What is this mysterious plant, whose pods yield fire, and whose use has spread like licking flames through the culinary world? The chile plant is any of five domesticated species of Capsicumpeppers. All chiles may have originated from a single source, which some experts believe lies in central Bolivia. The fruits of the chile plant concern us most. As a rule mature chiles are red, orange, or yellow. The shape of chiles varies greatly. And there can be tremendous varieties of heat among peppers of the very same species.  

The Blazing Capsaicinoids

The substances that make chiles hot, and provide pleasure to chileeaters, are a group of natural oleoresins called capsaicinoids.  These substances account for between 0.1 percent - 1 percent of the total composition of a chile pepper. Of these compounds the hottest is capsaicin. A single drop of pure capsaicin will burn a hole right through healthy tissue. The sensation of burning produced by the capsaicinoids is physiologically similar to the sensation of burning caused by heat or fire. Imagine the surprise of the very first person who ever bit into a hot chile pepper!

Scoville, Measurer of Fire

In 1912, Wilbur Scoville, a chemist working for the Parke Davis pharmaceutical company established a method for measuring the heat level chili peppers. As a result of all these tests, various varieties of chile peppers can be ranked according to their heat or “pungency” level. The following scale comes originally from Doctor Ben Villalon of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station. He conducted this survey of chiles and their heat, and his findings have been reprinted and reproduced thousands of times. Those of us in the chile world remain in Doctor Villalon’s debt for clearly delineating the heat levels of various chiles.

        0 -100 Scoville Units – Bell/sweet pepper varieties.
        500 -1000 Scoville Units – Big Jim, Anaheim peppers.
        1,000 -1,500 Scoville Units – Ancho, Pasilla peppers.
        1,500 -2,500 Scoville Units – Sandia, Cascabel, Rocotillo peppers.
        2,500 -5,000 Scoville Units – Jalapeno & Mirasol peppers.
        5,000 -15,000 Scoville Units – Yellow Wax, Serrano peppers.
        15,000 -30,000 Scoville Units – de Arbol peppers.
        30,000 -50,000 Scoville Units – Piquin, Cayenne & Tabasco peppers.
        50,000 -100,000 Scoville Units – Chiltepin, Thai, Santaka peppers
        100,000 -300,000 Scoville Units – Scotch Bonnet & Habanero peppers.
        575,000 Scoville Units – Red Savina Habanero peppers.
        855,000 Scoville Units – Naga Jolokia peppers (Professional pepper. Do not eat this at home) .
        16,000,000 Scoville Units – Pure Capsaicin (Don’t even think about it.) 

Chiles and Health

From arthritis to asthma, colds to constipation, hemorrhoids to high blood pressure, lethargy to lumbago, and tonsillitis to toothache, chiles have played prominently in the formulas and practice of herbal medicine. Chiles have been made into decoctions, compresses, tinctures and ointments.

As researchers delve into chiles and their heat components the capsaicinoids, their studies show that many of the traditional folk uses of chiles as medicines can be understood by modern scientific means.

Take chiles to heart – Chiles perform a number of functions which enhance heart health. They reduce platelet aggregation, the process by which disk-shaped structures in the blood accumulate and clog vessels. Chiles are vasodilators. They open up blood vessels, thereby stimulating blood circulation and warming the body. Chiles help to reduce oxidation of LDL cholesterol, a primary risk factor in heart attack and stroke. Chiles also reduce triglycerides, stored fats in blood cells. All around, chiles are very good for cardiovascular health.

Burn calories! –Eating chiles actually helps you to burn calories, and shed pounds. Research conducted at Oxford Polytechnic Institute shows that eating chiles increases thermogenesis, the body’s caloric burn rate. If you eat chiles or chile sauce with a meal, your body will burn calories at an increased rate of about 25%. This translates into maybe 45 calories more burned per 700 calorie meal. That’s pretty good.

Cancer prevention – Capsaicin in chiles fights cancer by preventing carcinogens from binding to DNA. This does not mean that chiles are a cancer treatment, but it does mean that eating chiles can help to reduce the risk of certain typers of cancer. As part of your dietary intake on a regular basis, chiles provide some measure of cancer protection.

