Spicy Food Promises Longevity

Author: Victoria Aly Time for reading: ~1 minutes Last Updated: August 08, 2022

Regular consumption of spicy foods can increase life expectancy, US scientists have found.

Regular consumption of spicy foods can increase life expectancy, US scientists have found. The secret lies in one of the substances that hot peppers contain - capsaicin .

According to the latest studies, it has strong anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and antihypertensive effects. Therefore, among lovers of peppers there is a reduced risk of infections, malignancies and diseases of the cardiovascular system.

Various experiments have shown that capsaicin kills up to 80% of prostate cancer cells in laboratory mice, and oral administration reduces the size of the pancreatic tumor by half.

Experts believe that the substance can help fight cancer cells by destroying the mitochondria that generate energy for cancer.

Studies also show that the group of molecules to which capsaicin, the vanilloids , binds to proteins in the mitochondria of cancer cells to cause apoptosis, a process of programmed cell death, or cell death, without damaging neighboring healthy cells.

Capsaicin also helps prevent heart disease by stimulating cardiovascular activity, lowering blood cholesterol levels and lowering blood pressure.

It also prevents clogging of the arteries, leading to the development of atherosclerosis - a leading cause of heart attack.

Capsaicin also acts as an antioxidant , protecting human cells from damage caused by free radicals.

With these encouraging data, scientists advise not to avoid spicy foods and hot peppers to be regularly present in the daily menu. Capsaicin can also be obtained by taking dietary supplements.

The study was published in The BMJ .

Spicy Food Promises Longevity

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