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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."
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.... ;-)
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.
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
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
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.