Killing Cancer with Alkaline Diets of Hot Chilli

Its been common knowledge for many years that a healthy diet lowers the chances of various cancers forming. Diets high of alkaline acid (as opposed to acidifying foods) are recommended for both cancer avoidance and as a cancer fighting diet.

Chillies which contain the chemical capsaicin, are an alkaline food. A recent study from Nottingham University (2) has shown that capsaicin kills lung cancer cells. Previous studies at the American Association for Cancer Research (1) had shown a similar effect with prostate cancer cells. Other studies in Japan and China have shown capsaicin directly inhibits the growth of leukemic cells.

In the Nottingham University study, they injected capsaicin directly into cancer cells grown in the lab with amazing results. The capsaicin attacked the mitochondria, killing off the cancer cells without damaging healthy cells. Mitochondria are the cells 'heart' so to speak. And the important part was that it didn't affect healthy cells.

This new research raises the possibility that new cancer drugs could be developed to target cancer mitochondria. The head researcher Dr Timothy Bates said "As these compounds attack the very heart of the tumour cells, we believe that we have in effect discovered a fundamental 'Achilles heel' for all cancers".

Since capsaicin is already commonly found in the diet, it shows that its a safe chemical to eat. Whether or not just eating chillies is enough or of they need to be injected into tumors remains to be studied. Overall it seems the high alkaline diet theory is gaining more and more evidence to support its anti cancer claims.

Like all medicines there is a safe level of dosage. So don't go eating large amounts of hot chillies. If ingested in large amounts can produce nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and burning diarrhea.

Sources:

(1) http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/full/66/6/3222

(2) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6244715.stm