This is How To Heal Gum Disease In a Week (Or Less!)

Gingivitis is the mildest form of periodontal disease. Untreated gingivitis can advance to periodontitis, to which there are many degrees. Aggressive periodontitis occurs with people who have gum disease but seem to be otherwise healthy or at least have no other disease that conventional medicine has deemed a cause of periodontitis. Chronic periodontitis includes inflammation within the supporting tissues of the teeth and bone loss. Necrotizing periodontal disease is a severe infection in the gingival tissues, periodontal ligament, and the bone. And then there’s Periodontitis as a manifestation of other disease(s).

In all other cases of gum disease, the gums can be healed within a week, and usually within just a few days. With a case of another disease causing the periodontitis, the disease itself likely needs to be remedied to fix the gums, but the mouth can at least be brought to a much higher level of health with the following practices, regardless of other chronic health conditions. For anyone with teeth that have suffered root canals or that have metal fillings, the following procedures should be followed indefinitely.

Teeth take longer, but the same rules apply. As long as they are there and aren’t completely full of filling material, there’s hope for teeth, even those with visible cavities and depleted enamel.

It starts with diet. Eat acidic, nutrient robbing junk, and your teeth and guns will rot. Get the right nutrition while you fix your gums, and ideally, you will keep your gums and the rest of your body healthy with nutrition from that point on.

Raw, organic, fresh vegetables are the most important part of our diet. Fruit is a close second. Every other type of food is a distant third. Eliminate refined, processed foods. Refined sugar, like soda for instance, is so acidic it literally leaches minerals and vitamins from your teeth and gums as it passes through. So does white rice and most breads.

Don’t smoke. Even smoking marijuana is terrible for the gums and teeth. It introduces a huge concentration of free radicals and carbon into the mouth that causes chemical reactions, rendering our cells damaged and depleting the mouth of vitamins and minerals.

Chew on garlic. It sucks, but it’s worth it. Chew on garlic regularly, and eat garlic with salads (eats lots of vegetables; make lots of very diverse salads). When you chew on garlic, chew with your mouth open, and breathe through your mouth.

Fix the intestines. Whatever infection is in your mouth, it’s in your intestines, too, and it’s seeping into your blood stream as well. Fix the intestines and typically, the whole body follows suit.

Take up oil pulling. Try coconut oil with a touch of Shillington’s formula (see below) or a microbe killing essential oil.

Floss. Even when it makes the gums bleed, it’s important to floss and floss properly; it speeds healing of the gums and prevents cavities at the gum line as well.

Wherever there is infection, there are almost always candida and bad bacteria (bad meaning it’s harming us, but all bacteria has its place). Often there are other parasites to be aware of, but not always, and that’s another article (see the further reading below).

Make your own toothpaste!

The mouthwash and toothpaste most people use is crap. This includes the most of the overpriced brands in the natural section at the local health food store. Chewing on garlic and brushing with baking soda and unrefined sea salt does more for teeth than any store bought toothpaste. 

From Natural Cures not Medicine

Squats: 8 Reasons to Do This Misunderstood Exercise

Story at-a-glance

• Squats are mostly known as a leg exercise, but they promote body-wide muscle building by catalyzing an anabolic environment
• Squats are also one of the best functional exercises out there, promoting mobility and balance and helping you complete real-world activities with ease
• Squats also help you to burn more fat, as one of the most time-efficient ways to burn more calories continually is by developing more muscle
• Squats have long been criticized for being destructive to your knees, but research shows that when done properly, squats actually improve knee stability and strengthen connective tissue
• Squats are one type of exercise that should be a part of virtually everyone’s fitness routine, as they provide whole-body benefits

If you're looking for a powerful way to boost your overall fitness and get some serious results -- fast -- from your workout routine, look no further than performing squatting exercises.

This is one exercise that should be a part of virtually everyone's routine, as it's relatively simple to perform, requires no equipment, and can be done just about anywhere.

More importantly, although squats are often regarded as "leg" exercises, they actually offer benefits throughout your entire body, including deep within your core…

The Top 8 Benefits of Squats

Most of you know that I'm an avid exerciser, and an avid exercise proponent.

If you haven't yet started a regular exercise routine, you can find tips for doing so here.

Suffice it to say, a varied workout routine of appropriate intensity is one of the smartest health moves you can make, and adding squats to your routine is a must.

What makes squats such a fantastic exercise?

