You are probably familiar with capsaicin, even if not by that name. If you’ve ever taken a bite of a bowl of chili, or dipped into queso and found that your mouth was on fire with spiciness, you have capsaicin to thank for the experience. However, whether you like spicy foods, are indifferent, or try to avoid them altogether, there’s a lot to love about this food component. This is particularly true when it comes to some forms of cancer; capsaicin and prostate cancer might seem an unlikely pairing, but there is medical evidence to suggest that one might be used to treat the other.
Understanding the Relationship between Capsaicin and Prostate Cancer
It might seem unintuitive that the same chemical that causes heat in peppers can help to treat cancer, but there does seem to be some connection, although researchers and scientists are not completely sure how this occurs. In a report published through the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, authors BojanaJakovic, D. Andrew Loblaw and Robert Nam reported the case of a 66-year-old man with prostate cancer who discontinued conventional treatment. Instead, he consumed chili sauce that contained capsaicin once or twice per week. Prior to taking capsaicin, the patient’s antigen doubling time increased consistently. However, after beginning treatment with capsaicin, it remained stable, and he has remained free of any prostate cancer symptoms since that point.
So, how do capsaicin and prostate cancer go together? What makes capsaicin a potential treatment for prostate cancer, and other forms of cancer? At the moment, medical research has arrived at no firm conclusion, although there is a definitive link.
Another study published through the National Institutes of Health states, “Capsaicin, the pungent ingredient of red hot chili peppers, has been shown to have anti-cancer activities in several cancer cells, including prostate cancer. Several molecular mechanisms have been proposed on itschemopreventative action, including ceramide accumulation, endoplasmic reticulum stress induction, and NFkB inhibition. However, the precise mechanisms by which capsaicin exerts its anti-proliferative effect in prostate cancer cells remains questionable.”
While medical specialists are not sure how it works, it seems that what capsaicin does is related to cell death. Because cancer is basically a mutation of regular cells, including unchecked growth, cellular death stops the growth and halts the progress of the tumor. According to the American Institute for Cancer Research, a study was conducted with mice, which were fed capsaicin. The mice suffered from pancreatic cancer. Soon after beginning the capsaicin regimen, the pancreatic tumors not only stopped growing, but actually reduced in size by half.
Of course, significant research lies ahead, and the benefits of capsaicin for prostate cancer patients are still not entirely clear. It does show promise, though, and could eventually lead to a breakthrough in treatment for patients with many forms of cancer, not limited to only prostate cancer. With that being said, medical specialists caution that unconstrained consumption of capsaicin can actually be harmful, so moderation should be the rule.