalapeno is 2,500 to 5,000 units, a cayenne 30,000 to 50,000 and the habanero, considered the hottest pepper, 100,000 to 500,000. They release endorphons into the brain, promoting a sense of well being. Chilies also can be used to remove barnacles from ships.

  10. Re:Three to eight... by defile39 · · Score: 3, Informative

    And ALWAYS remember to thouroughly wash your hands after slicing peppers when you're making chilli. If you so happen to forget and decide to relieve your bladder, your penile positioning device (read: hands) might very well be the death of you.

  11. Birds and capsaicin... by sean.peters · · Score: 3, Informative
    Most birds, incidentally, don't have receptors that capsaicin works with, so they can eat peppers all day long and not have a problem.

    This property comes in really handy if squirrels start stealing from your birdfeeder. Just mix a healthy dose of cayenne pepper with the birdseed - the squirrels lose interest really fast, but the birds don't even notice. The only trouble is that the cayenne tends to cause the seed to stick together into a big solid mass when it gets damp. Also, refilling, emptying, and cleaning the birdfeeder can become an interesting process when you have clouds of cayenne pepper forming around you!

    Sean