Headache? – Chiles provide relief for some types of headaches, especially painful cluster headaches.  It may be that in the instance of cluster headaches, consumption of chiles wears out the mechanism by which pain is transmitted. Some people take cayenne capsules for relief. These are found at health food stores under several brands. But you can also pour some hot sauce on food, or eat a chili-laden soup.

General pain – Hot chiles provide pretty good relief for pain. Chiles contain pain-alleviating salicylates. Aspirin itself is a salicylate-based drug, acetyl-salicylic acid. Remember, when you eat chiles, you also get a pleasant endorphin buzz going, which also helps to reduce pain. Instead of reaching for the Tylenol, try a habanero instead.

Open that stuffy nose – If you have a cold or allergy accompanied by clogged sinuses, there’s nothing quite like a steaming bowl of soup just loaded with fiery hot sauce to blast open your airways. Your nose will run like a river for a while, but then you’ll be able to breathe.

Sluggish digestion, constipation – Chiles get your digestive juices going. So if your digestion is slow or weak, a good dash of hot sauce in your food will prove useful. If your bowels are clogged and you wish otherwise, sprinkle chile flakes (crushed red pepper), seeds and all, on your food. The chile will act like a blasting cap, helping to eliminate backed up waste. It may burn a bit, but you’ll have a good bowel movement.

Live forever- In your longevity plan, factor is a steady flow of hot chile peppers, and you’ll gain a host of powerful benefits.

Chris Kilham is a medicine hunter, and researches natural remedies all over the world, from the Amazon to Siberia. Chris teaches ethnobotany at U Mass Amherst where he is Explorer In Residence. He advises herbal, cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies , and is a regular guest on radio and TV programs worldwide. His field research is largely sponsored by Naturex of Avignon, France. Visit  his web site at www.MedicineHunter.com

Ease into fall with this healthy wonder

Summer vacation is over,  and you just may need something to keep in your desk to ease the transition back into faster, more hurried times. My pick? Dark chocolate. Think really dark, as in 70 percent cocoa.  The very dark chocolates contain less fat and sugar, and much more of chocolate’s spectacular mood-enhancing and health-imbuing compounds.

Tropical origins

The rainforest tree from which cocoa originates is Theobroma cacao, which means food of the gods. There is a dispute among experts regarding the origin of cacao.  But recent DNA research supports the notion that Venezuela’s Maracaibo basin marks the spot where the food of the gods first sprang forth in nature. Sometime around 1000 B.C. the Maya, whose civilization flourished from the Yucatan Peninsula to the Pacific coast of Guatemala, are believed to have cultivated the cacao tree for the very first time. The Maya so highly valued cacao, they used cocoa beans as currency, and to pay taxes.  From the very onset of its use, cocoa was assigned high status.

When Hernan Cortez returned to Spain from the New World in 1528, he told of a widely consumed food made from the fruit seeds of a tree. Cortez and his conquistadores described great plantations of Theobroma cacao throughout Mexico. His account of chocolate, its popularity and value, greatly piqued the interest of the Spanish. Cortez was chocolate’s first and most important trans-continental messenger.

Cacao, The Tree

While Theobroma cacao may grow appreciably taller in the wild, the cultivated tree ranges between 13 – 26 feet in height. The large, distinctive fruit pods of the tree jut out directly from the trunk and the lower branches. Young fruit pods tend to be greenish in color, but as they mature over the course of 5 – 6 months they become elliptical in shape and bright red or yellow in color. The fruit pods average about nine inches in length, and typically contain 30 – 40 almond-sized seeds (what we know as cocoa beans) nestled in a pale white flesh. 

Cacao is now cultivated in virtually every tropical area in the world. Cacao is grown commercially throughout Central and South America, Africa, the Caribbean, Indonesia, Malayasia, and the Pacific islands. This widespread distribution is testimony to the popularity of the tree and the heavenly fruit from which chocolate is made.

The Greatest Mood Food

Of the multitudinous compounds in cocoa, one is PEA, or phenethylamine. This chemical, which occurs in chocolate in small quantities, stimulates the nervous system and triggers the release of pleasurable opium-like compounds known as endorphins. It also potentiates the activity of dopamine, a neurochemical directly associated with sexual arousal and pleasure. Phenethylamine increases in the brain when we fall in love, and during orgasm.

