Hot Peppers

Hot peppers can cause ulcers

Constipation isn’t the only digestive issue that concerns people enough to make up myths. (See the chapter on cheese if you are worried about dairy and constipation.) Ulcers get their fair share of attention as well. Especially now that gastroesophageal reflux has saturated our consciousness and become a major source of pharmaceutical revenue. Many of us are obsessed with heartburn, and more specifically ulcers.

Ask someone what causes ulcers, and you may hear a number of different things. But most people, when they compile a list, will eventually get around to hot peppers. Like many myths, this one seems to make sense. Hot peppers are, well, hot. They burn your mouth. They can actually cause pain. And so it doesn’t seem like much of a leap to assume that they must be causing damage further down as well. It makes sense that, just as they feel like they are burning your mouth, they could be burning the lining of your stomach, causing an ulcer.

It’s just not true, though. To understand how this myth, like so many others, is the exact opposite of truth, we have to start with why hot peppers are hot. The heat you feel when you eat them is due to a substance called capsaicin. It has no odor, and it has no taste. Capsaicin is mostly found in the seeds and ribs of peppers, but it is also in the flesh of peppers as well. And when it comes into contact with the nerves in our digestive system, it definitely causes a reaction.

It’s important to recognize that this reaction is with the nerves, however. Just because something makes a nerve fire does not mean that it is affecting other cells in any way, certainly not in a bad way. In fact, capsaicin might be doing a lot of good. Studies have shown that capsaicin actually inhibits acid secretion in the stomach. It does not make you have more acid in your stomach (which could cause more ulcers or heartburn): capsaicin makes you have less acid! It also stimulates the secretion of more alkaline substances, which make the stomach even less acidic. It can also stimulate mucus secretion and mucosal blood flow in the stomach, which would act to help prevent or even heal ulcers. Capsaicin does a whole lot more good than harm with respect to ulcers.

Granted, much of this work has been done in rats and not humans, but it’s pretty convincing. Moreover, when you have good evidence that there might be protective effects, and no evidence that there are harmful effects, then claiming that something is bad for you is a myth.

As long as we’re on the subject, in recent years there has been a flurry of evidence that capsaicin might have other benefits as well. Capsaicin in creams has shown real promise for pain relief. There are promising leads showing that it might slow or stop the replication of prostate cells, which could be helpful for prostate cancer. It’s even been helpful in killing human pancreatic cancer cells in mice.

All of this needs further study. And, of course, hot peppers aren’t for everyone. That’s perfectly acceptable. We just can’t stand by and allow the perfectly healthy, and maybe even helpful, hot pepper be unfairly maligned and accused of being harmful.