Some people love their spicy chili peppers. Consider the Carolina Reaper. Calling it a hot chili pepper isn’t quite accurate. A summer’s day in Florida is hot.

With the Reaper, think in terms of the sun’s surface.

Capsaicin is the chemical responsible for a pepper’s heat. It’s measured in Scoville heat units. Tabasco sauce lands at 2,500 to 5,000 units on this scale. The Reaper scored a record 1.6 million.

In 2023, a new champion was bred, Pepper X, measuring 2.6 million.

People actually eat these culinary hand grenades. Do so with caution. A New York man who devoured a Carolina Reaper once landed in the emergency room.

Even milder peppers might be cause for concern when consumed in quantity. A recent study found that people who ate the most chili peppers had a higher risk of certain digestive tract cancers, especially esophageal cancer.

The association was noted after researchers combined data from 14 observational studies with a total of 11,000 participants.

Investigators say more research is needed. Don’t rush to the market for a chili pepper refund just yet. In fact, other research suggests that chili peppers might reduce the risk of heart disease and all-cause mortality.

Still, it’s well known that capsaicin can cause severe gastrointestinal distress, including vomiting, respiratory irritation and, in high enough doses, dangerously spiked blood pressure.

As with most things, moderation is the safest path. It can be difficult to pin any illness to a single element of one’s diet. Factors like smoking, alcohol use and genetics also play a role.

As for the guy who went to the emergency room? He survived — with the worst headache of his life.

Watch your bank account. A healthy bottom line might just be protecting your brain.

A recent study published in the journal Innovation in Aging found an association between financial distress and cognitive decline. The British study followed more than 3,000 individuals from birth to age 74, a remarkably long period for such research.

Some research subjects also underwent brain scans.

All were asked about their financial situation at different points in their lives. Among the questions was whether they had struggled to pay for their basic needs, which they were asked at ages 36, 43 and 53. They were also queried about income levels.

The study assessed participants’ mental sharpness using tests that included timed letter search and word recall to measure memory.

Scientists found that financial hardship was associated with lower test scores by age 53. That’s earlier than most people expect to start facing cognitive problems associated with aging.

Repeated financial hardship tended to magnify memory and mental processing problems.

Brain scans also revealed a similar story. At ages 69 to 71, those scans showed that people with persistent low income had brains with larger fluid-filled spaces. These spaces grow as brain tissue shrinks. That can lead to cognitive decline.

Carriers of a gene linked to Alzheimer’s disease experienced the worst declines in the study.

Why financial problems may play a role in cognitive decline isn’t certain. But stress is known to affect brain health.

It’s also important to remember that the study shows an association but does not demonstrate cause and effect.

Still, save your pennies and don’t overspend. Your brain just might thank you.

Calorie counting apps that rely on AI allege results far from artificial. New research from the American Society for Nutrition, however, suggests they tend to severely underestimate how many calories are actually being consumed.

The apps in question purport to analyze the nutritional content of a meal by using a single photo.

Most calorie counting apps ask that you input the food yourself — whether it be by searching for an item, scanning a barcode or filling out the food’s macros manually. When compared with snapping a photo, it can feel like it’s much easier to go the AI-assisted app route.

But the discrepancies between the number of calories you think you’re eating versus the ones you are could make it difficult to have an accurate read.

In the research project, team members took more than 100 photos of meals cooked in a controlled metabolic kitchen — where foods were measured with precision, to the nearest tenth of a gram. Then, they uploaded them to four common calorie counting apps that now offer AI-assisted estimation.

The apps missed between 250 to 350 calories per meal. Calories from fat, in particular, was underestimated by about 30 grams. Two apps were better at analyzing meals with high calorie counts than low ones, and all four apps were most accurate at counting carbohydrates over other macros.

The research project was a part of a larger National Institutes of Health study exploring how the body processes nutrients on different kinds of diets.

Now, no one is saying you can’t keep uploading photos of your treats and eats to the apps … but you might want to add in your standard calorie counting methods, too.

