You have probably heard people talking about the benefits of capsaicin quite a bit over the past few years. A lot of research is being done on capsaicin, a chemical found in spicy peppers, such as habaneros and jalapeños. We are starting to discover some great health benefits of capsaicin. It is easy to add to the diet, or to pick up some capsaicin cream for topical use, and it might be just what you need. The following are some of the health benefits people tout when they are talking about capsaicin.
Weight and Fat Loss
While there are plenty of potential health benefits for capsaicin, this is the one that always tends to excite people. Many people out there want to lose a few pounds and to shed some fat they’ve been holding onto for longer than they would like to remember. According to studies, it has the potential to help.
Those who have capsaicin regularly can increase their metabolic rate by about 8%, which can help them to burn more calories even while at rest. In addition, those who eat foods with capsaicin, such as hot sauce, tend to eat fewer calories in a sitting. This has the potential to help a person “save” a couple of hundred calories a day. When you combine capsaicin with healthy and sensible eating, along with an exercise program, it could help with weight loss.
Clears Congestion
You don’t like feeling congested, and fortunately, one of the health benefits of capsaicin is the ability to clear you up. Whether you are getting sick or have allergies causing the congestion, when you ingest some spicy food, it goes to work clearing that nasal congestion. It can also help to prevent sinus infections thanks to the heat, as well as the antimicrobial properties. If you want to keep your nasal passages clear, this is a good short-term method of doing it.
Pain Relief
Those who are suffering from pain, such as sore muscles and sore joints, perhaps because of arthritis, may want to consider trying a topical cream that contains capsaicin. It has proven to help reduce the feelings of pain in people, and it can reduce inflammation. It can help with the pain by causing a reduction of Substance P, which transmits pain to the brain. Capsaicin can also help with other types of pains, such as cluster headaches and migraines.
Prostate Cancer
Another one of the health benefits of capsaicin may be for prostate cancer. The American Association for Cancer Research says that the capsaicin caused apoptosis in the prostate cancer cells, thus killing them. They also found that it could affect the prostate cancer tumors, and the tumors that were treated were only a fifth of the size of the tumors that did not receive treatment. The research that has been done in this field is showing some promise when it comes to treating prostate cancer, and many feel capsaicin could also help with other types of cancer.
These are just some of the most prominent and talked about health benefits of capsaicin. It is time you added it to your life.