If you paid… you could have the scoop on the research project. hint hint.

Heh. I could say that we’re so poor that we can’t even pay attention…LOL! Maybe the next time you need surgery for something, I can do the anesthesia for nothing. That oughta be worth something, right?

Oh yeah…you have socialized medicine. Nevermind.

You guys get my “Naga Saga” and “In search of Fair Trade”… If you paid… you could have the scoop on the research project. hint hint.

T

On a side note, your research project sounds like a GREAT post for the readers here. Keep us updated on that, Tina!

Joe & Linda, you are so right about people “likely working on this” I am doing a massive research project with one Dr. Fiore Lalla and as part of that project had the opportunity to interview Dr. Spiro Antoniades (you spelled his name wrong) on Friday. Nice guy, great sense of humour.

Even so, as I posted to Dr. Gupta, no less than three major Universities that I personally am aware of, have studied this and studies continue to be done.

Now if only the EPA would get off it’s arse and start considering chili peppers we could see fewer pesticides in the ones that are being sold at market.

T

Your long-winded post does hit the high points, being:

1. Don’t post suppositions about something and call it medical science.

2. If you want to call your points medical science, be prepared to back them up with data…or be told to shut the hell up.

3. Don’t be so cavalier about something that could cost people, both financially or otherwise, when you don’t have the facts.

The truth is out there somewhere about this, and people are likely working on it. Just don’t ask Dr. Gupta about it….

He (or whomever posts on his blog) just doesn’t know.

Most of the responses on that blog were pretty unintelligent, however, and very few to the point.

One thing I’d like to note is that Dr. Gupta didn’t post that entry. His blog was used, and therefore he should follow up on these things, but a non-doctor made the post, which could be the cause of it being inaccurate and inflammatory.

I think it’s more of a disclaimer than anything else, as posting a blog encouraging people to use hot sauce as a weight loss tool will invariably bring out the handful of fools who chug it until something really bad happens and then try to sue CNN.

The way it’s worded as practically factual in the same paragraph stating research is “in the early stages” leaves a statement such as “long term use can cause liver or kidney damage” looking a bit ridiculous.
How have we made the determination that liver or kidney damage can result from long term ingestion of products containing capsaicin? Are we only studying people who have lived generally healthy lives, but ingest capsaicin regularly and many of them are suffering from renal failure that is not likely to come from any other source?
I think others would agree that there are many chile pepper afficionados that have died in car accidents over the years. Are we to conclude that capsaicin can impair your ability to drive a motor vehicle?
I think it more likely that a person who has habits of excess is more likely to have several other more credible causes for liver or kidney damage, no? Are we even talking about hot sauces at this point? Or are we onto capsaicin itself in the form of supplements? If so, how long has the capsaicin suppliment been around in order to allow for long term usage.
What does ‘long-term use’ mean? They aren’t saying long term abuse or excess. The statement seems to imply the ingestion of any level of capsaicin in a regular manner through the course of a person’s lifetime will prove deadly. That’s some pretty heavy phrasing.
It’s well-known that chile peppers have the “ability to kill parasites in the gastro-intestinal tract”. I am imagining that anyone but a complete dolt could surmise that the unexpected mass extermination of a tract full of parasites could maybe cause a disruption in the system, just as antibiotics have a similar effect on the GI system. Maybe I’m wrong. It is, however, something one might consider prior to posting on a medical blog that a popular food item could be a deadly toxin. Or maybe not.
Quite possibly, Val Wadas-Willingham has no qualms about causing potentially major trauma to the all of the businesses who rely on the peppers indicted in her flagrant denouncement framed as a friendly warning.
I don’t see why any American business person would feel the need to bring a lawsuit against CNN just because unfounded and unsupported suppositions could cost them their livelihood, so I’m sure that helps to explain why Val was so cavalier in her treatment of the subject.

As for the other effects, it’s pretty clear that he was just making stuff up.