Disease Proof

For some reason people are so intrigued with Chile peppers. Check out this report by the Associated Press. Scientists are trying to harness the power of the pepper. Here’s a bit:

Doctors are dripping the chemical that gives chili peppers their fire directly into open wounds during knee replacement and a few other highly painful operations.


Don't try this at home: These experiments use an ultra-purified version of capsaicin to avoid infection -- and the volunteers are under anesthesia so they don't scream at the initial burn.

How could something searing possibly soothe? Bite a hot pepper, and after the burn your tongue goes numb.

The hope is that bathing surgically exposed nerves in a high enough dose will numb them for weeks, so that patients suffer less pain and require fewer narcotic painkillers as they heal.

We’ve seen this before. Remember this Chile pepper investigation? Refresh your memory and most importantly keep in mind this quote from Dr. Fuhrman:

“…hot spices should be used sparingly and should not be considered health foods.”

Eating chile pepper and using it as nerve numbing agent are two entirely different things. There has been a good amount of study of the use of capsaicin with this use; it has nothing to do with a healthy or unhealthy diet.