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Peppers Seem To Protect Against Parkinson's

DavidHumus writes "A recent study indicates that consuming vegetables from the Solanaceae family, which includes tomatoes and peppers (as well as tobacco), decreases the risk of contracting Parkinson's disease. Earlier studies had shown that smoking tobacco seems to provide protection against the disease and the newer one seems to confirm that the key ingredient is nicotine, which is present in some vegetables like peppers."

161 comments

  1. ah tobacco by ThorGod · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You wont get Parkinson's because you'll be dead before it could form.

    (sardonic)

    --
    PS: I don't reply to ACs.
    1. Re:ah tobacco by RabidReindeer · · Score: 1

      You wont get Parkinson's because you'll be dead before it could form.

      (sardonic)

      Not always. Grandpa was a heavy smoker. Lived to be nearly 80. Had Parkinson's real bad, though, so any benefits evidently didn't come through for him.

    2. Re:ah tobacco by ClioCJS · · Score: 2

      Tobacco only kills 50% of its users, and in most cases only after age 60.

      --
      -Clio
      Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
      Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
    3. Re:ah tobacco by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      These stats are really only about Big Tobacco "tobacco." Big Tobacco takes real tobacco, leaf, stalk, root, etc, and mixes it up with chemicals and sucks out the nicotine. Then they chop it up some more into a mash, squeeze it and make a paper out of it, adding back nicotine along with 300 carcinogenic chemicals, including residual pesticides, including drugs that numb your throat and drugs that help nicotine get into your blood stream faster, all designed to make smoking more addictive. The paper is cut up to appear like tobacco cuttings, and packaged into it's final form.

      What Big Tobacco sells is pure poison. Of course it kills half its users. But no one really knows if actual, real tobacco kills you... Native Americans smoked the heck out of it for centuries, and you never really hear about them dying in droves from lung or other cancer caused by smoking tobacco.

    4. Re:ah tobacco by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Native Americans smoked the heck out of it for centuries, and you never really hear about them dying in droves from lung or other cancer caused by smoking tobacco.

      Don't really hear anything about them except that we already killed them in droves.

    5. Re:ah tobacco by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You wont get Parkinson's because you'll be dead before it could form.

      (sardonic)

      Why am I not surprised? Tobacco is, of course, the Weed of Lucifer, and absolutely no Good could ever come from such a Satanic plant. Never. Nope. Any evidence suggesting otherwise must be summarily dismissed, with as much Snark as is possible.

    6. Re:ah tobacco by Dave+Emami · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Native Americans smoked the heck out of it for centuries, and you never really hear about them dying in droves from lung or other cancer caused by smoking tobacco.

      Given the low average life expectancy of people living that close to nature, or in pre-industrial society in general, I doubt any negative effects of tobacco would have had any statistically-significant impact. Same with genetic tendency of people from sub-Saharan Africa towards higher rates of heart disease -- the vast majority of people didn't live long enough for that to matter. Likewise with lactose tolerance -- when food is chronically scarce, the extra calories from being able to consume dairy products are much more important than the drawbacks of the accompanying increase in saturated fat consumption. It's only in the last couple centuries or so that things like heart disease, stroke, and cancer have climbed up the causes-of-death list, because people have (mostly) stopped dying of starvation, malnutrition, and water/airborne diseases.

      --

      "The Greens lynched a hacker in Chicago. Last month, but I think the body's still hanging from the old Water Tower."
    7. Re:ah tobacco by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No one should smoke, until they retire. That way they're dead before cancer catches them.

      Tabacco is prescribed in chinese medicine for a number of age related conditions.

    8. Re:ah tobacco by hawkinspeter · · Score: 2

      Low average life expectancy is usually caused by high infant mortality, so as long as they survive past childhood, they tended to live to the same ages that we live to. It's a myth that people used to die after reaching 30.

      --
      You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe
    9. Re:ah tobacco by wvmarle · · Score: 1

      People would get sick and die (typical age would be 70-80 - assuming one survived the first four years of life). That's it. You would get sick. You wouldn't have "cancer" or "parkinsons" or "diabetes" or whatever fancy name is given nowadays, you would just very simply get sick and die.

      Tobacco would be as much a killer as it is now, maybe even more so, they just didn't know it was the tobacco that killed them. The reason we have many people dying from tobacco, or too much saturated fats, or things like that is that nowadays we know that this is the cause of death.

      This is also a key problem for say cancer rate detections due to power lines. People sometimes blame a new power line for more cancer deaths in their community - however you can not compare modern cancer rates with rates from say 30 years ago as detection is so much better, that we simply see more cases.

    10. Re:ah tobacco by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Grandpa was a heavy smoker. Lived to be nearly 80. Had Parkinson's real bad."

      How the fuck did he light his cigarettes then?

    11. Re:ah tobacco by Sique · · Score: 1

      No, they didn't. Even after correcting for an early death in childhood, people on average didn't live as long as today. Main reason are bacterial infections we routinely cure today with antibiotics, and which can be deadly if left untreated.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    12. Re:ah tobacco by hawkinspeter · · Score: 1

      Yes and no. There's more people living to extreme old age these days, but we haven't really increased the maximum lifespan.

      --
      You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe
    13. Re:ah tobacco by tehcyder · · Score: 2

      "Grandpa was a heavy smoker. Lived to be nearly 80. Had Parkinson's real bad."

      How the fuck did he light his cigarettes then?

      Carefully.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    14. Re:ah tobacco by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Yes and no. There's more people living to extreme old age these days, but we haven't really increased the maximum lifespan.

      Sorry, we have most certainly increased the average life expectancy.

      Your argument is basically "if you didn't die in childbirth, or early from malnutrition or one of numerous childhood diseases that are now eradicated or very rare, and if you didn't ever get a disease as an adult that we could now trivially treat with drugs, or die from an infection that we would nowadays just sterilise and bandage, or ever have an accident that left you unable to hunt/labour in the fields, then it was quite possible to live to 70 or more".

      Well, yes. I don't think most people would argue that human beings have physically changed that much in the last few tens of thousands of years.

      It was precisely the large number of now-preventable diasters that resulted in so many people dying young.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    15. Re:ah tobacco by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Tabacco is prescribed in chinese medicine for a number of age related conditions

      Dessicated tiger penis is prescribed in Chinese medicine for erectile dysfunction. Your point is?

    16. Re:ah tobacco by hawkinspeter · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yes, I agree completely about average life expectancy which is most strongly affected by infant deaths which is the main area that modern medicine has made huge advances in.

