Chilli peppers

[Al-khiyal]

'Hot' substance in chilli peppers key to killing pain

April 27, 2010 -- Studying chilli peppers is helping scientists create a new type of painkiller which could stop pain at its source. A team at the University of Texas says a substance similar to capsaicin, which makes chilli peppers hot, is found in the human body at sites of pain. And blocking the production of this substance can stop chronic pain, the team found. They report their findings in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Capsaicin is the primary ingredient in hot chilli peppers which causes a burning sensation. It does this by binding to receptors present on the cells inside the body. Similarly, when the body is injured, it releases capsaicin-like substances - fatty acids called oxidized linoleic acid metabolites or OLAMs - and these, via receptors, cause pain, the researchers have found.

Blocking pain

Dr Kenneth Hargreaves, senior researcher at the Dental School at the University of Texas, and his team next set out to see if they could block these newly discovered pain pathways. Lab work on mice showed that by knocking out a gene for the receptors, there was no sensitivity to capsaicin. Armed with this knowledge they set about making drugs to do the same. Dr Hargreaves said: "This is a major breakthrough in understanding the mechanisms of pain and how to more effectively treat it. We have discovered a family of endogenous capsaicin-like molecules that are naturally released during injury, and now we understand how to block these mechanisms with a new class of non-addictive therapies." Ultimately, he hopes the drugs will be able to treat different types of chronic pain, including that associated with cancer and inflammatory diseases such as arthritis and fibromyalgia.

[Al-khiyal]

Spicy research: peppers may help burn calories

April 28, 2010 -- Peppers are having a big week. Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles' Center for Human Nutrition say that preliminary findings from a small study suggest that the chemical that gives spicy peppers their kick, capsaicin, may not only make you sweat when digging in to a hot dish, but may actually prompt your body to expend more energy — and that there may be a way to get this benefit without the burn. And in separate research, the BBC reports, investigators at the University of Texas indicate that a better understanding of capsaicin could yield clues to how the body processes pain, and as a result, how to better manage discomfort in chronic sufferers.

The study into peppers' impact on energy consumption, presented this week at an Experimental Biology conference in California, included 34 men and women. Participants ate a low-calorie liquid "replacement meal" diet for about a month, and then were either assigned to the control group — which was given pills containing a "non-burning" version of capsaicin produced by some varieties of peppers that is known as dihydrocapsiate (DCT) in two different amounts — or to a placebo group. Researchers tested all participants' weight and body fat content, and also measured how quickly they were burning energy after eating a single test meal. They found that participants taking either dose of DCT were burning energy at a higher rate than those in the placebo group, and that those taking the highest dose of DCT were burning energy at roughly twice the rate of those taking a placebo. What's more, the researchers noted that people taking the pepper pills, so to speak, were specifically burning fat at a higher rate than those taking the placebo.

Though preliminary, the researchers suggest that these findings indicate that DCT, like capsaicin, may prompt the body to ramp up how quickly it burns energy, and could help boost metabolism. While they concede that more research is needed and these results are limited to one analysis after a single meal and could differ with further investigation or in a different study population, they say that the initial findings are promising — especially for people with a penchant for peppers.

Meanwhile, findings from the University of Texas highlighted by the BBC indicate that peppers may also play a role in helping scientists better understand how the body processes pain. Research published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation indicates that a substance similar to capsaicin is found at sites of pain in the body, and that blocking the production of this chemical could be a way to relieve chronic discomfort.