Cocoa additionally boosts a sense of well being by increasing brain levels of serotonin, the so-called feel-good brain chemical. For this reason cocoa and chocolate provide a highly desirable mood boost to women during PMS and menstruation, when serotonin levels are often down. In fact, women are consistently more sensitive to chocolate than men. Women typically experience stronger chocolate cravings than men. 

Yet another constituent in cocoa alters mental state in pleasurable ways. Anandamide (whose name derives from the Sanskrit word ananda, which means bliss), is a cannabinoid, a member of the same psychoactive substances found in cannabis. Anandamide produces a global feeling of euphoria. This compound may account for why some people become euphoric or blissed-out when they eat chocolate.

Cocoa contains a wealth of naturally-occurring compounds. Of these, the most thoroughly studied are the methylxanthines. The two methylxanthines in chocolate are caffeine and theobromine. According to the Chocolate Information Center, a 50 gram piece of dark chocolate will yield between 10 – 60 milligrams of caffeine, as compared with a five ounce cup of coffee, which can yield up to 180 milligrams. Theobromine, the second methylxanthine, occurs at a concentration of about 250 milligrams in a 50 gram bar of dark chocolate. Like caffeine, theobromine is a central nervous system stimulant, though it is appreciably weaker.

Good For Your Heart!

Substantive science now shows that cocoa is very good for us indeed. Cocoa, which is the primary ingredient in finished chocolate, is rich in antioxidant polyphenols, a group of protective chemicals found in many plant foods such as red wine and tea, which have been the objects of scientific investigation for their beneficial influence on cardiovascular health.

Polyphenols are reportedly cardioprotective in two ways. First, they help to reduce the oxidation of low-density lipoproteins (LDL), or so-called ‘bad cholesterol.” Oxidation of LDL is considered a major factor in the promotion of coronary disease, most notably heart attack and stroke.  Additionally, polyphenols inhibit blood platelets from clumping together. This clumping process, called aggregation, leads to atherosclerosis, hardening of the arteries. By inhibiting aggregation, polyphenols reduce the risk of atherosclerosis. Since atherosclerosis is a major killer of American adults, the protection provided by the polyphenols in cocoa is of real value.

Cocoa not only inhibits platelet aggregation, but it thins the blood, thus slowing coagulation. In a study of healthy subjects given a strong cocoa beverage, platelet aggregation was reduced and fewer microparticles had formed than normal. Additionally, blood from the subjects took longer to form a clot than blood from control subjects. This study showed that cocoa performs the same beneficial anti-clotting activity as aspirin. 

Daily Chocolate Rx

If you are diabetic, then only pure, unsweetened cocoa is advisable for you. Use it in baking and in smoothies. Otherwise, half a bar daily of semi-sweet strong dark chocolate will put a groove in your mood, protect the cells in your body, and help to maintain heart health. And, it will make running in the rat race just a bit more enjoyable. That’s not bad for the world’s most beloved confection.

Chris Kilham is a medicine hunter who researches natural remedies all over the world, from the Amazon to Siberia. He teaches ethnobotany at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he is Explorer In Residence. Chris advises herbal, cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies and is a regular guest on radio and TV programs worldwide.  His field research is largely sponsored by Naturex of Avignon, France. Read more at www.MedicineHunter.com

Q: What are the drugs that have been mentioned in connection with Jackson’s death and how do they work?
A: Propofol (Diprovan): A powerful intravenous sedative — not a DEA controlled substance — was found on the premises. It is used by anesthesiologists to put a patient to sleep before general anesthesia and surgery, or alone in a surgical suite for an elective procedure such as a colonoscopy or biopsy. Only small doses are necessary to be effective, and it can easily be misused by an untrained health professional leading to a respiratory arrest.

Narcotics: Demoral, Percocet, Vicodan — there are varied reports of prescriptions for these being found. All can lead a patient to stop breathing or sustain a cardiac arrhythmia and cardiac arrest if overdosed — especially if used in combination. These are controlled substances and prescriptions are subject to DEA review. Misuse can lead to loss of license or criminal prosecution.

Sedatives: A prescription for Xanax was reportedly found. This can also lead to supressed breathing.