      What I was attempting to point out is that it is a fallacy that most people in medieval times (or earlier) only lived until they were 30 or so. Yes, the average life expectancy at birth was approximately 30 years for medieval Britain, but at age 21 the average life expectancy would be 64 which is not very different to the situation today in some countries (world average is around 67).

      By the way, thanks for twisting my explanation into some hare-brained argument.

      --
      You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe
    17. Re:ah tobacco by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Helmut Schmidt disagrees.

    18. Re:ah tobacco by Paul+Slocum · · Score: 1

      Looked this up and it's correct -- life expectancy in the past is quite a bit longer than I expected for people who make it past childhood: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy#Life_expectancy_variation_over_time

    19. Re:ah tobacco by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      Even after correcting for an early death in childhood, people on average didn't live as long as today. Main reason are bacterial infections we routinely cure today with antibiotics, and which can be deadly if left untreated.

      The Native Americans had less disease because they practiced less animal husbandry; most of them, none at all. They only got horses after Europeans showed up with them and a lot of them escaped and many of them didn't even associate with canines. The Pomo people who still live in the area now known as Lake County, CA used to regularly live past a hundred years on a diet primarily consisting of fish and acorns; today that lifestyle is unavailable as the oaks were cut down by settlers offered one dollar per walnut tree planted, and the tailings from cinnabar mining for mercury production washing into the lake. The lake is known as "Clear Lake", presumably because it once was. Fertilizer runoff and other factors have led to it being choked with algae and hydrilla, and it is always quite green. Some years it looks from above as if you could walk on it. About one year in three it smells, quite literally, like a sewage treatment plant.

      Of course, the Native Americans' lack of animal diseases meant a lack of resistance to those diseases, and by the time the settlers landed on Plymouth Rock, their population had already been reduced dramatically due to exposure of the diseases brought by the Spanish, with credible estimates of the reduction ranging from fifty to ninety percent. Hooray for Guns, Germs, and Steel, I guess.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    20. Re:ah tobacco by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      Until the 20th century, Most people were not expect to live past their 50's
      So before lung cancer hits, chances are you would be dead, for disease, infection, malnutrition, dehydration, killed in battle/hunting, general accidents...

      I am not debating modern Cigarettes have been made to be unnaturally harmful, compared to natural tobacco. (That is why you see lower cancer rates with more natural sources pipes and cigars) Also Americans have a problem with moderation too. In some countries where smoking is popular they have 1 or 2 cigarettes a day. vs 1 or 2 packs a day.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    21. Re:ah tobacco by BattleApple · · Score: 1

      I came across this the other day - List of additives in cigarettes
      "One significant issue is that while all these chemical compounds have been approved as additives to food, they were not tested by burning. Burning changes the properties of chemicals. More than 4,000 chemical compounds are created by burning a cigarette." ... wonderful

    22. Re:ah tobacco by BooMonster · · Score: 1

      Wow. He said "we haven't increased the maximum lifespan." Then you said "yes, we have increased the average life expectancy."

      You managed to fail at reading comprehension and statistics.

    23. Re:ah tobacco by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      exactly! Now I wouldn't condone smoking (even if I am a smoker), but if you're going to smoke, for fucks sake, don't smoke any national branded, or manufactured cigarettes. Get real tobacco, and roll your own. It's hellishly less expensive (8oz. real, natural tobacco with zero additives and blanks costs me $15 and gives me 2 cartons), and there isn't any science available about it that says it causes cancer or is so bad for that you can expect it to kill you. So I tell the passersby that give me dirty looks when I'm on break, "don't judge me... I like to smoke" and what I do is no more dangerous than a bunch of camping Boy Scouts roasting marshmellows.

    24. Re: ah tobacco by EliasKaralekas · · Score: 1

      Everyone should research anatabloc and there main ingredient Anatabine! The roskamp institute also backs the product!

    25. Re:ah tobacco by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just because we may not have been able to identify illnesses is the past does not mean they existed. Modern day hunter-gatherer societies, such as the Inuit, have shown ZERO signs of cancer, parkinson's, or diabetes (with more than 70% of their calories coming from red meat). This has nothing to do with age, as in western societies there are plenty of children with these conditions.

      Our culture loves to assert "facts" based on broad epidemiological data that's correlative at best. Causation must be established before assumptions can reasonably be made (show me *one* controlled trial where atheroscleroses is induced in humans by feeding them saturated fats).

      My point is that as a whole, we are still very much in the dark. Just because we have fancy names for illnesses doesn't make us any less clueless as to what's killing us.

    26. Re:ah tobacco by hawk · · Score: 1

      Put that way, maybe Windows isn't quite so bad after all . . .

      hawk

  2. Tomacco. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Tomacco.

    1. Re:Tomacco. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Daddy, this tastes like grandma.

    2. Re:Tomacco. by siddesu · · Score: 1
    3. Re:Tomacco. by jones_supa · · Score: 1

      One of the best Simpsons episodes.

  3. Paging Mr. Fox by l0ungeb0y · · Score: 3, Funny

    I know it's in bad taste, but I'd pay anything to see Michael J Fox doing a Frank's RedHot Commercial splattering sauce everywhere while having a case of the shakes.

    I PUT THAT SH*T ON EVERYTHING!!!!

    1. Re:Paging Mr. Fox by dontgetshocked · · Score: 2, Funny

      Your right, it is in very bad taste. You should be ashamed of yourself and why Slashdot awards you points is beyond me. Having a Neurological disease myself, it is very offensive. You are the kind of person who laughs at others misfortunes. Sad!

    2. Re:Paging Mr. Fox by TomR+teh+Pirate · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Lighten up, Francis. I'm going in for neurosurgery in a week to fix 18 months of severe neck pain and I'm cracking jokes about it. I even asked the neurosurgeon about neck-bolts.

    3. Re:Paging Mr. Fox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Having a Neurological disease myself

      Lacking a sense of humour is called a neurological disease now?

    4. Re:Paging Mr. Fox by ClioCJS · · Score: 2, Informative

      News flash: Jokes come at the expense of somebody|thing. Sometimes it's you.

      --
      -Clio
      Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
      Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
    5. Re:Paging Mr. Fox by ganjadude · · Score: 1
      everyone is always taking offense these days. lighten up, im sure you make fun of "insert XX here" and I am sure XX is not amused by it. If people cant take a joke, the world is a very boring place.