1. Builds Muscle in Your Entire Body
   Squats obviously help to build your leg muscles (including your quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves), but they also create an anabolic environment, which promotes body-wide muscle building.
   In fact, when done properly, squats are so intense that they trigger the release of testosterone and human growth hormone in your body, which are vital for muscle growth and will also help to improve muscle mass when you train other areas of your body aside from your legs.
   So squats can actually help you improve both your upper and lower body strength.
2. Functional Exercise Makes Real-Life Activities Easier
   Functional exercises are those that help your body to perform real-life activities, as opposed to simply being able to operate pieces of gym equipment. Squats are one of the best functional exercises out there, as humans have been squatting since the hunter-gatherer days. When you perform squats, you build muscle and help your muscles work more efficiently, as well as promote mobility and balance. All of these benefits translate into your body moving more efficiently in the real world too.
3. Burn More Fat
   One of the most time-efficient ways to burn more calories is actually to gain more muscle! For every pound of additional muscle you gain, your body will burn an additional 50-70 calories per day. So, if you gain 10 pounds of muscle, you will automatically burn 500-700 more calories per day than you did before.
4. Maintain Mobility and Balance
   Strong legs are crucial for staying mobile as you get older, and squats are phenomenal for increasing leg strength. They also work out your core, stabilizing muscles, which will help you to maintain balance, while also improving the communication between your brain and your muscle groups, which helps prevent falls – which is incidentally the #1 way to prevent bone fractures versus consuming mega-dose calcium supplements and bone drugs.
5. Prevent Injuries
   Most athletic injuries involve weak stabilizer muscles, ligaments and connective tissues, which squats help strengthen. They also help prevent injury by improving your flexibility (squats improve the range of motion in your ankles and hips) and balance, as noted above.
6. Boost Your Sports Performance -- Jump Higher and Run Faster
   Whether you're a weekend warrior or a mom who chases after a toddler, you'll be interested to know that studies have linked squatting strength with athletic ability. Specifically, squatting helped athletes run faster and jump higher, which is why this exercise is part of virtually every professional athlete's training program.
7. Tone Your Backside, Abs and Entire Body
   Few exercises work as many muscles as the squat, so it's an excellent multi-purpose activity useful for toning and tightening your behind, abs, and, of course, your legs. Furthermore, squats build your muscles, and these muscles participate in the regulation of glucose and lipid metabolism and insulin sensitivity, helping to protect you against obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
8. Help with Waste Removal
   Squats improve the pumping of body fluids, aiding in removal of waste and delivery of nutrition to all tissues, including organs and glands. They're also useful for improved movement of feces through your colon and more regular bowel movements.

What's the Proper Way to Perform a Squat?

Squats have long been criticized for being destructive to your knees, but research shows that when done properly, squats actually improve knee stability and strengthen connective tissue. How to make squats:

1. Warm up
2. Stand with your feet just over shoulder width apart
3. Keep your back in a neutral position, and keep your knees centered over your feet
4. Slowly bend your knees, hips and ankles, lowering until you reach a 90-degree angle
5. Return to starting position -- repeat 15-20 times, for 2-3 sets for beginners (do this two or three times a week)
6. Breathe in as you lower, breathe out as you return to starting position

Adding Squats to Your Comprehensive Fitness Routine

Exercise is a key player in disease reduction, optimal mental, emotional and physical health, and longevity. It's really a phenomenal way to get the most out of your life! After reviewing 40 papers published between 2006 and 2010, researchers found that exercise reduces the risk of about two dozen health conditions, ranging from cancer and heart disease to type 2 diabetes, stroke, dementia and depression. Exercise also slows down the rate of aging itself, even stimulating the regeneration of the energy-producing mitochondria in your cells, providing perhaps the closest example of a real life fountain of youth as we will ever find.

As with most things in life, a balanced routine works best, so you'll want to avoid placing too much emphasis on cardio, strength training or any one type of activity. Many public health guidelines still focus primarily on the aerobic component of exercise, but this limited activity can lead to imbalances that may actually prevent optimal health.

This is why it's so important to maintain a well-balanced fitness regimen that includes not just aerobics, but also strength training, stretching, and high-intensity interval training like Peak Fitness. For instance, Darin recommends beginners do 2-3 sets of squats just two or three times a week -- do it more than this and you will miss out on important recovery time. As always, as you develop a workout routine that works for you, remember to listen to your body so it can guide you into a path that will provide you with the most efficient and effective benefits.

Written by Dr. Mercola

What Are Pears Good For?

