Posted by Mark (Newton Abbot, Devon Uk) on 10/31/2012
★☆☆☆☆WARNING!
CAYENNE PEPPER WARNING- My 80 year old father in law recently had neck surgery to replace 2 discs that had trapped his nerves, he was becoming paralysed, he lost his bladder control and had to have a bag and catheter fitted, on removal the doc notice that his prostrate was hard and enlarged, We recommended that he start on cayenne pepper slowly and build up over a few weeks, the hope is that pepper should improve his blood circulation which will help his nerves heal quicker as well as de-clog his prostrate that was probably blocked from the catheter and poor flow, well he loves curry and all things hot so took quite a lot from the start, after 10 days or so my wife received a phone call from her mother saying her father had had a stroke! He was ok but it had set his recovery back (from nerve damage) a few weeks, when I quizzed him about the pepper he confessed to liking it and taking a lot more than suggested, (more than ½ tsp. 2 x daily) he just can't taste it like most do! It was a pretty hot one too, not a cheap store bought.
Any how, he has had 2 heart attacks and a quadruple bypass many , many years ago ( even though he is has never smoked and was a keen athlete! ) I suspect he is a little clogged up and the pepper acted to unblock him just a little too quickly removing all sorts of nasty stuff from his arteries and possible causing the stroke? he has resumed the pepper but at a pinch daily with the aim of increasing slowly over the weeks, fingers crossed this time, ironically cayenne is touted to stop strokes!
The lesson here is if you are just starting on cayenne pepper don't take the whole jar in one go! Build up slowly- its powerful stuff!