      I leave you with words of the late great Carlin

      Like rape. They'll say, "you can't joke about rape. Rape's not funny."
      I say, "fuck you, I think it's hilarious. How do you like that?"
      I can prove to you that rape is funny. Picture Porky Pig raping Elmer Fudd.
      See, hey why do you think they call him "Porky," eh? I know what you're going to say.
      "Elmer was asking for it. Elmer was coming on to Porky.
      Porky couldn't help himself, he got a hard- on, he got horney, he lost control, he went out of his mind."

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    6. Re:Paging Mr. Fox by Colonel+Korn · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      Your right, it is in very bad taste. You should be ashamed of yourself and why Slashdot awards you points is beyond me. Having a Neurological disease myself, it is very offensive. You are the kind of person who laughs at others misfortunes. Sad!

      Mods got this and the GP wrong. I used up my points earlier today.

      Not only is the GP insensitive, his post is absent of entertainment. It's boring as hell.

      --
      "I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
    7. Re:Paging Mr. Fox by radarskiy · · Score: 1

      I'm sure Michael J. Fox is very ashamed of the jokes he's made about Michael J. Fox.

    8. Re:Paging Mr. Fox by AK+Marc · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I have a neurological disease and didn't think it offensive. I also didn't think it funny. You choose whether to be offended. Choose to not be offended, and you'll be a happier person.

    9. Re:Paging Mr. Fox by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      I have a neurological disease and didn't think it offensive. I also didn't think it funny. You choose whether to be offended. Choose to not be offended, and you'll be a happier person.

      that's like saying that you can choose to be a homosexual.

      j fox putting sauce everywhere would be a funny advertisement tho.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    10. Re:Paging Mr. Fox by AK+Marc · · Score: 0

      As the homophobes put it, you can choose whether to act on your urges. Seems like most of them could be perfectly happy if 50% of guys were gay, so long as they never had sex with any other guys.

    11. Re:Paging Mr. Fox by Sique · · Score: 1
      So the joke about the function and the operator which meet, and where the operator tells the function: off my domain of definition, or I will differentiate you! to which the function wittily replies: do it! do it! I am e^x! But then the operator thunders: And I am d/dy!

      At whose expense comes this joke?

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    12. Re: Paging Mr. Fox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      The person reading it, primarily

    13. Re:Paging Mr. Fox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Neurological disease? That explains a lot, oh and the joke was sort of funny.

    14. Re: Paging Mr. Fox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This.

      Captcha: seminars (which I would need to understand the freaking joke)

    15. Re:Paging Mr. Fox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Many slashdot virgins act out on our urges while remaining virgins and never having sex with other people... ;)

    16. Re:Paging Mr. Fox by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Your right, it is in very bad taste. You should be ashamed of yourself and why Slashdot awards you points is beyond me. Having a Neurological disease myself, it is very offensive. You are the kind of person who laughs at others misfortunes. Sad!

      How the fuck has this been modded funny?

      Whether you agree with him or not, there is absolutely no evidence he's joking.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    17. Re:Paging Mr. Fox by ClioCJS · · Score: 2

      I said somebody/thing, not somebody. In this case, I think the main victim is humor itself. That joke gave me cancer.

      --
      -Clio
      Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
      Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
    18. Re:Paging Mr. Fox by tehcyder · · Score: 0

      News flash: Jokes come at the expense of somebody|thing. Sometimes it's you.

      News flash 2: jokes are generally understood to contain something funny. Pointing at someone with a disease/disability and saying "look, he's different from me!" is not funny, it's just a pathetic way of proving your 'normality' to the conformists around you.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    19. Re:Paging Mr. Fox by tehcyder · · Score: 0

      everyone is always taking offense these days. lighten up, im sure you make fun of "insert XX here" and I am sure XX is not amused by it. If people cant take a joke, the world is a very boring place.

      Joking at the expense of people with less perceived power than you proves that you are psychologically insecure, not that you are in fact more powerful.

      Also, your Carlin example has the distinction of being 100% unamusing.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    20. Re:Paging Mr. Fox by ClioCJS · · Score: 1

      1) The joke was more than that. 2) You don't get to decide what is funny for the general populace.

      --
      -Clio
      Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
      Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
    21. Re:Paging Mr. Fox by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      I have a neurological disease and didn't think it offensive. I also didn't think it funny. You choose whether to be offended. Choose to not be offended, and you'll be a happier person.

      You are, of course, right.

      However, I still find the whole justification that just because something's a joke no one should take it too seriously, extremely dangerous and wrong-headed.

      Nazi satirical writings and cartoons of Jews were very far from being "just jokes" that everyone should be able to laugh off. Like any potential act of speech or writing, jokes have consequences.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    22. Re:Paging Mr. Fox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh come on. Every single person in the world makes fun of someone else, whether to their face or to their back. The sooner you realize that it's human nature, the better off you'll be.

    23. Re:Paging Mr. Fox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Those of lower intelligence. Most highbrow "humor" that results in no more than a minor chuckle is primarily intended to highlight the ignorance of those in the room who cannot follow the logic. It's even better if you hold your nose up and slip in a slight British accent.

    24. Re:Paging Mr. Fox by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      If you cant laugh at yourself who can you laugh at? If you dont find the concept of porky pig raping elmer fudd there is no hope for you

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    25. Re:Paging Mr. Fox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This in no recognizable way like saying one can choose to be homosexual. The ass you pulled that one from is questionable indeed. It would be more like saying that you can choose to be angry or let it slide. Getting offended is a common emotional reaction from people who are incapable of controlling their emotions. Many people let it define them, and become an unknowing slave to their emotions. The more levelheaded of our species typically recognize that taste is subjective and just because a single person finds a joke in poor taste does not mean that all other human beings must also find it in poor taste.

    26. Re:Paging Mr. Fox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have a neurological disease and didn't think it offensive. I also didn't think it funny. You choose whether to be offended. Choose to not be offended, and you'll be a happier person.

      that's like saying that you can choose to be a homosexual.

      j fox putting sauce everywhere would be a funny advertisement tho.

      What? No, it's not. Being offended is a choice, whether it feels that way or not. Homosexuality is no more a choice than heterosexuality.

    27. Re:Paging Mr. Fox by operagost · · Score: 1

      uhBEuhBEuhBEuhBE... that's all folks! How about a towel, Elmer?

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
  4. MJF by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wasn't Michael J. Fox a longtime smoker? Doesn't seem to have protected him.

    1. Re:MJF by M0j0_j0j0 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah, but ya know that time traveling shit did have some side effects.

    2. Re:MJF by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is that why he comes on here as Alex P. Keaton, blathering on about the hosts file and 64-bit Opera?

    3. Re:MJF by game+kid · · Score: 1

      What would we dooooo, baby, without HOSTS...shalalalaaaaa....

