Spicy Treat: Eating Chili Peppers 4 Times a Week can Reduce Death from Heart Disease, Stroke

Spicy food lovers, Rejoice! Eating hot red chili peppers can cut down the risk of death from heart disease and stroke.

Highlights:

Spicy Italian chili pepper now becomes a heart-healthy choice
Eating capsaicin rich chili peppers 4 times a week can lower your risk of dying from heart disease or stroke
Make sure to add hot and spicy chili peppers to your daily diet to boost your heart health and live longer

Eating spicy chili peppers regularly can cut down the risk of death from heart disease and stroke, suggests a new study. The findings of the study are published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC).//

Chili pepper is a common guest in Italians kitchens, and over the centuries it has been praised for its supposed therapeutic virtues. Now an Italian research shows that people who consume it on a regular basis have a mortality risk for every cause reduced by 23% compared to those who do not like it.

What is a Heart Attack | How to Prevent Heart Attacks - Myocardial Infarction Smoking
Heart attack is the death of the heart muscle due to loss of blood supply. Simple guidelines to avoid heart attack are listed.

‘Spicy food lovers, Rejoice! Eating hot red chili peppers can cut down the risk of death from heart disease and stroke.’
Read More..

The study has been conducted by the Department of Epidemiology and Prevention of I.R.C.C.S. Neuromed in Pozzilli, Italy, in collaboration with the Department of Oncology and Molecular Medicine of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in Rome, the University of Insubria in Varese and the Mediterranean Cardiocentro in Naples.

Details of the Study

The research examined 22,811 citizens of Molise region, in Italy, participating in the Moli-sani study. Following their health status for an average period of about 8 years, and comparing it with their eating habits.

Spicy Chili Peppers May Slow Down the Spread of Lung Cancer
Eating spicy chili peppers may help fight lung cancer. Natural compound capsaicin which makes chilies hot and spicy could help slow down the spread of lung cancer.

Findings of the Study

Neuromed researchers observed that, in people regularly consuming chili pepper (4 times a week or more), the risk of dying of a heart attack was cut down by 40%. Risk reduction for cerebrovascular mortality was even higher since it resulted more than halved.

New Drug Made from Chili Peppers May Benefit Weight Loss Treatment
New anti-obesity drug made from capsaicin in chili peppers can improve weight loss and metabolic health in mice eating a high-fat diet.

"An interesting fact - says Marialaura Bonaccio, Neuromed epidemiologist and first author of the publication - is that protection from mortality risk was independent of the type of diet people followed. In other words, someone can follow the healthy Mediterranean diet, someone else can eat less healthily, but for all of them chili pepper has a protective effect".

The Moli-sani study is the first to explore the properties of this spice in relation to the risk of death in a European and Mediterranean population.

'Capsaicin' from Chili Peppers Prevents Weight Gain
Adding capsaicin from chili peppers to a diet may just help to prevent weight gain, claim scientists from the University of Wyoming.

"Chili pepper - comments Licia Iacoviello, Director of the Department of Epidemiology and Prevention at the I.R.C.C.S. Neuromed and Professor of Hygiene and Public Health at the Università dell'Insubria of Varese - is a fundamental component of our food culture. We see it hanging on Italian balconies, and even depicted in jewels.

Over the centuries, beneficial properties of all kinds have been associated with its consumption, mostly on the basis of anecdotes or traditions, if not magic. It is important now that research deals with it in a serious way, providing rigor and scientific evidence. And now, as already observed in China and in the United States, we know that the various plants of the capsicum species, although consumed in different ways throughout the world, can exert a protective action towards our health".

New researches will be now necessary to understand the biochemical mechanisms through which the chili pepper and its "relatives" (all united by the presence of a substance called capsaicin), scattered in all the corners of the globe, act. But, for the time being, spicy food lovers surely have one more reason to maintain their habit.

Reference:

Chili Pepper Consumption and Mortality in Italian Adult - (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2019.09.068)

Source-Eurekalert