Do you love spicy foods?
If so, you’re probably not happy until your mouth is on fire and your eyes are watering.
Even if you don't like spicy foods, what I am about to tell you might make you learn to love cayenne peppers. The good news is you don't necessarily have to eat cayenne to feel the benefits!
Although cayenne pepper doesn’t rank among the hottest peppers, it comes in at 30,000 to 50,000 on the Scoville scale of heat units.
When you compare them with jalapeno peppers that register just 2,500 to 8,000 units this makes cayenne peppers pretty hot!
But since this is an article about the health benefits of cayenne peppers, you might be wondering, “How can something so hot actually promote health?”
As with so many natural remedies, cayenne pepper has been used for millennia as an effective herbal treatment for a whole host of ailments.
Various peoples from all over the world, including Native Americans, have cultivated cayenne peppers as both food and medicine.
Diluted and mixed with a mild skin cream cayenne powder offers relief from
1. Osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and joint or muscle pain
2. Nerve pain due to shingles or neuropathy
3. Pain control following an amputation or mastectomy
4. Lower back pain
5. Psoriasis
Internally, cayenne pepper has the ability to:
- Improve circulation
- Boost the immune system
- Aid digestion by stimulating gastric juices
- Treat ulcers
- Relieve migraines and cluster headaches
- Treat seasickness
- Remedy malaria
- Calm toothaches
- Kill parasites
- Treat the common cold
The secret ingredient in cayenne pepper
One of the mysteries behind cayenne pepper’s therapeutic properties is capsaicin (cap-say-ah-sin).
Capsaicin is what makes the pepper hot and provide it with its powerful pain-relieving properties.
But be careful not to get cayenne pepper in your eyes, open wounds, or mucus membranes as it can cause some serious burning! (Little wonder that capsaicin is a common ingredient in pepper spray!)
Also, apply cayenne infrequently and in very small quantities. Too much use could cause nerve damage.
In addition to capsaicin, these fiery little herbs are also loaded with vitamins A, B-complex, C, E, and K.
Cayenne peppers are also hot on minerals including: potassium, iron, copper, manganese, zinc, sodium, phosphorus, selenium, and magnesium.
All these wonderful ingredients render cayenne peppers:
- Anti-bacterial
- Anti-carcinogenic
- Analgesic
- Anti-fungal
- Anti-diabetic
It’s hard to believe that one red-hot cayenne pepper can pack so much punch!
You can buy and apply cayenne pepper fresh, dried, powdered, or in capsule form. Because it’s so hot and so powerful, please follow the recommended guidelines and use with care.
Cayenne may aggravate acid-reflux and the gastro-intestinal tract in some people, so know your body.
Next time you get the sniffles; make yourself a ginger tea, add a teaspoon of lemon, a teaspoon of honey and a dash of cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper will do wonders at opening up your sinuses!
Oh, and by the way, cayenne pepper is also great in food! Sprinkle a dash in your hot chocolate sometime to give it some zing!
Yours in health,
Danette
P.S. Please share this with your loved ones and I welcome your comments below.