      --
      You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
    4. Re:MJF by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Wasn't Michael J. Fox a longtime smoker? Doesn't seem to have protected him.

      And not everyone who smokes dies of lung cancer, and not everyone who drinks heavily dies of liver disease. These things are averages, there will always be outliers when it comes to human beings.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    5. Re:MJF by MagicM · · Score: 1

      time traveling shit

      Now there's a scary thought.

  5. How to quit smoking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Eat lots of peppers and tomatoes.

    As for ciggies protecting against Parkinson's... well... of course it does. If you die young because of lung cancer, you're never gonna get Parkinson's. Right? :)

  6. nightshade family by WGFCrafty · · Score: 4, Informative

    &The title says peppers but it says nicotine is actually the chemical at work. There are actually a few positive effects nicotine possesses, the negative effects of smoking are mediated by the oxidation products of cigarettes.

    There are actually quite a few common plants in the family with varying levels of nicotine in each part (tomatoes vs the leaves). Some, like datura (moon flower/jimsons or devils weed) contain scopalamine and atropine and are deleriants. From wiki:

    The family includes Solanum (potato, tomato, eggplant), Physalis philadelphica (tomatillo), Capsicum (chili pepper, bell pepper), Petunia, Datura, (Cape gooseberry flower), Mandragora (mandrake), Nicotiana (tobacco), Atropa belladonna (deadly nightshade), Lycium barbarum (wolfberry), and Physalis peruviana.

    1. Re:nightshade family by ThePeices · · Score: 1

      There are actually a few positive effects nicotine possesses, the negative effects of smoking are mediated by the oxidation products of cigarettes..

      Don't forget the addictive nature of nicotine.

    2. Re:nightshade family by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      Yeah, silly English. I was coming to look if it was specifically black, white, green, tellicherry, or Szechuan. I wish people would just call "bell peppers" "sweet bell chilis", along with all the rest of the species.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    3. Re:nightshade family by macraig · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Insects are anything but addicted to it. It' kills 'em dead. That's the entire reason the nicotine is flowing through plants' veins in the first place: it's their natural insecticide.

      Now why anybody would wanna smoke insecticide.... ;-)

    4. Re:nightshade family by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Some countries call them "capsicums", even when speaking English.

      Like most misnamed items from the New World, this was apparently Columbus' fault. He tasted a chili pepper, his crazy genocidal brain decided it tasted like peppercorn, and the rest is history.

    5. Re:nightshade family by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nicotine on its own isn't very addictive. Mix it with natural MAOIs and additives in cigarettes, and it becomes a different beast.

    6. Re:nightshade family by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      nicotenne will kill people dead as well if injected instead of smoked.

    7. Re:nightshade family by Sulphur · · Score: 1

      Insects are anything but addicted to it. It' kills 'em dead. That's the entire reason the nicotine is flowing through plants' veins in the first place: it's their natural insecticide.

      That's why they stay in one place; they are too high to move.

    8. Re:nightshade family by DrJimbo · · Score: 1

      Air will kill people dead [sic] as well if injected instead of inhaled.

      --
      We don't see the world as it is, we see it as we are.
      -- Anais Nin
    9. Re:nightshade family by GLMDesigns · · Score: 1

      "Crazy, genocidal brain." Come-on now.

      Re the use of the word pepper - it applied to foods that were peppery. He wasn't a botanist. He was an explorer. He used the commonly used vernacular of his time

      Are you know going to call the pilgrims "crazy and genocidal" because they called maize "corn." To the 17th C English "corn" was any cereal crop.

      PS. Please nobody say anything as dumb as "he was lost." He was a f**king explorer. And if you look at a globe you'll see that he got his latitude correct. He miscalculated the circumference of the earth.

      --
      If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
      Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
    10. Re:nightshade family by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Actually, that depends on the amount, and whether or not the person is a smoker. Heavy smokers create a tolerance that is actually pretty hard to overcome.

      Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine#Toxicology

    11. Re:nightshade family by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you know going to call the pilgrims "crazy and genocidal" because they called maize "corn."

      No, not because they caused the maize "corn," but because of all the genocide they set about carrying out to claim their stolen land. See the difference?

    12. Re:nightshade family by kamapuaa · · Score: 1

      To be fair, his genocide was accidental, infecting Native Americans with numerous diseases. He also brought back syphilis.

      --
      Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
    13. Re:nightshade family by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The genocide was partly accidental. FWIW, the Spanish were less genocidal than the Northern Europeans who dominated north America. You go down there, there are a lot more natives and Mestizos. They seemed to be more inclined to mix, whereas in the North they killed a lot more, except in Texas where apparently there was more mixing, or so I've been told. That might be because Texas was influenced by Mexican attitudes, or because it had more early frontier men who were more inclined to mix. California didn't see real bad massacres until it went over to the US. The Mexicans in California spread disease, were paternalistic, and destroyed the Indian way of life by bringing them into the missions; but they generally didn't massacre them as in the Mendocino War, which is one of the US's most shameful attrocities.

    14. Re:nightshade family by Flere+Imsaho · · Score: 1

      Datura is a hell of a drug. I saw a few people tripping on it back in the day, and it's nasty stuff.

      Once you know what it looks like, you notice it's grown all over the place as a decorative plant.

      --
      It gripped her hand gently. 'Regret is for humans,' it said.
    15. Re:nightshade family by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yes, crazy. Yes, genocidal.

      When he arrived on Hispaniola in 1508, Las Casas says, "there were 60,000 people living on this island, including the Indians; so that from 1494 to 1508, over three million people had perished from war, slavery, and the mines. Who in future generations will believe this? I myself writing it as a knowledgeable eyewitness can hardly believe it...." Thus began the history, five hundred years ago, of the European invasion of the Indian settlements in the Americas. ...
      Past the elementary and high schools, there are only occasional hints of something else. Samuel Eliot Morison, the Harvard historian, was the most distinguished writer on Columbus, the author of a multivolume biography, and was himself a sailor who retraced Columbus's route across the Atlantic. In his popular book Christopher Columbus, Mariner, written in 1954, he tells about the enslavement and the killing: "The cruel policy initiated by Columbus and pursued by his successors resulted in complete genocide."

      That is on one page, buried halfway into the telling of a grand romance. In the book's last paragraph, Morison sums up his view of Columbus:

      "He had his faults and his defects, but they were largely the defects of the qualities that made him great-his indomitable will, his superb faith in God and in his own mission as the Christ-bearer to lands beyond the seas, his stubborn persistence despite neglect, poverty and discouragement. But there was no flaw, no dark side to the most outstanding and essential of all his qualities-his seamanship."

