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Hot Pepper Kills Prostate Cancer

Posted by CowboyNeal on Thu Mar 16, 2006 10:36 PM
from the cajun-health-food dept.
Biotech Science
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."
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  • In other news... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Pig Hogger (10379) <pig.hogger@gm a i l . com> on Thursday March 16 2006, @10:38PM (#14938796) Homepage Journal
    In other news, cause for Mexican-food flatulence not determined yet.

  • Great... Just Great. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Mr. Flibble (12943) on Thursday March 16 2006, @10:38PM (#14938804) Homepage
    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"...)

    • Re:Great... Just Great. (Score:5, Funny)

      by utlemming (654269) on Thursday March 16 2006, @11:55PM (#14939256) Homepage
      I once entered myself into a hot pepper festival in Texas. It was a painful experience. All the contestants started out with a red pepper and then worked their way up the famed Habanero. By the time you reached the Habanero your mouth is on fire, your stomach is upset and you want to shoot yourself. I thought that the pain was over once my mouth was done burning. No. About four hours latter I had what I can only describe as the "Bunghole of Fire." My room mate knocked on the door to ask if I was okay. Apparently the screams pain hinted that something was not quite right in the bathroom. So your comment brought back memories. Thanks. I didn't need that....

      • Re:Great... Just Great. (Score:5, Funny)

        by Mr. Flibble (12943) on Thursday March 16 2006, @11:26PM (#14939102) Homepage
        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. ;)

      • Remedial anatomy (Score:5, Informative)

        by martalli (818692) on Thursday March 16 2006, @11:40PM (#14939161) Homepage

        A simple correction - your prostate is between your urethra and your rectum [osu.edu]. In fact, the prostate makes most of the liquid in the ejaculate. If your prostate is too large (BPH [urologyhealth.org]), 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 [prostatecentre.ca] 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

        • Re:Great... Just Great. (Score:5, Funny)

          by kesuki (321456) on Friday March 17 2006, @01:08AM (#14939595) Journal
          Just because you can 'feel' the prostrate through the anus, does not make it the shortest path to Bring a chemical in Direct contact with it. And technically, the shortest path is going to be straight up the urethra. ouch. if you eat capsacin some will pass the blood barrier membrane and through the cirulatory system to the prostate. enough to provide the kinds of results in this study? i don't think so, colon cancer, maybe. but they didn't prove that capsacin has an effect on colon cancer, only prostate cancer.

          Not a big shocker though, a poison in high concentrations caused cancer cells to die ;) a poison that normal cells have stronger resistance to, and FWIW, habanero's aren't going to do it for you, you should go out and buy some of those police sized peppper spray cans. Since they're technically a spray one Could attempt direct application, but I doubt that the 'burning sensation' would be worth it even if it could CURE the cancer instead of reduce tumour growth by 80%. pepper spray also makes a great burrito spice, if you like 'rolling on the floor crying to mommy burning hot' spicy.

  • Forget the cells! (Score:5, Funny)

    by turrican (55223) on Thursday March 16 2006, @10:39PM (#14938807)
    Sometimes the stuff in those peppers (on their way out...) makes me want to commit suicide!

  • Three to eight... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by FireballX301 (766274) on Thursday March 16 2006, @10:40PM (#14938813) Journal
    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.

    • Re:Three to eight... (Score:5, Funny)

      by cbiffle (211614) on Thursday March 16 2006, @10:42PM (#14938831)
      Well, sure, we can...but trust me, you're probably going to prefer the mouth to the urethra, when it comes to capsaicin treatments.
    • 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.

    • Re:Three to eight... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by modecx (130548) on Thursday March 16 2006, @11:53PM (#14939236)
      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.

  • Great news for my wife! (Score:5, Funny)

    by AceyMan (199978) on Thursday March 16 2006, @10:41PM (#14938819)
    My wife *loves* super hot foods, so if this is true, she'll never get prostate cancer!

  • Capsaicin - topical analgesic (Score:5, Informative)

    by Frankie70 (803801) on Thursday March 16 2006, @10:45PM (#14938851)
    Capsaicin [nih.gov]
    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 [idiom.com]

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

  • Another thing you can do... (Score:5, Funny)

    by clevershark (130296) on Thursday March 16 2006, @10:48PM (#14938868) Homepage
    You can also masturbate for prostate health [bbc.co.uk]! Just make sure you do that before handling hot peppers. Trust me on that one.

  • Quick Google Scholar Search (Score:5, Interesting)

    by FreemanPatrickHenry (317847) on Thursday March 16 2006, @10:50PM (#14938882)
    Hmm, a quick Google Scholar search for "capsaicin cancer" revealed this [nih.gov]. 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?
  • how much the Slashdot userbase is aging. Now where are my glasses? I can't find my Viagra without them.

  • Jalapeño suppositories anyone? (Score:5, Funny)

    by adolfojp (730818) on Thursday March 16 2006, @11:18PM (#14939056) Homepage
    Having to choose between prostate cancer and jalapeño suppositories is definite proof that God exists and that he has a very sick sense of humor.

  • What are the rates in cultures that like hot food? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Palal (836081) on Thursday March 16 2006, @11:21PM (#14939077) Homepage
    What are the rates in countries such as South Korea, where many foods are extremely spicy?

  • There be FLAMES shooting out my ass! (Score:5, Funny)

    by ip_freely_2000 (577249) on Thursday March 16 2006, @11:45PM (#14939190)

    Loving spicy foods pays off! Finally, my wife will have to stop complaining when I aromitize the bedroom in the middle of the night.

    "But honey, it's part of my health management program!"

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