Applauding Pears

Botanical name: Pyrus communis

While there are nearly 4,000 recorded types of pear trees, the majority are strictly ornamental, leaving only 30 or so as edible. From the Rosacea family, which includes many other fruits (some which seem completely unlike pears) such as cherries, raspberries, and even almonds, edible pears come in two basic varieties: Asian and European. Asian varieties generally offer a firm, crisp texture, while the European type becomes soft and juicy when allowed to ripen.

From the stem down, most pears are narrower at the top than at the bottom. The color can range from yellow to red to rust.

While one of the most satisfying aspects of eating a pear is the lusciously sweet flavor, there's also the curiously grainy texture that helps make this fruit so distinctive. While this may make it more difficult to determine maturity, you'll know your pears are ripe and ready to eat when they give in to slight thumb pressure. To slow the ripening process and preserve the optimal nutrients, pears can be refrigerated for a few days.

Whatever type you use, pears are excellent for snacking, adding to garden salads, mixing with other fruits such as pineapples, peaches, or mangoes for a fruit salad. Overripe pears can be used in cooking and baking.

Health Benefits of Pears

While pears can't boast of any impressive amount of any one nutrient, they do contain a wide array of both vitamins and minerals. In minerals, pears contain good amounts of copper, iron, potassium, manganese, and magnesium , along with B-vitamins like folates, riboflavin, and pyridoxine (vitamin B6). This translates to lowered incidences of painful colitis, arthritis, gallbladder disorders, and gout.

Pears contain 12 percent and 10 percent of the daily value, respectively, in vitamin C, good for fighting infection throughout the body, and vitamin K, for building and maintaining bone strength.

What pears don't have is almost as important: They're completely fat-free, but the fiber content eclipses all of this fruit's other attributes with 22 percent of the daily recommended value. Added to this is that as a nutrient-dense food, eating a pear is a great option when you're looking for a way to limit your fat and calorie intake – a good way to make you feel fuller longer, which helps you watch your weight.

The hydroxycinnamic and hydroxybenzoic acid content in pears is linked with stomach and lung cancer prevention. Boron, another ingredient, is needed to not only bolster the calcium in our bodies, but also to help prevent osteoporosis. Flavonols such as quercetin, and carotenoids like lutein and zeaxanthin, together provide additional health benefits like lowered cancer, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease risks.

As good as pears are for you, the peeling is even better with nearly quadruple the phytonutrients, including beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin. Along with vitamin C and A, these compounds help keep the body protected from harmful free radicals.

The gritty texture you get in your mouth when you take a bite? It grabs on to cancer-causing toxins and chemicals in your colon, essentially scouring them from your gut as they pass through, making for a pretty efficient way to dispose of them. Loaded with free radical-neutralizing antioxidants, pears are also high on the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) list – green pears with 2,201 and red Anjou pears with 1,746.

However, consume pears in moderation because they contain fructose, which may be harmful to your health in excessive amounts.

Pears Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: 1 medium pear (178 grams)
Amt. Per Serving
Calories	125
Carbohydrates	28 g
Sugar	17 g
Protein	6 g
Protein	1 g

Studies on Pears

Research has determined that it's the variety of pear rather than its maturity that determines the phenolic strength. The caffeic acid derivatives catechin, epicatechin, and quercetin were the most prominent.

Eating more anthocyanin-rich fruits – specifically pears – was found to be significantly associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes.

Death from head and neck cancers (cancers of the mouth, pharynx, and larynx) is number six on the scale of highest cancer mortality rate worldwide, which exceeds 350,000 deaths annually. One study supported the premise that eating fruits and vegetables is linked to a reduced risk of these types of cancers.

Pear Healthy Recipes: Arugula and Pear Salad

Ingredients: 

• 1/2 cup walnut halves
• 5 to 6 cups arugula, cleaned and dried
• 1 Bosc or Anjou pear, thinly sliced
• 1 lemon
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 8 ounces Gorgonzola (get a piece that will crumble easily for you) or blue cheese crumbles

Procedure:

1. Toast nuts in small pan over medium heat until fragrant. Cool.
2. Combine arugula and pear in a salad bowl, add nuts then dress the salad with lemon juice and olive oil, salt and pepper. Top salad with lots of blue cheese crumbles.

This recipe makes four servings.

(From FoodNetwork.com)

Pears Fun Facts

The first mention of pears is pinpointed to Southeast Asian regions. They were first cultivated in Europe around 1000 B.C. Asian pears were cultivated in China as early as 1134 B.C. From these, European pears were developed in around 1,000 B.C. North American pear trees weren't planted until 1620 in the Massachusetts Bay colony.