Q: What are the questions about substandard care that surrounded Jackson’s death?
A: Excess prescriptions of narcotics and sedatives. When he stopped breathing, no opiate antagonist (narcan) was given to reverse the effects of narcotics. The doctor in residence did not coordinate the 911 call. CPR was done on the bed without a backboard, rather than on the floor where more force could be administered to the heart. No defibrillator was available, and no mouth-to-mouth breathing was reportedly given.

Q: Why is there a delay in getting the autopsy results?
A: The initial autopsy apparently showed no structural damage to the heart to explain his death. There is speculation that prescription drugs contributed to or caused Jackson’s sudden death, and initial toxicology reports may soon be ready. More extensive reports take longer because they look at blood and hair to quantify the exact amounts and combinations that could have led to his death. This will include a microscopic examination of the brain itself, which could show the effects of drugs and help determine the exact cause of death.

Dr. Marc Siegel is an internist and associate professor of medicine at the NYU School of Medicine. He is a FOX News medical contributor and writes a health column for the LA Times, where he examines TV and movies for medical accuracy. Dr. Siegel is the author of “False Alarm: The Truth About the Epidemic of Fear“ and “Bird Flu: Everything You Need to Know About the Next Pandemic.” Read more at www.doctorsiegel.com

Michael Jackson’s sudden death by cardiac arrest is less shocking than the slow, but steady demise of his soul, which turned him into a music machine fueled by addictions to drugs, money, possessions, fame and plastic surgery.  As my friend and fellow journalist Josh Resnek has remarked, Jackson’s body died at 50; the rest of him died much younger.

Jackson’s life story is a cautionary tale about what happens when a child is deprived of his core self.  That deprivation likely stemmed from what Jackson himself described as the physical and psychological brutality of his father Joe, who reportedly whipped him and verbally abused him and monetized his talents from age 10 through endless rehearsals and performances of The Jackson 5.  Now Joe is planning a big, public funeral for his twice-dead son, keeping him on the stage even after he is gone from this earth.

Jackson’s first, long, tortuous death was a gradual stopping of his metaphorical heart—the heart of a boy harnessed to a father’s tyrannical plans to enslave him.  It left him uncertain whether anything at all was authentic about him, whether there was anything whatsoever he could embrace as the truth. 

He was forever ambivalent about his race, bleaching or otherwise altering his skin tone to appear Caucasian. 

He was forever ambivalent about his facial structure, undergoing plastic surgeries until his nose seemed in danger of falling off his face, his chin became a caricature of the kind with a cleft he must have admired on other people’s faces, and his jaw line became a haunting skeletal representation of just how dead he really was inside.

He seemed forever ambivalent about his gender, because he could not claim even that as his own, morphing from tough guy to girl in appearance and garb. 

He seemed ambivalent about his age, living in an amusement park he built, with zoo animals on display.  Could he have actually missed the fact that he was a caged animal himself, thrilling crowds with his exotic movements and appearance? 

He may have been ambivalent or twisted about what pleased him sexually, given his habit of inviting young boys into his bed and his history of having paid out $20 million to settle a child sexual molestation suit.

He staged sham marriages and “fathered” children who appeared wearing carnival masks in public—all part of the show.  He dangled his baby boy over a railing for his fans, in what may have been the starkest representation of how he felt his own life had ended shortly after birth. 

The distance between a man’s mind and his core self — his soul — is the breeding place for anxiety and depression.  And Jackson apparently tried to contain those unwieldy emotions in the predictable ways — drugging himself by acquiring possessions and trying to shut up the long-dying person inside him with opiates and tranquilizers.  Then the truth asserted itself in the final way it sometimes does.  It stopped his heart suddenly, when, for all intents and purposes, it had not been beating (not for real) for decades.

A recent story about a 17-year-old Boy Scout who died suddenly during a 7.7-mile hike in Florida has everyone wondering what went wrong. Every time I see a story like this, where an unexplained death occurs in a young person – especially an otherwise healthy teenage athlete – it makes me wonder whether it’s a good idea to have in-depth annual physicals performed on adolescents contemplating participating in high-endurance sports.

