Can eating chili peppers often help you live longer? A meta-analysis of 570,000 people in four countries including China and the United States

In recent years, many studies have shown that chili peppers have many benefits to the body, such as preventing obesity and high blood pressure, reducing the risk of diabetes, and prolonging life.

On December 8, a systematic review and meta-analysis published in the American Journal of Preventive Cardiology further confirmed that regularly eating chili peppers can significantly reduce the risk of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, and cancer mortality.

The analysis showed that compared with people who rarely or never eat chili peppers, people who regularly eat chili peppers have a 13%, 17%, and 8% lower risk of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, and cancer mortality, respectively.

However, the researchers pointed out that there were large differences in the way and amount of chili peppers consumed in various studies. Therefore, based on the current literature, it is difficult to recommend the best way and amount of chili peppers consumed.

The authors pointed out that the potential mechanisms by which chili peppers reduce the risk of death include: anti-inflammatory effects, antioxidant effects, antibacterial effects, weight loss, and blood pressure regulation.

Capsaicin in chili peppers may be an important component of the health benefits, and the amount of capsaicin in chili peppers is related to the extent of the benefits. The content of capsaicin in chili peppers is higher than that in bell peppers, so the benefits are greater.

The researchers searched for relevant observational studies and randomized controlled studies included from the establishment of the database to January 16, 2020 in databases such as Ovid, Cochrane, Medline, EMBASE, and Scopus. Finally, 4 studies were selected from 4,729 studies for meta-analysis, involving China, Iran, Italy, and the United States. A total of 570,762 adults aged 18 to 79 were included, of which 45.4% frequently ate chili peppers.

The peppers involved in this study include red peppers, black peppers, fresh peppers, pepper sauce or pepper oil; the frequency of eating peppers includes at least once a week, 2 to 4 times or more a week, and at least once a month.

Source: China Circulation Magazine