      One can lie outright about the past. Or one can omit facts which might lead to unacceptable conclusions. Morison does neither. He refuses to lie about Columbus. He does not omit the story of mass murder; indeed he describes it with the harshest word one can use: genocide.

      But he does something else-he mentions the truth quickly and goes on to other things more important to him. Outright lying or quiet omission takes the risk of discovery which, when made, might arouse the reader to rebel against the writer. To state the facts, however, and then to bury them in a mass of other information is to say to the reader with a certain infectious calm: yes, mass murder took place, but it's not that important-it should weigh very little in our final judgments; it should affect very little what we do in the world.

      Howard Zinn, The People’s History of the United States

      Among the Taino people of Hispaniola, Columbus decreed a system of tribute, requiring each adult to submit a specified quantity of gold, on pain of death. But he was also fervently determined to spread the Christian faith. Christianize or exploit? Convert or enslave? The two goals were plainly antithetical. For a time, Columbus hoped to resolve the quandary by enslaving the diabolical Caribs and converting the more benign peoples. But what did conversion even mean? A priest wrote that “force and craft” were required to impose Christianity on the Indians, but there was little hope that they would observe the rites after their overlords had left.

      The Less Than Heroic Christopher Columbus, IAN W. TOLL,The Less Than Heroic Christopher Columbus

      I'm just taking the first things I find on Google, this shit isn't hard to find

    16. Re:nightshade family by Sique · · Score: 1

      It wasn't his fault. It was that "pepper" was a synonym for "spice" in general.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    17. Re:nightshade family by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      There are actually a few positive effects nicotine possesses, the negative effects of smoking are mediated by the oxidation products of cigarettes..

      Don't forget the addictive nature of nicotine.

      Morphine is addictive too. Being addicted to something that saves your life is not necessarily a bad thing.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    18. Re:nightshade family by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is Columbus being talked about. He didn't go to California, that was hundreds of years later.

      Spain didn't do intentional genocide? Of course they did, you show a basic lack of knowledge...nothing wrong with that, but then why post about a subject you're totally ignorant about.

    19. Re:nightshade family by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      The title says peppers but it says nicotine is actually the chemical at work.

      It's not just nicotine. The same beneficial effects have been observed from several of the vanilloids and curcuminoids, including capsaicin (found in hot peppers) and curcumin. And it isn't just brain issues. They lower the risk of all sorts of damage caused by inflammation, including the risk of heart disease and stroke, and prevents metastasis and induces apoptosis in many types of cancer....

      The average person would do well to consume more spicy foods.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    20. Re:nightshade family by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now why anybody would wanna smoke insecticide

      Even as a smoker for 20+ years, I can't answer that question. The addiction only detracts from my quality of life. I can't explain why I do it, I just have a need. There are absolutely no benefits. I've finally made up my mind to quit though.. we'll see how that goes. You'd think an extra $300/month in my pocket would be enough of an incentive. Oh, that and the health benefits of quitting.

    21. Re:nightshade family by macraig · · Score: 1

      I hope it goes well! You can send me a consulting fee from that extra $300, eh?

    22. Re:nightshade family by sjames · · Score: 1

      If someone with Parkinson's misses a dose of L-dopa, they get the shakes.

  7. mmm... tomacco... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Products_produced_from_The_Simpsons#Tomacco

  8. Been listening to Sgt. Pepper's for years by smittyoneeach · · Score: 4, Funny

    So I got that goin' for me. Which is nice.

    --
    Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
    1. Re:Been listening to Sgt. Pepper's for years by maxwell+demon · · Score: 2

      So I got that goin' for me. Which is nice.

      That won't help. You need Red Hot Chili Peppers.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    2. Re:Been listening to Sgt. Pepper's for years by smittyoneeach · · Score: 1

      Lilacs and contraband
      I've got Santa Monica in my hand
      A little.... Beatle mania when I can
      And I've got two big bags of old Japan

      --
      Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
  9. They are not vegetables. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Tomatoes and peppers are fruit.

    1. Re:They are not vegetables. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Scientifically, they're fruits. In more common culinary terms, they're vegetables.

    2. Re:They are not vegetables. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If tomatoes are a fruit, then ketchup is... a smoothie?

  10. Homer got it right! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Tomacco

  11. Remember "Sleeper"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Woody Allen character in the distant future, noticing many people smoking, is told "we discovered that tobacco is good for you".

    1. Re:Remember "Sleeper"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And saturated fat is good for you, too.

    2. Re:Remember "Sleeper"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In moderation...

    3. Re:Remember "Sleeper"? by Agent0013 · · Score: 2

      When you actually look into this you will find that saturated fat is good for you. The vegetable oils and other substitutes are the real killers.

      --

      -- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
  12. Tobacco...right by justthinkit · · Score: 3, Informative

    Anecdotal, but the only relative I have that smokes...is the only one that got Parkinson's.

    --
    I come here for the love
    1. Re:Tobacco...right by ClioCJS · · Score: 1

      Maybe his predisposition to get Parkinson's caused the desire to smoke..

      --
      -Clio
      Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
      Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
    2. Re:Tobacco...right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe his predisposition to get Parkinson's caused the desire to smoke..

      Maybe our predisposition to analyze the living shit out of this is basically pointless when using a killer to combat...a killer.

      Then again, I shouldn't be surprised. It's not like chemo combats cancer with vitamins and nutrients...

    3. Re:Tobacco...right by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Maybe his predisposition to get Parkinson's caused the desire to smoke..

      Nicotine ameliorates some of the symptoms of schizophrenia, and nearly everyone with schizophrenia smokes. So it is possible that a similar phenomenon may occur with parkinson's

    4. Re:Tobacco...right by maxwell+demon · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Actually AFAIK it's not the nicotine in the cigarettes which kills you. It's all of the burning byproducts. Nicotine is responsible for making you addict, though.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    5. Re:Tobacco...right by Agent0013 · · Score: 1

      It might not be the nicotine that kills you when smoking cigarettes, but nicotine is quite deadly. I was reading the terrorists handbook on poisons a while ago and they give instructions on extracting the nicotine from 10 cigarettes using isopropyl alcohol and then evaporating the alcohol so you are left with a nicotine paste. 10 cigarettes are enough to kill 3 people. And it works through the skin! They did a test on a shaved rabbit to verify the toxicity. It does take something like 12 hours though. So presumably the victim would seek medical help and may be saved. It is interesting to think that getting a little brown goo on your hand from a door knob could be enough to kill you.