Most children get an annual physical as required by state law to attend school or play sports. I have three children, and for the most part, their physicals constitute a review of systems, blood pressure, weight and height documentation, vital signs and maintenance of vaccination schedules.

So the question is: Should adolescents have more in-depth assessments done to evaluate the status of their cardiovascular health?

This of course is a controversial question to ask because doctors can’t seem to agree on what tests should be done. And with the swelling numbers of uninsured Americans and the escalating costs of preventive medicine not covered by insurers, we’re immediately challenged with the dilemma of who’s going to pay for cardiac testing, and what happens if we do find something wrong?

A perfect example of this is the current criticism of prostate cancer screening. Many studies are now suggesting that these screenings may lead to unnecessary procedures and negative side effects — that ultimately are ineffective in changing the course of the disease.

Now I can understand evaluating the effectiveness of prostate cancer screening versus cost and quality of life issues – especially because of the nature of the disease and the age group that it typically affects.

But when it comes certain heart diseases in the adolescent patient population, we’re not looking at quality of life issues – but often, the difference between a life saved and a life lost.

One condition in particular that I think that teenagers should be screened for, is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). This is a genetic condition that affects one out of 500 people and is the leading cause of heart-related sudden death in people under 30. And unfortunately, if it goes undetected, most parents only find out about HCM after their child dies on the field or court.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a condition in which the heart muscle becomes abnormally thick, making it harder for the heart to pump blood and sometimes interfering with its electrical rhythms. HCM tends to run in families, and children of parents with the genetic mutation for the disease have a 50 percent chance of inheriting it.

The reason HCM often goes undiagnosed, is because it rarely presents any noticeable symptoms. And while it can lead to severe cardiac problems at any age, but I would argue that if the condition is identified in the teenage population, proper monitoring could lead to a decrease in sudden, unexpected death among athletes.

Many states are looking into mandatory cardiovascular assessment of young athletes in an effort to identify patients at risk. Still cardiologists are not sure what the best method of screening should be — whether routine electrocardiography or echocardiograms prior to the start of the sports season would provide the most cost-effective, comprehensive data to aid in identifying athletes at risk.

I know that this debate will go on for quite a while, but I think that any parent with a teen or child participating in sports should have a conversation with their pediatrician.

Dear Mr. Brown:
We have never met.  I don’t presume to know your life story.  If the allegations against you are true, however, and you did brutalize your girlfriend, I do know something very important about you. 

First, you should know a little about me.  I am a forensic psychiatrist who has treated violent men and women and testified as an expert in state and federal courts in cases involving rape, assault and murder.  On more than one occasion, I have testified about the underlying psychological dynamics that resulted in men killing women.  I also wrote the New York Times bestseller Inside the Mind of Scott Peterson.  You would have been just 16 when Peterson was sentenced to death for the murder of his wife Laci and unborn son Conner.  I tell you all this to increase the chances you might actually take what I have to say to heart before you ruin your life and destroy someone else’s. 

Here’s what I know about you, if you are guilty of the charges against you:  You are different from the vast majority of men.  You have been emotionally and physically violent toward a woman, and I believe you’ve done it before.  Men who find themselves in court for assaulting females rarely have the good fortune to be caught—and, hopefully, get help—the first time. 

Psychologically speaking, what you are up against is like psychological cancer—a malignancy that is life threatening and hard to treat.  Just when you think you’ve overcome it, it can overtake you.  It is deep in the marrow of your mind or brain or both.  I don’t like your odds against it—even a little bit.  Defeating it will take an act of will greater than any you have summoned before.

For one reason or another, you lack the empathy or impulse control that would have allowed you to restrain yourself from lashing out when anger surged inside you.  This is no small matter.  Empathy is a miraculous human quality that allows one human being to imagine the suffering of another and seek to minimize it whenever possible (not inflict it).  Impulse control is closely linked to having empathy, but can also depend on parts of the brain—especially the frontal lobes—functioning appropriately.  Impulse control also depends on being sober.  Alcohol or an illicit drug is often the culprit when violence erupts.

