Chili peppers and marijuana calm the gut, study suggests

[Purple Power]

Chili peppers and marijuana calm the gut, study suggests



The active ingredients in both hot peppers and cannabis calm the gut's immune system



Date: April 24, 2017



Source: University of Connecticut



Summary: You wouldn't think chili peppers and marijuana have much in common. But when eaten, both interact with the same receptor in our stomachs, according to a new paper. The research could lead to new therapies for diabetes and colitis, and opens up intriguing questions about the relationship between the immune system, the gut and the brain













<a data-ipb="nomediaparse" href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170424152537.htm">https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170424152537.htm</a>

[Purple Power]

How hot peppers and marijuana could help cure gut problems


Just don't try to fix your colitis with Sriracha



4/26/17


<span>By <a class="" href="http://www.popsci.com/authors/kendra-pierre-louis">Kendra Pierre-Louis</a> </span>





Your gut is something of an <a class="" href="http://www.popsci.com/tags/immune-cells">immunological</a> mystery.





Unlike the rest of the body, which tends to treat foreign invaders with a singular purposeseek and destroythe stomach cannot afford to be so indiscriminate. It exists to help fuel the body, and that means routinely welcoming foreign bodies in the form food.



If we injected ourselves with the food that we eat, we would have a massive immune response, said Pramod Srivastava, an immunologist at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine.



When our guts immune system starts acting more like that of the rest of the body, the gut gets inflamed and starts attacking its own cells. The end result is illness. Diseases like <a class="" href="http://www.popsci.com/tags/celiac-disease">celiac</a> (an autoimmune reaction to gluten) and ulcerative colitis (one of two types of Inflammatory Bowel Disease, the other being Crohns) occur when the guts immune system starts treating food, and our own body, like an interloper. These conditions often leaves sufferers in tremendous pain and at an increased risk of both malnutrition and colon cancer. But if researchers could figure out how to calm down that immunological response, it might be possible to create a treatment.....





<a data-ipb="nomediaparse" href="http://www.popsci.com/peppers-marijuana-gut?dom=rss-default&src=syn">http://www.popsci.com/peppers-marijuana-gut?dom=rss-default&src=syn</a>

[EDDIEKIRK]

I like a nice hot pepper. Not too hot though, Those yellow ones in the jar you buy here in town; I can eat a lot of those.