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Hot Pepper Kills Prostate Cancer

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the cajun-health-food dept.

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."

17 of 401 comments (clear)

  1. In other news... by Pig+Hogger · · Score: 5, Funny

    In other news, cause for Mexican-food flatulence not determined yet.

  2. Great... Just Great. by Mr.+Flibble · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't know about the rest of you, but the idea of Habanero suppositories just does not sit well with me...

    (I can hear Johnny Cash singing "Ring of Fire"...)

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    1. Re:Great... Just Great. by Mr.+Flibble · · Score: 5, Funny

      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...

      Fail that remedial comedy? Your funny bone is nowhere (topologically) near your asshole. But then, I hear there is a great deal of confusion between asses and elbows sometimes. ;)

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  3. Forget the cells! by turrican · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sometimes the stuff in those peppers (on their way out...) makes me want to commit suicide!

  4. Three to eight... by FireballX301 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Lehmann estimated that the mice ate the human equivalent of 400 milligrams of capsaicin three times a week. That is about the amount found in three to eight fresh habanero peppers, depending on how hot the peppers are.

    I may be a lightweight bastard, but I cannot eat a single habanero without violently vomiting.

    400 mg of Capsaicin is basically like eating pepper spray. Even if it's in capsule pill form you may vomit it up from your stomach. I wonder if there's any way for a local application to the prostate instead of standard ingestion.

    1. Re:Three to eight... by cbiffle · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well, sure, we can...but trust me, you're probably going to prefer the mouth to the urethra, when it comes to capsaicin treatments.

    2. Re:Three to eight... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Trust me"? And you know this because...?

    3. Re:Three to eight... by linzeal · · Score: 5, Funny
      Me, lived in Az for 5 years of my adult life. Me, got into hot sauces. So I buy things like blair's hot sauce. I put it on everything including pizza and take out me and my gf order on the weekdays when we do not have time to cook.

      Woman screaming in the middle of the night

      Why?

      Because cunnilingus is not so fun when the tongue hitting your clit is still swathed in hot sauce that is 100x hotter than anything you can buy at Safeway.

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    4. Re:Three to eight... by modecx · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Capsaicin doesn't do a thing to tissues that don't have neurons to which the molecules can bind. I keep telling this to people that insist that eating peppers all the time will destroy your stomach... But some people just don't listen to reason, but instead to old wives tales. It seems that many membranes have the neurons that capsaicin triggers, and they're mostly on the face, and in and around the anus, of all places. If you managed to swallow a habanero whole, it shouldn't cause a problem unless some of that capsaicin survives the digestion process, and then you'll be singing a Johnny Cash song.

      Most birds, incidentally, don't have receptors that capsaicin works with, so they can eat peppers all day long and not have a problem.

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    5. Re:Three to eight... by modecx · · Score: 5, Interesting

      This is true, but it's not like there is one type of receptor on any given neuron. Capsaicin works on a very specific type of receptor that also responds to acids and temperature (hence the link to the burning feeling). In our mouths, at least, there's a receptor for every sensation, bitter (alkali, sour (acids), sweet (I remember reading that there's a specific receptor for many kinds of different sugars), salty (ummm, salts), and hot/cold.

      I'm not a doctor or a biologist, but personally, I just don't feel a whole lot of anything in my stomach. You're right, that dosen't mean that capsaicin dosen't have some kind of effect, in fact, I've read that it can stimulate peristalsis in the GI tract and cause the parasympathetic nervous system to release a neurotransmitter which is responsible for lowering blood pressure and later release of endorphines. So, maybe it actually helps with good digestion and lowering blood pressure a bit, it could do much more for all I know... And all of that would indicate that there are at least a few compatible receptors in the stomach/GI tract, like you say. I didn't say there weren't. I've said time and again you couldn't feel it in your stomach, directly.

      I was just saying that there's no real evidence that capsaicin does any harm in the stomach, like so many people think. They think eating peppers in quantity is analogous to drinking battery acid. Even the AC that responded to me thinking he knows what goes on was misinformed. So what if it causes more acid, if it does at all? The stomach deals with some nasty ass acid all the time, a little or a lot more won't cause a problem in the stomach, even with weakened mucous lining. Oh, sure, a lot more than normal isn't good for the esophagus, but it's not built to deal with it. It's been proven that almost all stomach ulcers are caused either by bacteria that build a small basic environment in which they can thrive, or by cancer! Acid dosen't hurt a healthy stomach.

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  5. Great news for my wife! by AceyMan · · Score: 5, Funny

    My wife *loves* super hot foods, so if this is true, she'll never get prostate cancer!

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  6. Another thing you can do... by clevershark · · Score: 5, Funny

    You can also masturbate for prostate health! Just make sure you do that before handling hot peppers. Trust me on that one.

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    1. Re:Another thing you can do... by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Just make sure you do that before handling hot peppers. Trust me on that one."

      Dammit. Now my peppers taste funny.

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      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    2. Re:Another thing you can do... by rampant+mac · · Score: 5, Funny
      "You can also masturbate for prostate health!"

      Why even post this here? There won't be case of prostate cancer among the Slashdot crowd for the next 65 fucking years!

      ...

      Back in 5

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  7. Quick Google Scholar Search by FreemanPatrickHenry · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Hmm, a quick Google Scholar search for "capsaicin cancer" revealed this. That link, from NIH, seems to indicate that there's evidence that capsaicin is a carconigen:

    The cancer increase was dependent on the concentration of these groups in a county. These results strengthen and extend an earlier case-control study which found odds ratios above 5 for the stomach cancer association with capsaicin pepper. It is further evidence that capsaicin is a human carcinogen.

    Thoughts?

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  8. This clearly demonstrates by jvance · · Score: 5, Funny

    how much the Slashdot userbase is aging. Now where are my glasses? I can't find my Viagra without them.

  9. 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

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