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Article: How hot peppers and marijuana could help cure gut problems

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 4/26/2017 6:46 PM (GMT -6)
Article: How hot peppers and marijuana could help cure gut problems
www.popsci.com/peppers-marijuana-gut

Srivastava’s recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests we may be one step closer to finding a cure. He found that anandamide, a chemical that the body makes naturally and that is very similar to chemicals found in marijuana, helps calm down the immune system—at least in the guts of mice. If his studies hold up in humans, he says it could eventually lead to a cure for ulcerative colitis.
Posted 4/26/2017 8:17 PM (GMT -6)
can I go back to eating spicy foods now? That would be great!

Oh boo, never mind, just finished the article and it says no.
Posted 4/26/2017 9:11 PM (GMT -6)
I'll do some personal research...on peppers...cuz pot's not legal in FL.
Hot peppers in moderation cause no problems for me and Thai food makes my gut happy happy.

I grow birds eye peppers (pretty hot) and habanero (very hot) and just started seeds for a couple other hotties. Just discovered that chipotle peppers are jalapeño's that have been smoked/dried.
I believe peppers have been used historically to make food safer, less bacteria, in olden times of no cold storage. So makes sense they could regulate gut.

One worrisome fact is that there may be a correlation of ethnic cultures that use capsaicin regularly in their diet and stomach and liver cancer. Correlation is not cause but don't overdo pepper intake.
Posted 4/26/2017 10:14 PM (GMT -6)
My gut just hurts reading about this. Mainly because I'm allergic to anything that has Capsaicin (which is found mostly in hot peppers).

But this theory holds plausibility. Many conditions can find help in natural things including medical MJ.
Posted 4/27/2017 4:28 AM (GMT -6)
https://ibdnewstoday.com/2017/04/24/cannabinoid-combo-therapy-ended-symptoms-of-boy-with-bowel-disease/
Posted 4/27/2017 11:20 AM (GMT -6)
Aha......so what's missing in my 'marihuana protocol' is some extra hot peppers. Because all by itself, the cannabis hasn't changed a thing for my symptoms (for better or worse). It is legal here for recreational use and I have tried literally 20 different strains in the last year ;-)

It does improve my mood and sleep though, so at least inadvertently it helps. Or maybe it IS helping and things might be worse without it? interesting.
Posted 4/27/2017 11:39 AM (GMT -6)
I wonder how the author gets to the word "cure".

We have several meds and nutritional supplements that tame, interfere with, or otherwise down-regulate the inflammatory response of the immune system.

This would be one more substance that can down-regulate overactive inflammatory response. Why is that not just another med? Why is that just not controlling symptoms?
Posted 4/27/2017 11:56 AM (GMT -6)
On closer reading,

The 2nd paragraph says "it might be possible to create a treatment"

but the next paragraph said "it could eventually lead to a cure for ulcerative colitis" - I wonder if that is the researcher or the reporter making the jump.

Then it says: A special kind of immune cell, CX3CR1, also gets activated. And that immune cell tends to suppress immune responses in the gut. " - but it is not clear if the upregulation is blocked, or the downregulation is facilitated. Blocking upregulation in appropriate cases would be much closer to a cure than facilitating downregulation.

Then it makes the odd statement "it was ultimately the anandamide that was healing the gut" - which is a process separate from regulation of immune responses. The body has cell regeneration and healing system that are blocked by constant inflammation and formation of scar tissue. I think the molecule just allowed healing to take place (not sure it reversed scar tissue) and not actually did the healing. This is likely the reporter's limited education.

It highlights the difference between curing and healing.

A cure would permanently stop the undesirable immune response, or fix something upstream (like cut microbe composition, or leaky mucosa, or epigenetic expression) to get it to stop. Possibly it would also erase entries in the immune system attack list by purging the antibodies related to IBD.

Healing would be when symptoms then subsided and the body was able to restore as much as possible. Not clear if distorted crypt cells would need to go. It may not be possible for all scaring and thickened walls to go. But the condition of the mucosa and the composition of the gut microbes would be free to go back to their intended state under normal process of regeneration and homeostasis.

IMO, any new basic understanding of the physiology and biochemistry of IBD is an advance. It is just funny how reporters and even patients get med, cure, and healing all muddled.
Posted 4/27/2017 4:09 PM (GMT -6)
i've just read this article in ibd news: https://ibdnewstoday.com/2017/04/24/cannabinoid-combo-therapy-ended-symptoms-of-boy-with-bowel-disease/?utm_source=IBD+List&utm_campaign=a0a0b1089a-RSS_
sounds amazing!
Posted 4/27/2017 6:50 PM (GMT -6)
i have noticed few times when i eat spicy food...i feel a change in my symptoms..it feels good
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