Summary

Of the 4,000 pear tree varieties, only 30 are edible. Of those are two types, the firmer, crispier Asian pear and the juicier European cultivars, both provide a wide array of vitamins, minerals such as copper, iron, potassium, manganese and magnesium, several B vitamins, healthy acids and powerful polyphenols, as well as the vitamins C, A, and K.

The health benefits of pears include the ability for your body to fight infection, diabetes, cancer, colitis, arthritis, osteoporosis, gallbladder disorders, and gout. Pears are exceptionally high in fiber, which keeps your system regulated.

With all this going for them, it's no surprise that Homer's Odyssey referred to pears as a "gift from the gods."

Written by Dr. Mercola

Don't Blame Big Food For Our Health Problems, Just Stop Buying Crap

The obesity epidemic is so profound that over 65% of Americans now range from overweight to morbidly obese. As a result, weight problems threaten to overtake tobacco as the number one preventable cause of death and chronic disease. One common response to this epidemic has been to reflexively point fingers at the food industry for producing unhealthy foods in the first place.

The argument goes that the food industry is much more concerned with profits than people. As a result they load our foods with high-fructose corn syrup (which may contribute to obesity), hydrogenated oil (which may contribute to heart disease), nitrates and other preservatives (which may contribute to cancer and stroke), and synthetic colors, fat, and sweeteners.

This portrayal casts the food industry as a dietary Darth Vader that targets children with sly cartoon advertising, lures dieters in with low fat labels on high sugar products, and promotes “all natural” products loaded with excessive amounts of sodium.

While the facts are all true, the caricature is just not.

Our confusion centers around the thinking that food companies are moral entities who have some civic responsibility to better the common good. They’re not, and they don’t.

A better way to think about a food manufacturer is as any animal in nature. Like any animal, in order to survive it must consume and keep consuming. That kind of drive to survive doesn’t make them bad or wrong, it makes them successful. If you know sharks are swimming in the water and you jump right on in without protection, we can’t blame sharks for doing what successful sharks do.

In the same way, we can’t blame food manufacturers for positioning sugary breakfast cereals on the bottom shelf so kids can better see the cartoon advertisements; nor because they lace their products with the preservatives that extend the shelf life. It is the very nature of this beast for it to act in this way. We can’t blame companies for doing what successful companies do.

By the way, even though their prey is us and the market share we represent, their success at it makes us very happy when we look at our 401(k)s.

Now, do food companies have to follow food safety laws? Of course. Can they promote products with blatant falsehoods? Of course not. But between those two extremes is an ocean of marketing potential for them to hunt you in.

If we want to assign blame for the unhealthy products that fill our shelves, we might start closer to home. Our gripe is that we only buy bad products because they fill the shelves. But the opposite turns out to be the truth. Food products with excess sugar, salt, preservatives only exist there for one simple reason: because we buy them. If we didn’t, there would be no market for them, and the manufacturer would stop producing them.

The perfect case in point is the recent push by many major food and beverage companies, like Pepsi, to eliminate high-fructose corn syrup from some of their products. It wasn’t removed because the manufacturer “did the right thing” for our obesity epidemic. It’s gone because people stopped buying them. The same thing happened with low-carb food products. Right after they stopped being purchased, they stopped being manufactured. The food industry groused, but changed their products nonetheless.

The bottom line is that there’s bad news and there’s good news. The bad news is that the unhealthy food supply we complain about is ultimately our responsibility. The good news that we can vastly improve those choices with just a little twist on the words of Gandhi: be the change you want to see in the grocery store.

Written by Dr. Will Clower

3 Reasons You Should Eat More Spicy Food

Story at-a-glance

• The spicy chemical in peppers – capsaicin – and other compounds in spicy food can improve your health
• Capsaicin has been shown to activate cell receptors in your intestinal lining, creating a reaction that lowers the risk of tumors
• The spices ginseng and saffron have been found to boost sexual performance
• Capsaicin may help fight obesity by decreasing calorie intake, shrinking fat tissue, and lowering blood fat levels, as well as fight fat buildup by triggering beneficial protein changes in your body
• More than half of Americans (54 percent) find hot or spicy foods appealing

I love spicy foods and typically enjoy 1-2 habanero peppers a day. If you like spicy food, there’s good reason to indulge your cravings, as the spicy chemical in peppers – capsaicin – and other compounds in spicy food can improve your health.

