When I was in high school, I went over to a friend’s house to discover that she had ghost pepper extract in her fridge. It came with a warning label, a syringe, and a mysterious attraction to a group of bored high schoolers. My friend challenged me to place just two drops of this extract on my tongue and bet me I would not be able to keep a straight face. At the time, this wager seemed like the quickest, easiest way I could ever make 20$. Obviously, I took this bet, and I grabbed the syringe. Less than 5 minutes after I dripped the extract on my tongue, I was not only extremely flushed and soaked in sweat, but the spice was actually so intense that I found myself with my head in the toilet, projectile vomiting, trying to void this poison from my body. Needless to say, I lost 20$ that day.
After that day, I always wondered why anyone on earth would ever willingly choose to consume spicy food, but it turns out there are actually some interesting health benefits to a spicy food diet. The health benefits of spicy food consumption are mainly attributed to a molecule called capsaicin. Capsaicin is the chemical found in chili peppers that makes them spicy (DerSarkissian, 2019). One of the most remarkable health benefits in the dietary usage of capsaicin is its anticancer activity by inducing cell apoptosis. Apoptosis is programmed cell death, a barrier against cancer development, and loss of apoptotic signaling is highly associated with malignancy. Research has shown that capsaicin induces apoptosis in many types of cancer cell lines, including colon adenocarcinoma, pancreatic cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and many others, leaving normal cells unharmed (Chapa-Oliver, Mejía-Teniente, 2016). The complete mechanism of apoptosis from capsaicin is not fully understood, but it is known that it targets a cation channel called TRPV1. This cation channel creates an influx of Ca++ which initiates an apoptosis cascade in tumor cells (Hou, He, Yang, et al., 2019).
The ethical component of this topic goes back to my personal experience with the ghost pepper extract where I clearly had a horrible reaction to the spice. Based on the principles of non-malfeasance, is it ethical in a research setting to expose human subjects to various levels of spice if there is a risk that they may have a poor reaction?
References
Chapa-Oliver, A. M., & Mejía-Teniente, L. (2016). Capsaicin: From Plants to a Cancer Suppressing Agent. Molecules (Basel, Switzerland), 21(8), 931. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules21080931
DerSarkissian, C. (2019, May 18). Capsaicin Cream & Supplements: Purpose, How to Use, & Side Effects. Retrieved November 14, 2020, from https://www.webmd.com/pain management/what-is-capsaicin
Hou, N., He, X., Yang, Y., Fu, J., Zhang, W., Guo, Z., Hu, Y., Liang, L., Xie, W., Xiong, H., Wang, K., & Pang, M. (2019). TRPV1 Induced Apoptosis of Colorectal Cancer Cells by Activating Calcineurin-NFAT2-p53 Signaling Pathway. BioMed research international, 2019, 6712536. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/6712536
This is an interesting concept to be explored because of the potential application to cancer. Regarding the question about ethics in relation to research on human subjects, I think that such research could be conducted in a less extreme way than the day you lost 20$. From studies that have been done on spicy food diets compared to non-spicy food diets there are statistically significant associations between eating more spicy food and having less risk of certain cancers, respiratory diseases and some heart diseases so continued research is certainly warranted (Lv et al., 2015). It doesn’t seem like there must be an extreme level of spice in order to observe the benefits for a person so, by simply studying people who have voluntarily consented to the study and observing any benefits from different prescribed levels of spicy diets perhaps there can be extensive research on the applications of spicy food and cancer reduction along with keeping the principle of non-maleficence upheld. With many drugs that are researched in humans there are known unpleasant side effects often including nausea, vomiting, sweating, etc. Based on this, how does the proposed research on spicy food diets application to cancer differ from ongoing research on pharmaceuticals that are known to induce similar side effects to what a person might experience when reacting negatively to spice?
ReplyDeleteLv, J., Qi, L., Yu, C., et al., (2015). Consumption of spicy foods and total and cause specific mortality: population based cohort study. The BMJ (351). Doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h3942
I guess the real question becomes: Is human research ethical in any circumstance that results in a negative outcome for the subject? Are some studies more ethical than others if the drug being researched may have a more profound effect? For example, if a drug was being researched that may cure cancer, but death is a risk to subjects, is that more ethical to study in humans than a drug that is being studied to ease an upset stomach also having death as a risk?
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ReplyDeleteHi Ben! It's cool to learn that spicy food could possibly cure cancer. I never really thought that it could since it usually gives people heart burn and gastritis. I dove deeper into researching what other benefits to eating spicy, which includes promoting weight-loss and boosting your metabolism. Spicy food can also be an effective pain reliever because of capsaicin, making nerves lose feeling. You would, however, need to use chili pepper as a topical cream rather than ingesting it. This could potentially help patients with their pain such as arthritis.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
Spice Up Your Life: The Health Benefits of Spicy Foods – Penn Medicine. (n.d.). Retrieved November 19, 2020, from https://www.pennmedicine.org/updates/blogs/health-and-wellness/2019/april/spicy-foods