gastro ./ gastro intestinal

Cayenne Pepper Could Help Stomach Ulcers
By Robert Palmer
If you suffer from a peptic or duodenal ulcer, the last thing you might consider taking is hot Cayenne Pepper. This goes against everything you've ever heard about what aggravates an ulcer, the facts are that most "spicy" foods do just the opposite. Capsicum (Cayenne Pepper) can reduce pain which serves as a local anesthetic to ulcerated tissue in the stomach and can even help to control bleeding in the stomach.

Some individuals may be bothered by eating "Red Pepper" or spicy foods, these foods do not cause the formation of gastric ulcers in normal people. An interesting note is that people suffering from ulcers usually avoid Cayenne Pepper, in fact those people may actually benefit from its therapeutic action.

Taking Capsicum may significantly reduce the risk of ever developing a peptic ulcer. A Chinese study published in 1995 stated, "Our data supports the hypothesis that the chile used has a protective effect against peptic ulcer disease."1

Another 1995 study found that Capsicum can even protect the stomach lining from aspirin induced ulcers.2 Aspirin can cause stomach ulceration in certain individuals or if taken with too little water or juice. Researchers have concluded after experimenting with human volunteers that the capsaicin content of capsicum has a definite - protective effect on the mucous membranes of the stomach.3 eighteen healthy volunteers with normal gastrointestinal mucosa took chile and water followed by 600 mg of aspirin and water. The study was conducted over a period of four weeks. Endoscopy results showed that taking 20 grams of

The sounds of silence
I'm at the rehabilitation center where Bunny is rehabilitating her broken shoulders and all the TVs in the place shut down, and it's suddenly quiet. Maybe not as silent as Rachel, Nevada, or maybe when a Las Vagas casino lost power (talk about dead silence?it was weird!), but still, it's eerie.

While Bunny was otherwise occupied with a nurse I took the opportinity to look around outside. While there, I found this odd staircase off the side of a path:

I'm not sure what the purpose of such a structure could be, perhaps a place to sit down? But there were benches along the path. Perhaps stairs to Narnia?

Perhaps?

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Bunny is doing as well as can be expected, given that she really can't use her arms to get out of bed or a chair. But she does like looking at the finches they have in the main hall:

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As my tires were being addressed at a local tire shop, I meandered across the street to have lunch and browse at some stores to kill some time. At a gaming store, I came across this little fellow defending this terroritory:

He seemed very keen on keeping this corner of the store to himself. I let him be.

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Up front, Bunny is still doing well at rehabilitation for her broken shoulder.

As I was getting ready to visit her, my car complained about one of the tires being underinflated. Seriously underinflated. And looking at the in-car display showing the tire pressure, yes, that was at a level that I would not feel safe driving. But no problem, we have an air compressor and the adaptor to inflate tires for it. Okay, slight problem in that I have to dig it out from behind some stuff and set it up, and remember to close the air release valve (ahem) but within 10 minutes I'm inflating the tire.

Only to realize that after I inflated it, it was the tire on the wrong side of the car. I blame my directional dislexia on that.

You see, I'm one of the 10% of the population that is left handed, and I think this has contributed to my problems in identifying left from right. If I'm giving directions, it's all too common for me to say, ?Turn right! No! The other right!? as I gesture furtively with my left hand pointing left. Because I write with the right hand, that is to say, the ?correct? hand for me to write with, my left hand. It just feels right. You know?

Anyway, I let out the air on a now overinflated tire and once it got down to a safe pressure, I sent to inflate the right tire, which just happened to be on the right side of the car, to which I immedately felt a rush of air across my hand. It took me a few minutes to realize that the hose on the tire inflation adaptor had spontaneously formed an inch long split.

Sigh. All I want is to get enough pressure into the tire to drive to visit Bunny.

I find some duct tape (seeing how we have an air compressor, along with a number of large wood-working equipment in the garage, finding duct tape wasn't hard). I wrap the hose, and when I tried inflating the tire, the hose formed another split! More duct tape, yet a third split.

I ended up taping the entire hose in duct tape and even then, I barely got some air into the tire. The duct tape was helping a bit, but enough air was leaking out that it was clear I was going to have to get a new adaptor.

Had I been thinking a bit more clear, I would have realized I could have taken Bunny's car to the hardware store around the corner, but no, I risked driving my car with a low tire.

New adaptor in hand and back at Chez Boca, I was able to inflate the tire, arriving an hour later than I wanted. When I got home, the pressure had dropped in that tire (but not enough for the car to complain about), showing there was a definite leak.

Sigh.

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chile before the aspirin definitely demonstrated a protective action on the stomach lining.4 Capsicum has the ability to rebuild stomach tissue.

Capsicum has the ability to bring blood to regions of tissue at a faster rate boosts the assimilation of foods that are consumed with it.5 Several clinical studies support this phenomenon. It has been thought that Capsicum stimulate the release of substances which increase secretions in the stomach and intestines plus can increase an abundance of blood to the stomach and intestines.6 In fact, Capsicum can increases the flow of digestive secretions from the salivary, gastric and intestinal glands.

References:

1 J. Y. Kang, et al. "The effect of chile ingestion of gastrointestinal mucosal proliferation and azoxymethane-induced cancer in the rat." Journal of Gastroenterology-Hepatol. Mar-Apr. 1992: 7 (2): 194-98.

2 K. G. Yeoh, et al. "Chile protects against aspirin-induced gastroduodenal mucosal injury in humans." Dig-Dis-Sci. Mar. 1995: 40 (3): 580-83.

3 Ibid.

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Darrell Miller, Manager VitaNet Health Foods, 235 Market ave. SW, Hartville OH 44632, Dietary Supplements ... VitaNet Has been in business since 1995, offering supplements and vitamin supplement information to customers for the past 10 Years to help enrich your quality of life.