Chili peppers, one of the main sources of capsaicin, are regarded as a staple in Central America, Asia, and India, but even in the US there are many devotees to spicy food whose mantra is “the spicier the better.”

One recent food industry report found that more than half of Americans (54 percent) find hot or spicy foods appealing, up from 46 percent in 2009. Those between the ages of 18 and 34 are most likely to order spicy foods from a restaurant menu.

Interestingly, the heat and pain you experience when you eat chili pepper seeds is designed to make you not want to eat them (hence protecting the plants’ ability to spread seeds and survive).

And it’s believed that humans are, in fact, the only animal that chooses to willingly eat them. Perhaps, on some level, our bodies have learned to tolerate and even crave chili peppers’ heat because of their many proven benefits to our health.

3 Health Benefits of Spicy Foods

TIME magazine recently featured three of the many reasons why you might want to add some spice to your diet.

1. Reduce Your Risk of Tumors

Capsaicin has been shown to activate cell receptors in your intestinal lining, creating a reaction that lowers the risk of tumors. Mice genetically prone to develop tumors had reduced tumors and extended lifespans when fed capsaicin, and the researchers believe the compound may turn off an over-reactive receptor that could trigger tumor growth.

Capsaicin has both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and has even shown some promise for cancer treatment. Research has shown, for instance, that capsaicin suppresses the growth of human prostate cancer cells while leaving normal cells unharmed.

In one study, about 80 percent of the prostate cancer cells in mice were killed by capsaicin, while treated tumors shrank to about one-fifth the size of untreated tumors.

Capsaicin has also been shown to be effective against breast, pancreatic, and bladder cancer cells, although you might need to eat unrealistically large amounts of capsaicin to get such benefits (such as eight habanero peppers a week).

2. Improve Your Sex Life 

In this case, it’s not the spice from chili peppers but that from ginseng and saffron that showed benefit. In a review of purported aphrodisiacs, both ginseng and saffron were found to boost sexual performance.

3. Help with Weight Loss 

Spicy foods increase satiety, helping you to feel full while eating less, and hot peppers may even help your body to burn more calories. Capsaicin has actually been used to selectively destroy nerve fibers that transmit information from your gut to your brain. 

This procedure was said to have a "remarkable" impact on weight, but destroying these nerve fibers could have serious long-term implications on your health. Fortunately, capsaicin may be effective for weight loss whenadded to your diet, as opposed to via surgery. 

Studies have shown the substance may help fight obesity by decreasing calorie intake, shrinking fat tissue, and lowering blood fat levels, as well as fight fat buildup by triggering beneficial protein changes in your body. 

Part of the benefit may be due to capsaicin's heat potential, as it is a thermogenic substance that may temporarily increase thermogenesis in your body, where your body burns fuel such as fat to create heat, with beneficial impacts on your metabolism and fat-burning potential. 

Research suggests that consuming thermogenic ingredients may boost your metabolism by up to 5 percent, and increase fat burning by up to 16 percent. It may even help counteract the decrease in metabolic rate that often occurs during weight loss.

Capsaicin’s Remarkable Role in Pain Relief

While eating spicy foods may cause you some temporary pain, applying capsaicin topically is known to alleviate it. Capsaicin helps alleviate pain in part by depleting your body's supply of substance P, a chemical component of nerve cells that transmits pain signals to your brain. It also works by de-sensitizing sensory receptors in your skin.

This is why it’s used in topical pain-relieving creams and patches (some of which contain the equivalent of 10 million SHU). It’s actually the very intense burning sensation that, ironically, ultimately relieves pain. Gizmodo explained:

“Applied externally, chilies cause a sensation of burning, as capsaicin activates TRPV1 in nerves in the skin. But, if exposed to capsaicin for long enough, these pain nerve cells will become 'exhausted,' having depleted their internal chemical stores.

The nerve cells are no longer able to respond to capsaicin (or indeed, anything that might cause pain) and so you are no longer able to perceive pain. This is why chronic exposure to capsaicin acts as an analgesic.”

Most often, capsaicin has been studied for relieving postherpetic neuralgia, or pain associated with shingles, and HIV-associated neuropathy, although it’s shown promise for treating other types of pain as well.

In one study, a man with persistent pain due to wounds from a bomb explosion experienced an 80 percent reduction in pain symptoms after using a capsaicin (8 percent, known as high concentration) patch. 