      --

      -- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
    6. Re:Tobacco...right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The handbook is wrong. While nicotine is one of the deadlier poisons, it's nigh impossible to absorb enough through the skin to cause any kind of harm. Just think about it for a minute: the nicotine from ten cigarettes, applied to the skin for 12 hours? Many-pack-a-day smokers inhale far more nicotine than that over a 12 hour period, and the lungs are a much more efficient method of moving toxins into the bloodstream.

      Concentrated nicotine in food/drink has been a favorite of assassins and suicides for centuries, as I recall, but it takes a bit more than just getting it on your hands.

    7. Re:Tobacco...right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are correct.

    8. Re:Tobacco...right by Cito · · Score: 1

      Mixed with DMSO it will enter blood stream through the skin quite fast and efficiently.

      Anything mixed with DMSO can then be transported through the skin, many poisoners used to use DMSO mixed with their favorite poison such as arsenic, strychnine, and such then lace a letter you perhaps write to your target, let the letter dry then with gloved hands place it carefully into envelope and mail to target.

      DMSO was to be banned after a few poisonings but it was just removed from the public's eye, it used to be sold by itself on shelves for arthritis, but they made it a little harder to find.

      It's still over the counter and easy to get, DMSO is now sold to farmers and veterinarians and is used for horses a lot and also used to mix with medicine and rubbed into animal with gloved hands of course so the DMSO will transport the drug into the blood stream via skin contact.

      You can also buy DMSO on amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/DMSO-Liquid-Concentrate-99-9%25-Pure/dp/B001L538IY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1368202258&sr=8-2&keywords=DMSO

      DMSO by itself is not harmful, it just makes anything you mix with it able to penetrate skin and enter blood stream. You mix nicotine with DMSO in high concentrate and your nicotine poison will work pretty fast. Just wear gloves or you wind up screwing yourself over.

      DMSO poisoning is also a famous echelon keyword supposedly
       

    9. Re:Tobacco...right by operagost · · Score: 1

      Generally, I grab a paper towel if I see brown goo on the doorknob.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    10. Re:Tobacco...right by Man+Eating+Duck · · Score: 1

      ...extracting the nicotine from 10 cigarettes using isopropyl alcohol and then evaporating the alcohol so you are left with a nicotine paste. 10 cigarettes are enough to kill 3 people.

      Wrong. A regular cigarette contains something like 0.7-1 mg of nicotine. LD-50 for humans is about 30-60 mg. A minuscule application of common sense would also indicate that 3 1/3 cigarettes are not enough to kill anyone outright. Sorry to deprive you of your amusing little party anecdote, but cigarettes are not *that* lethal :)

      --
      Are you a grammar Nazi? I'm trying to improve my English; please correct my errors! :)
    11. Re:Tobacco...right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Almost anything is poisonous if you get too much of it.

    12. Re:Tobacco...right by Agent0013 · · Score: 2

      It's pretty funny how many uninformed people like to spout off on this site. I see several people telling me how my source is wrong. I thought that perhaps it is and did a quick Google check. According to Wikipedia, you get 1mg of absorbed nicotine from smoking a cigarette. Well, we aren't talking about smoking them, so you are wrong on that fact. This site talks about extracting the nicotine for use in e-cigarettes. Starting with 4g of tobacco they get 15ml of liquid at a concentration of 2.5mg/ml. That is 37.5mg of nicotine. This site has a couple of guys that used 40g of tobacco to roll 51 cigarettes. So that's 0.79g/cig. Ten cigarettes would be 7.9g of tobacco which would yield almost 75mg of nicotine. That is at the high end of the range for toxic levels of nicotine for mammals on the Wikipedia link above (30-60mg).

      Thanks for getting me inspired to do a little research on these numbers, it was a good exercise. And all you dumb asses that think you know better -- Suck It!!!

      --

      -- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
    13. Re:Tobacco...right by bitt3n · · Score: 2

      Maybe his predisposition to get Parkinson's caused the desire to smoke..

      Nicotine ameliorates some of the symptoms of schizophrenia, and nearly everyone with schizophrenia smokes. So it is possible that a similar phenomenon may occur with parkinson's

      I have schizophrenia, and I don't smoke.

    14. Re:Tobacco...right by bitt3n · · Score: 3, Funny

      yes I do!

    15. Re:Tobacco...right by Man+Eating+Duck · · Score: 1

      Yup, seems you are right - my apologies. My original source for that information was an MD student, who'd heard this question ("can three cigarettes be lethal?") asked and answered in the negative at a lecture. Apparently his lecturer made the same mistake of mixing up absorbed dosage from a cigarette with actual nicotine content. You learn something new every day.

      --
      Are you a grammar Nazi? I'm trying to improve my English; please correct my errors! :)
    16. Re:Tobacco...right by Agent0013 · · Score: 1

      I must say, my hat goes off to you for admitting your mistake. It is an attribute that I feel is lacking in too large a portion of humanity. Good form! And my apologies for the somewhat (actually extremely) cocky attitude expressed in the last sentence of my last post. It was uncalled for and now I feel like an ass. :-/

      My main surprise was in how readily in absorbs through the skin. Before I learned that nicotine was so deadly I never would have thought that getting some on your skin would be a big deal. If tobacco was just discovered in the modern day, it would probably be illegal to have. I find things that don't fit my assumptions or that seem to be counter-intuitive to be very interesting. My guess would be that the smoke that is exhaled still contains a good deal of nicotine that doesn't get absorbed through the lungs. But when on the skin it can sit there long enough to get a much higher level into the blood. Just imagine if you put some nicotine resin onto a little dart and penetrated the skin. Who needs Ricin? But like I said, it is a slow death, so if there is any treatment or antidote it may not be very effective method of killing.

      --

      -- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
    17. Re:Tobacco...right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...extracting the nicotine from 10 cigarettes using isopropyl alcohol and then evaporating the alcohol so you are left with a nicotine paste. 10 cigarettes are enough to kill 3 people.

      Wrong. A regular cigarette contains something like 0.7-1 mg of nicotine. LD-50 for humans is about 30-60 mg. A minuscule application of common sense would also indicate that 3 1/3 cigarettes are not enough to kill anyone outright. Sorry to deprive you of your amusing little party anecdote, but cigarettes are not *that* lethal :)

      Cigarettes actually contain about 9mg of nicotine. Although through the combustion process, most is burned yielding roughly 1mg absorbed. This is why smokeless tobacco is a much more efficient source of vitamin-N.

    18. Re:Tobacco...right by sjames · · Score: 1

      Interestingly, without the MAO inhibitors in cagarette smoke, the nicotine is considerably less addictive.