If you lack empathy, your character is badly damaged, and it is essential that you figure out how that occurred.  You need to examine which events in your life were so painful that you stopped feeling your own sadness and hurt and tried to keep everything buried inside you.   That doesn’t work.  The things you bury never go away, they get more intense, then spill out of you in ways you can’t predict or control.   Only a skilled therapist can help you look at yourself in the way you need to now, to unearth the emotions you’ll need to in order to have any hope of remaking yourself into the kind of man you deserve to be—a man of character who can form loving relationships, not abusive ones.  And only a psychiatrist can prescribe whatever medicine might be needed in the short or longer-term to help you keep your demons from getting the upper hand again while you wrestle with them.

Character pathology often goes hand-in-hand with alcohol and drug problems.  That’s because alcohol and drugs are another way people try not to feel the turmoil inside them.  But, trust me, it’s a sucker’s game.   Ultimately, booze or coke or heroin only fuel the ugly things inside a person.   If you’re using and think you can stop on your own, think again.  You’re in a war, and you’re losing.  Check yourself into a rehab, if you have to.  Get to AA or NA, if you have to.  Do more than you think you need to.  You’ll underestimate your enemy.  Every alcohol or drug abuser does.

Go see a neurologist, for good measure.  Tell him or her that you need to know if there’s any damage to your brain—maybe from prior head trauma—that could leave you without normal neurological defenses against your underlying anger. 

You’ll mount a vigorous defense in court, of course.   Nobody wants to go to jail.  But don’t defend against the truth you know in your heart of hearts.  Whatever unresolved rage is inside you isn’t under your control, and you’d better get the upper hand over it—and soon.  Someone could end up dead.  You could end up living a life behind bars.  You weren’t born for either tragedy.  You can do better.

One last thing:  Think about your children.  I know you don’t have any today, but you might some day.  Think about the fact that they’ll see your girlfriend’s battered face on the Internet years from now.  They’ll know what people said about you.  Let yourself feel some shame over that.  You’ll want to be able to tell them how much you’ve changed, how it wasn’t easy (because it won’t be), but how they, too, can defeat any ugliness they find inside them, if they don’t try to run away from it.

Turn and face the truth about yourself.  One day, with a lot of hard work, a lot of help and some luck, you could be proud of what you see.   It’s a noble goal—maybe the most noble of all.  Now is the time to embrace it.
 
-Keith Ablow, MD

Dr. Keith Ablow is a psychiatry correspondent for FOX News Channel and a New York Times bestselling author. His newest book, “Living the Truth: Transform Your Life through the Power of Insight and Honesty” has launched a new self-help movement. Check out Dr. Ablow’s website at livingthetruth.com or e-mail him at info@keithablow.com.

Matthew Blackwell’s heart is being held together by the tissues of a pig and a cow.

In the three years Matthew has been alive, he has been through two open heart surgeries, one of them the Norwood/Rastelli procedure, which has only been performed a few times in the world; it is being reported by stuff.co.nz.

Soon after his birth, Matthew’s parents were told he had a congenital heart defect, but doctors wanted to try the risky, eight-hour surgery. (Continue)

Pfizer Inc.’s once promising anti-smoking drug Chantix received another blow Wednesday after a nonprofit group’s report about serious physical side effects prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to ban the drug’s use by pilots and air traffic controllers.

The report, from the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, points out hundreds of serious problems reported since the popular drug was approved in May 2006, including vision and heart problems, dizziness, loss of consciousness, seizures, and abnormal spasms and movements.

A 16-year-old Canadian girl has died after a virus that started out as the “stomach flu” invaded her heart, Montreal-based newspaper The Gazette is reporting.

Karèle Galaise-Séguin, 16, of Granby, Quebec, died Friday night at the Montreal Children’s Hospital after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage.

Eighteen-year-old Leanne Nicholson is recovering from her second heart transplant in six years.   The teen from England told London’s Daily Mail that there is a million-to-one chance of getting a second heart transplant. 

Nicholson was healthy until the age of 12 when a virus attacked the muscle tissue of her heart. She was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, an enlargement of the heart tissue.

Doctors said her heart was so damaged it was as if she had suffered three major heart attacks – the upper two chambers of her heart were not functioning at all and the lower two were barely beating.

She was immediately put on life support, but a donor was found quickly.

However, within 14 months, Nicholson’s body began to reject the heart and she felt ill again.

Doctors told her she would need another new heart.