Topical treatment with 0.025 percent (low concentration) capsaicin cream has also been found to relieve pain associated with osteoarthritis, with 80 percent of patients experiencing a reduction in pain after two weeks of four-times-daily treatment.

It’s also been shown to help reduce or eliminate burning, stinging, itching, and redness of skin associated with moderate to severe psoriasis. There’s even a nasal spray containing capsaicin that significantly reduced nasal allergy symptoms in a 2009 study.

Virtually Every Spice Can Be Good for You

While capsaicin in chili peppers has received a lot of attention, it’s not the only type of spicy food that’s beneficial. Here are some additional examples of spices you can add to your meals to give them a bit of a “kick” while also significantly increasing their health potential.

Ginseng 

Ginseng is valued for its ability to boost energy levels and speed metabolism. Panax ginseng, in particular, has been linked to weight loss benefits, with one study showing obese, diabetic mice given panax ginseng extracts not only had improvements in insulin sensitivity, but also lost a significant amount of weight after 12 days.

Cinnamon 

This spice may help to boost your metabolism, and it also has impressive benefits for blood sugar regulation, making it an ideal seasoning for people with diabetes or pre-diabetes. Cinnamon has been found to significantly reduce blood sugar levels, triglycerides, LDL (bad) cholesterol, and total cholesterol levels in people with type 2 diabetes, as well as increase glucose metabolism by about 20 times, which would significantly improve your ability to regulate blood sugar.

Black Pepper 

Black pepper contains a substance called piperine, which not only gives it its pungent flavor, but also blocks the formation of new fat cells. When combined with capsaicin and other substances, black pepper was also found to burn as many calories as taking a 20-minute walk. As an aside, black pepper also increases the bioavailability of just about all other foods – herbs and other compounds – making it a healthy choice for virtually any meal.

Mustard 

The mustard plant is actually in the cruciferous family of vegetables (along with broccoli, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts, for instance). Mustard seeds have been shown to boost metabolic rate by 25 percent, which means you'll burn calories more efficiently. In fact, just 3/5 teaspoon of mustard seeds daily may help you burn an extra 45 calories an hour.

Ginger 

Ginger is another warming spice that has anti-inflammatory properties and is known to help soothe and relax your intestinal tract. Research also suggests that ginger may have thermogenic properties that help boost your metabolism, as well as have an appetite-suppressant effect when consumed, suggesting a "potential role of ginger in weight management."

Cardamom 

Cardamom, an aromatic spice with a spicy-sweet flavor, is another thermogenic herb that helps boost your metabolism and may boost your body's ability to burn fat. Cardamom is a popular herb used in Ayurveda, an ancient holistic system of medicine and natural healing from India.

When NOT to Eat Spicy Foods

If spicy foods agree with you and you enjoy them, they’re excellent to include in your diet, but you might want to limit them in the evening. Spicy foods before bedtime can give you indigestion that makes it nearly impossible to get a good night’s sleep. Even if you can eat spicy foods without discomfort, they are still linked with more time spent awake during the night and taking longer to fall asleep. It’s speculated that this may be due to capsaicin affecting sleep via changes in your body temperature.

Spicy Food Actually Tricks You Into Feeling Heat

When you eat a spicy food, it’s not actually hot… it’s just a heat sensation that you’re feeling (not that this makes it any less real to you!). Your nervous system contains heat-receptor proteins known as TRPV1 receptors. Located in cells in your skin and digestive system, these receptors remain inactive unless you’re exposed to temperatures above 107.6°F (42°C), at which point you’ll experience heat and pain. When you eat a chili pepper, capsaicin binds to and activates TRPV1, so even though you’re not actually in danger, your body thinks it’s being exposed to extreme heat. As explained by the New York Times:

“…in mammals it [capsaicin] stimulates the very same pain receptors that respond to actual heat. Chili pungency is not technically a taste; it is the sensation of burning, mediated by the same mechanism that would let you know that someone had set your tongue on fire.”

The intensity of heat in peppers is measured by the Scoville scale, which was developed by pharmacist Wilbur Lincoln Scoville in 1912. While a bell (sweet) pepper has a score of zero, pure capsaicin can surpass 15 million Scoville Heat Units (SHU)! For comparison, jalapeno peppers range from 2,500 to 8,000 SHU while Scotch Bonnet peppers can be upwards of 350,000. Ghost chilis, which are even hotter, have a potency of about 900,000 SHU. Personally, I’m a fan of spicy foods… but having grown three ghost pepper plants this past summer, I can confirm that they are indeed very hot.

Written by Dr. Mercola