Spicey Food May Stave Off Cancer

BBC reports on research that indicates that capsaicin, an ingredient of jalapeno peppers, triggers
cancer cell death by attacking mitochondria – the cells’
energy-generating boiler rooms.  They study, conducted at Nottingham University, showed that the family of molecules, to which capsaicin belongs, the vanilloids, bind to proteins in the cancer cell
mitochondria to trigger cell death, without harming surrounding healthy cells. The BBC reports that capsaicin is already found in treatments for muscle strain and psoriasis – a fact that raises the question of whether
an adapted topical treatment could be used to treat certain types of
skin cancer. Read more.