Spicy foods consumption reduces mortality

A new report in BMJ  concludes that spicy foods consumption reduces mortality.

Spicy food consumption and total mortality

During a median follow-up of 7.2 years (interquartile range 1.84 years; total person years 3 500 004), there were 11 820 deaths among men and 8404 deaths among women. Absolute mortality rates according to spicy food consumption categories were 6.1, 4.4, 4.3, and 5.8 deaths per 1000 person years for participants who ate spicy foods less than once a week and 1 or 2, 3 to 5, and 6 or 7 days a week, respectively. Age adjusted and multivariate adjusted analyses showed a statistically significant inverse association between spicy food consumption and total mortality. In the whole cohort, compared with participants who ate spicy foods less than once a week, the adjusted hazard ratios for death were 0.90 (95% confidence interval 0.84 to 0.96) for those who ate spicy foods 1 or 2 days a week, 0.86 (0.80 to 0.92) for 3 to 5 days a week, and 0.86 (0.82 to 0.90) for 6 or 7 days a week (table 2⇓). Compared with participants who ate spicy foods less than once a week, those who consumed spicy foods 6 or 7 days a week showed a 14% relative risk reduction in total mortality.

Spicy food consumption and cause specific mortality

After multivariate adjustment, spicy food consumption was inversely associated with the risks of death due to cancer, ischemic heart diseases, and respiratory diseases in the whole cohort (table 2). No statistically significant heterogeneity was observed in the associations between spicy food consumption and cause specific mortality by sex (all P>0.05). Nevertheless, the associations seemed to be less evident in men than in women (table 3). In addition, more frequent consumption of spicy foods in women was also significantly associated with a reduced risk of death due to infections.