As an ingredient in chili peppers, it lowers blood pressure, so a diet rich in this spice can help prevent hypertension, according to a Chinese study published in Cell Metabolism.
Scientists from the Third Military Medical University in Chongqing have reached such conclusions as a result of research conducted, among others, by on rats genetically predisposed to hypertension.
In one experiment, adult rodents were fed a food with capsaicin, which is responsible for the burning taste of chili peppers, for 7 months. Previous studies show that this compound can help, for example, in combating obesity, because it stimulates the metabolism of fats.
It turned out that after four months of such a diet, the systolic blood pressure (higher blood pressure) of the rodents began to decline until it was significantly lower at the end of the observation.
Further research revealed that capsaicin has a beneficial effect on blood pressure through the TRPV1 vanilloid receptor (also known as the capsaicin receptor), which is present in the endothelial cells lining the blood vessels. The effect of capsaicin is to increase the production of nitric oxide – a gas that causes vasodilation and a drop in blood pressure.
According to the researcher, Zhiming Zhu, this discovery indicates that a diet rich in capsaicin may be an element in the prevention of hypertension among people especially predisposed to it.
However, people who do not tolerate the spicy taste of chili should not lose hope. Zhu reminds that in milder varieties of peppers there are compounds closely related to capsaicin (belonging to capsaicinoids). There is some scientific evidence that these compounds act similarly to capsaicin, the researcher emphasizes.
These are not the first studies to investigate the effects of capsaicin on blood pressure, but earlier work has looked at the effects of short-term exposure to the compound. Therefore, their results were contradictory. For example, Zhu and his colleagues did not observe the beneficial effects of capsaicin after three weeks of administration, and the first significant changes appeared between the third and fourth months of the test.
The authors of the study believe that the results obtained in rodents should be reflected in epidemiological studies in humans. Zhu already sees a pattern in his country. In the northeast of China, the percentage of people with hypertension is estimated at over 20%, while in the south-western regions, where hot spices with a lot of chili are very popular, it is 10-14%.
For now, scientists do not know how much chili pepper should be consumed per day to prevent high blood pressure, but they plan to check it in the future.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), hypertension (HT) is the leading cause of human death. It contributes to the development of life-threatening diseases of the cardiovascular system, such as heart failure, infarction or stroke. It is estimated that hypertension currently affects 1 billion people in the world, but in 2025 this number may increase to as much as 1,6 billion.
NT is diagnosed when the patient’s systolic pressure (the so-called upper) exceeds the value of 140 mm Hg (mercury), and the diastolic pressure (the so-called lower) exceeds 90 mm Hg. (PAP)