chili pepper
Red hot chili peppers do not worsen hemorrhoid symptoms
By:
Clinical Question:
Does eating spicy foods red hot chili peppers specifically exacerbate hemorrhoid symptoms
Bottom Line:
There is no scientific evidence that a spicy meal based on red hot chili pepper may worsen hemorrhoidal symptoms and therefore there is no reason to prevent these patients from occasionally enjoying a spicy dish if they so wish.
Reference:
Altomare DF Rinaldi M La Torre F et al. Red hot chili pepper and hemorrhoids: The explosion of a myth: Results of a prospective randomized placebocontrolled trial. Dis Colon Rectum 2006;49:10181023.
Study Design:
Randomized controlled trial (doubleblinded)
Synopsis:
Spicy foods are frequently blamed by patients and clinicians for deleterious and explosive exacerbations of hemorrhoid symptoms. The investigators identified 50 adults (aged 3757 years) affected by seconddegree or thirddegree hemorrhoids. Subjects randomly received (concealed allocation assignment) 2 identical blue capsules containing red hot chili pepper powder or placebo cellulose. The quantity of red hot chili pepper powder equaled the amount necessary to make a normal dish spicy enough as defined by the Association of Teachers of Italian Cuisine (equal to the tip of the knife). After baseline evaluation patients consumed 1 of the capsules during the course of a regular meal. One week later they repeated the treatment taking the other capsule. Subjects were instructed to avoid other foods potentially related to gastrointestinal symptoms such as alcoholic drinks coffee and chocolate. Using a 10cm visual analog scale subjects scored the severity of hemorrhoid symptoms such as bleeding and swelling itching pain and anal burning before and 6 24 and 48 hours after capsule ingestion. Both patients and clinicians remained unaware of the content of each capsule. Fortunately hemorrhoid symptoms were low at baseline and remained low in all patients throughout the study with no significant differences detected between the red hot chili pepper or placebo groups. The study was 90% powered to detect a 5% difference in hemorrhoid symptoms.
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