    19. Re:Tobacco...right by sjames · · Score: 1

      Sounds like yet another "anarchist's cookbook", a fine tome of mis-information and instructions more likely to kill the reader than his target if it does anything at all.

    20. Re:Tobacco...right by unitron · · Score: 1

      "My main surprise was in how readily in absorbs through the skin."

      Growing up in an area that included tobacco farms, I never heard anyone actually refer to it as Green Tobacco Sickness, but it was common to hear people talk about getting sick the first time they worked "pulling tobacco".

      --

      I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

  13. Summary is misleading by sessamoid · · Score: 5, Informative
    The article does not "confirm that the key ingredient is nicotine, which is present in some vegetables like peppers."

    From TFA

    "Our study is the first to investigate dietary nicotine and risk of developing Parkinson's disease," said Dr. Searles Nielsen. "Similar to the many studies that indicate tobacco use might reduce risk of Parkinson's, our findings also suggest a protective effect from nicotine, or perhaps a similar but less toxic chemical in peppers and tobacco."

    Tobacco and solanaceae plants have in common a lot of chemicals, including multiple alkaloids like atropine. Potato plants fall into the same family, as do all chili pepper plants. While this is an interesting study, it does NOT confirm that nicotine is the chemical in solanaceae that is protective against Parkinson's disease, even before you take into account that this was only a retrospective study.

    --
    "No, no, no. Don't tug on that. You never know what it might be attached to."
    1. Re:Summary is misleading by sjames · · Score: 1

      Or it could be that saying anything unambiguously good about nicotine these days is more taboo than the other N word. We must remenmbeer at all times to be sure we attribute all bad effects of smoking to nicotine. Only nicotine from your friendly pharmacist is exempt and then only in the form of patches and gum designed to stop smoking.

  14. must be mixed! by AndyKron · · Score: 1

    They only work if you mix them with salt, red meat, eggs, and then lie in the full sun.

  15. Peppers can cause treatment resistant pain. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Its called a "Nightshade Allergy".

    1. Re:Peppers can cause treatment resistant pain. by Lumpy · · Score: 1

      Not if you use ghost peppers, it goes from pain to numbness. Unless you touch your crotch without washing your hands, then it becomes the fire pits of hell.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    2. Re:Peppers can cause treatment resistant pain. by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Oddly enough I was just given a few of those, but I still plan to take your word for it instead of trying it myself.

    3. Re:Peppers can cause treatment resistant pain. by Lumpy · · Score: 1

      Ghost peppers and things that are at the 800,000Scollvill units point or higher.. I have had http://www.hotsauceplanet.com/Mad-Dog-38-Special-Pepper-Extract-p/hsp1497md.htm Mad Dog 38 special , it's a Ghost pepper sauce concentrate that is at 2,000,000-3,000,000 units, they do something to you.

      My tolerance for hot stuff is now drastically changed. Daves insanity sauce is like ketchup to me, a nicely spicy ketchup, but I use enough of it on things that make mere mortals just stand there with their mouth open and stare at me as if I am growing a second head.

      And it stays that way. I went 3 weeks without anything hotter than tabasco and my new tolerance has not changed. I can easily eat a tortilla chip with a quarter sized dollup of daves insanity without effort. Yes I still taste the flavors perfectly, and I can tell it's spicy, but it does not cause the searing "ZOMG I AM GOING TO DIE" pain. I am thinking that either it burns out the receptors or it stays there for an extended period of time.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    4. Re:Peppers can cause treatment resistant pain. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really good for keeping dogs away from your sprinklers

  16. Healthiest Salad For Long Life by cstacy · · Score: 0

    The Merciless Peppers of Quetzalacatenango grown deep in the jungle primeval by the inmates of a Guatemalan insane asylum. Add sliced Tomacco.

  17. Lame Study by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They didn't even develop causation. Its completely useless and leads to abusing interpretation of the correlation. This study has a long way to go before this means anything and shouldn't be news.

  18. !peppers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They're called "chilis" "pepper" refers to the unrelated family piperaceae. The reason they got called "peppers" at all is because Columbus tried to hornswoggle Europeans into thinking he had been to Asia.

  19. Spicy food and cigars :-) by Murdoch5 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Looks like eating spicy food and smoking cigars is good for you, thanks science :-)

    1. Re:Spicy food and cigars :-) by VortexCortex · · Score: 1

      Looks like eating spicy food and smoking cigars is good for you, thanks science :-)

      Studies like these come out all the time. There seems to be both ill effects and beneficial effects for just about everything, including water: Drink too much of it and you'll die. "Everything in moderation," seems to work for most things. Determining at what concentration it's considered "moderation" is the tricky bit -- The difference between kills you and makes you stronger is often simply the dosage amount.

    2. Re:Spicy food and cigars :-) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And Bender thanks you.

  20. Nicotine? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In a side note, a close chemical "cousin" to nicotine is....caffeine! (reaches for a Mountain Dew Kickstart...)

    1. Re:Nicotine? by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      Caffeine is known to reduce the risk of Alzheimer's. Capsaicin (from peppers) is also commonly believed to reduce Alzheimer's risk (and strokes and various other problems), as is cinnamon (which contains small amounts of capsaicin), and I would expect the effects of nicotine to be similar. The reason they work is that they all reduce inflammation.

      This has all been fairly well understood in the naturopath community for many, many years, but it has only been in about the past decade that the scientific community has confirmed the naturopath community's often-less-than-rigorous survey study observations.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

  21. Oh wait, so that food pyramid. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is bullshit... our diets are more complex then a few vitamins, carbohydrates, sugars, starches, and proteins huh...

    Oh wait certain foods have healthy properties.

    Oh wait there's no science backing this up. Oh wait some science is finally catching up to, eat your damn greens.

    Oh wait, maybe all those hippies talking about chi, and good ol fashioned non industrial polluted home grown veggies and free range juicy meats might not be crazy after all...

    Sad thing is only the best of us can eat the best. No big deal, taco hell is cheap as fuck and they are part of the companies that distribute the most food world wide.

    I love this brave new world we livin in. /rant off =)

  22. Aha! by JimtownKelly · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This article solves a mystery that has puzzled my family for years. My dad suffered Parkinsonism for many years, and most of his life favored bland food. In the last couple years of his life, when the disease was at its peak, he had an intense craving for peppers that we all thought were signs of dementia. He would not only eat peppers but sometimes eat salsa and drink hot sauce directly from jars in the fridge. So perhaps his body was craving the nicotine in the peppers, who knows. RIP.

