Study: Capsaicin may cut fat cell growth

Taiwan scientists have found evidence that suggests capsaicin -- the substance that gives red pepper a spicy kick -- can reduce the growth of fat cells. Gow-Chin Yen and colleagues at the National Chung Hsing University in Taichung, Taiwan, cite previous research suggesting obesity can be reduced by preventing immature fat cells, called adipocytes, from developing into mature cells. Past research also linked capsaicin to a decrease in the amount of fat tissue and decreased blood-fat levels.

With that knowledge, the researchers tested capsaicin's effects on pre-adipocytes and adipocytes growing in laboratory cultures. They found capsaicin prevented pre-adipocytes from filling with fat and becoming full-fledged fat cells. The scientists noted the effects occurred at levels just slightly greater than those found in the stomach fluid of an individual eating a typical Indian or Thai diet.

Capsaicin worked by providing a biochemical signal that made fat cells undergo apoptosis, a mechanism in which cells self-destruct. The study is scheduled for the March 21 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

I have researched and written rather extensively about Peppers in recent months because I have always thought that the properties in many varietal peppers have more to them than meets the eye or mouth..
I have become convinced that capsaicin, a colorless irritant found in various capsicums that gives hot peppers their hotness and that is used in topical creams for its analgesic properties, can as well, be used internally as an beneficial aid to digestion..
Some are touting peppers as a relief from symptoms of colds, sore throats and fevers, circulation, especially for cold hands and feet, and as a hangover remedy. Peppers can further act as a heart stimulant which can regulate blood flow and strengthens the arteries, possibly reducing heart attacks. Nutritionally, fresh chile peppers are an excellent source of calcium and vitamin C. You can make a chile tincture (medicine), especially from the hottest varieties, by drying the peppers and grounding into a powder. Use one or two tablespoons in warm water for relief of may symptoms.

General Science : March 19, 2006 Hot chili peppers might help fight prostate cancer: Study Capsaicin, the heat-generating element in the chili peppers that delights spicy food lovers around the world, causes prostate cancer cells to kill themselves, researchers said Wednesday.
A team of US cancer scientists found in tests on mice that capsaicin could provoke apoptosis, or programmed cell death, in the cells behind human prostate cancer, the most common cancer among men in the United States. According to the scientists at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, the tests showed the potential of repressing the growth of the cancer cells in humans. "Capsaicin had a profound anti-proliferative effect on human prostate cancer cells in culture," said the institute's Soren Lehmann. "It also dramatically slowed the development of prostate tumors formed by those human cell lines grown in mouse models," he said.
To conduct their test, the researchers fed the heat-generating alkaloid found in all types of chilis orally to mice. Lehmann said the dose was equivalent to a 200 pound (90 kilogram) man eating from three to eight of the ultra-hot habanero peppers three times a week. The heat of habanero peppers registers up to 300,000 Scoville units, compared to a maximum of 5,000 Scoville units for jalapenos and 175,000 for bird chilis popular in Southeast Asia and Africa, according to the Chile Pepper Institute of New Mexico State University. Lehmann's research team found that the capsaicin interfered with the cancer cells' ability to avoid apoptosis, which occurs normally in many tissues as they replace aged cells with new ones.
Cancer cells are able to mutate or change genes to avoid a programmed dying off. The team found that the doses of capsaicin induced about 80 percent of prostate cancer cells to move toward apoptosis. Prostate cancer kills about 221,000 people worldwide every year.

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