Dr Timothy Bates - News

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Saturday 10th February 2007 1:35 PM

Anti-Cancer Curry

It's long been a maxim in our family that a curry will 'bring a cold out of you'. Now it turns out it could actually kill the cancer in you too. Capsaicin, an ingredient in Jalepeno peppers has been found to have anti-cancer properties. Capsaicin triggers cancer cell death by attacking the mitochondria within the cancer cell itself.

Researcher, Dr Timothy Bates said: "As these compounds attack the very heart of the tumour cells, we believe that we have in effect discovered a fundamental 'Achilles heel' for all cancers". The fact that we already eat Capsaicin and other substances of the same family (Vanilloids[1]) means they could be much cheaper than other drugs to produce.

Sadly, the UK's anti-cancer trusts are still advocating a healthy, balanced diet with plenty of vegetables[2] as the best way of preventing the disease rather than fifteen pints and a chicken Vindaloo. But all this may change. Soon we could be ordering from 'Azram's Balti Bar' and billing it to the NHS. The traditional Beer Boy curry house chant of 'make it a hot one Asif' could lose it's racist, look-at-how-bloody-hard-I-am reputation and become the chant of the health conscious. The Restaurant near my house could add a couple of Dr's onto its list of reviews.

Although in truth it's not that simple. Capsaicin has only been shown to work in laboratory tests on cancer samples, the delivery system still needs to be worked out. Let's hope it involves Naan bread.

Taken from: http://www.theslant.co.uk/2007/01/10/anti-cancer-curry/

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