    --
    -- Jimtown Kelly
    1. Re:Aha! by bussdriver · · Score: 1

      We evolve a sense of taste for a reason. Perhaps researchers should be using information like this as a starting point for further investigation of many things.

  23. Re:Fresh vegetables and fruits by chromas · · Score: 2

    Make salsa. Stuff it in your eggs; use it as pizza sauce; put it in your sandwiches and salads; shove it up your wraps; derive chili and other stews/soups from it.

  24. Re:Fresh vegetables and fruits by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

    I think tomatoes are very popular, as part of ketchup.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  25. Re:Fresh vegetables and fruits by dbIII · · Score: 3, Funny

    Make salsa. Stuff it in your eggs ... shove it up your wraps

    That reminds me of some experiments to halt urinary incontinence by squirting chilli oil into people's bladders, on the assumption that by deadening some nerves their bladders would release urine less easily. The test subjects apparently insisted that it worked perfectly the first time and there was no need to do it again.

  26. Ammm a little detail ... by giorgist · · Score: 1

    Smoking it delivers it to your lungs that have not evolved to deal with the complex chemicals. Your stomach on the other hand can deal with acids ... eat nicotine so you can remember more

    1. Re:Ammm a little detail ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Smoking it delivers it to your lungs that have not evolved to deal with the complex chemicals. Your stomach on the other hand can deal with acids ... eat nicotine so you can remember more

      Such as the difference between Parkinson's and Alzheimer's?

  27. Patches by ThatsNotPudding · · Score: 1

    I wonder if low-dosage nicotine patches might have some merit for those with a familial propensity.

  28. Re:Fresh vegetables and fruits by tehcyder · · Score: 1

    I think tomatoes are very popular, as part of ketchup.

    I don't think that quite comes under the definition of "fresh" somehow.

    --
    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  29. nicotine is also present in by nimbius · · Score: 2

    eggplants, in much higher quantities.

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
  30. So, B Vitamins, Again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Every study seems to show that dementia-class diseases are a result of B vitamin deficiencies of some sort. Nicotine is a metabolized form of Nicotinic Acid, AKA Niacin (a B vitamin). This particular B vitamin is especially good dilating blood vessel which is good for many things including removal of toxins, especially from far reaching areas where capillaries may only allow 1-2 bloods cells at a time to pass and the dilation may increase that rate by 50-100%, or more... drastically increasing toxin removal for the affected area.

    Plus, taking a daily B complex in the morning is always a good kick in the pants.

  31. Does ice cream consumption cause drowning? by Flatwater · · Score: 1

    This was a retrospective study. Additionally, it depended upon the accurate long-term memory of people already diagnosed with a disease of the central nervous system. In other words: http://xkcd.com/552/

  32. Biopsychology 101 - nicotinic receptors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Here is what I remember from my late 1990s Psych degree.

    There is a parallel between Parkinsons and Schizophrenia. Parkinsons is often characterized (and this is a overly simplified explanation, it's much more complex than this) as lower dopamine (dopmaminic) receptor activity. Schizophrenia is a bit of the opposite; it's over stimultation or availability of dopamine (hence why pharma treatment often includes what are called re-uptake inhibitors....less dopamine in receptors).
    This also explains why Schizophrenics are often desperate for cigarettes.... extreme sensitivity to nicotine, due to nicotinic receptor sensitivity.

    It will be interesting in finding out what amount of nicotine or other chemicals are sufficient (e.g. pill form based of pepper extract) to be helpful.
    God knows people who suffer from debilitating neurological and psychiatric disorders need all the help they can get.

  33. Logic by neoshroom · · Score: 1

    Ah, wonderful logic...

    That's the entire reason the nicotine is flowing through plants' veins in the first place: it's their natural insecticide.

    Now why anybody would wanna eat insecticide by having a salad... ;-) Luckily, we are not insects.

    Chocolate is bad for dogs. It is good for people.

    --
    Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.
  34. Electronic Cigerettes by neoshroom · · Score: 1

    The title says peppers but it says nicotine is actually the chemical at work. There are actually a few positive effects nicotine possesses, the negative effects of smoking are mediated by the oxidation products of cigarettes.

    Which makes me wonder if electronic cigarette products may not only be not bad for you, but even potentially beneficial as they give you a low dose of nicotine through vaporization without the oxidation caused by burning.

    --
    Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.
  35. Re:Fresh vegetables and fruits by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    People should be just eating more fresh vegetables and fruits and fewer grains, animal fats, meats

    Who are you and what have you done with the real roman_mir?

    The real roman_mir would tell us that people should eat whatever they want. Let the free market decide what people eat and people will get whatever diseases they deserve, and they'll pay for their own treatment with their own money without government forcing Obamacare on them!

    The last thing we need is government funding universities to do these wasteful research, telling people what they should be eating!

  36. Re:Fresh vegetables and fruits by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    People should be just eating more fresh vegetables and fruits and fewer grains, animal fats, meats

    Who are you and what have you done with the real roman_mir?

    Roman_mir - and his first sock puppet, udachny - have bee getting called out for trolling lately and have their karma both in the shitter. Roman is now karma-trolling to try to get back to being able to post as often as he wants. If that doesn't work he'll just start another sock puppet account instead.

  37. Solanaceae members pharmacological profile by bmxer4130 · · Score: 1

    Solanaceae is the nightshade family, and has many psycho-pharmacologically active alkaloids. The most famous of these of course are nicotine,atropine, scopalamine, and hyoscamine, among others. It appears most of these alkaloids affect nicotininc acetylcholine (NACh) receptors. Nicotine agonizes this site, and the anti-histamines antagonize it, along with other ACh receptors, and of course histamine receptors. Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease are strongly correlated with declining ACh receptors, and are remedied/treated by a class of drugs which acts similarly to nicotine, such as galantamine. Acetylcholine helps cognition and also is LARGELY implemented in dreaming. Native Americans used tobacco for spiritual visions in their sleep. Oddly, however, studies suggest that excess ACh levels influence depression; the more one has, the more likely they are to be depressed and/or suicidal. Nicotine agonizes NACh, and this results in the body downregulating NACh receptors and releasing less ACh, thusly nicotine has an anti-depressive effect, until one withdraws from it and ACh floods the body. Varenicline (Chantix), the combusted-nicotiana-foliage-inhalation cessation aid, agonizes NACh receptors, albeit differently (IIRC it also affects muscarinic ACh) and has the nasty side-effect of extremely messed up dreams and constant suicidal thoughts. TL;DR: Solanaceae affects acetylcholine and its receptors, so it's no surprise its members help prevent Parkinson's.