After all, a picture could be worth a 1,000 calories.

A dog’s body can generate vitamin C. So, too, can a cat’s. Unfortunately, human ancestors lost that trick during their evolutionary climb.

Roughly 40 million years ago, the forebearers of apes and humans could access plentiful fruit rich in vitamin C. So over time, the gene responsible for making it withered on the evolutionary tree. We lost the ability.

Which for marketers is a good thing, otherwise we might not have gotten one of the most famous ad slogans ever: A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine.

Now, a Japanese study shows just how important a glass of OJ, or a piece of any fruit or vegetable producing the nutrient, is to our good health. Researchers demonstrated that lower vitamin C levels were associated with reduced brain tissue and altered structural network patterns in the organ.

That provides strength to what scientists long suspected. The vitamin might help prevent cognitive decline.

The study included about 2,000 volunteers who underwent brain MRIs. Scientists also measured their vitamin C levels through a blood test.

Previous research had already shown that vitamin C levels in the fluid surrounding the brain are twice those in blood. That, too, suggests its importance in brain health.

Scientists don’t suggest that vitamin C acts alone in maintaining the brain. It is instead viewed as perhaps one of several important factors.

It’s essential to remember that these findings can only indicate an association and do not establish cause and effect.

Until natural selection jump-starts our ability to produce vitamin C once more, it can’t hurt to grab an orange now and then.

Many, if not most people, who take GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic or Wegovy lose weight. Others still are shedding pounds and punches.

A new study from researchers at Rutgers University suggests the drugs’ tendency to tamp down impulsive tendencies — like excess snacking or even drinking — might trickle down to violent behavior, too. The research was published in the journal Criminology.

Scientists looked at two factors known to be associated with physical aggression: impulsivity and alcohol. After poring over data from more than 7,500 adults across the United States, they narrowed their focus to the 821 folks who used a GLP-1 medication at least once. To compare current GLP-1 users with former users, the team asked participants about actions like fighting, assault and robbery.

They found that those who were currently on the medication had a much weaker link to impulsivity and violent behavior than those who had used GLP-1s in the past — 62% weaker, to be precise.

Researchers have a few theories for why that might be. They believe GLP-1s might work like kind of cognitive behavioral therapy, weakening the connection between impulse and action without getting rid of an individual’s impulses entirely.

Importantly, this study shows a link — not a cause-and-effect relationship between the drugs and the behaviors (or lack thereof). Further research studies are needed to determine whether GLP-1s could actually lower people’s risk of violence. For now, they’re still mostly prescribed for people with diabetes and those seeking to lose weight.

But we’re curious to see what these might drugs do next.

Now, don’t take this the wrong way. No one, absolutely nobody, is suggesting it is a good idea to smoke. The habit is linked to higher risk of cancer, heart disease and stroke, to name just a few of its dangers.

But is smoking less dangerous to our health than being a couch potato with a poor diet?

A recent paper in the journal Frontiers of Nutrition argues that poor fitness and inadequate protein in one’s diet are linked to an even greater risk of dying.

In fact, the paper says that people who are less active have a 400% greater risk of death than those who have high fitness levels. Compare that with smoking, which carries a 50% higher risk.

The author of the British study argues that exercise and protein recommendations in the United Kingdom are too low. He says government guidance sets a bare minimum. The same is true in the United States.

It isn’t enough to simply increase the amount of exercise in your life. The researcher suggests that physical activity should also be more vigorous. He points to higher mortality rates associated with those who engage in lighter exercise.

The paper notes that when looking at cancer mortality, one hour of light activity is equivalent to just a minute of vigorous exercise. So, step up the pace.

Protein intake is also important, especially as we age. It helps preserve muscle and aids fat loss, among other benefits. The paper recommends that a 175-pound adult aim for 120 grams of protein per day.

Smoking rates have significantly declined in the United States in the last 50 years. Health warning labels on cigarette packs helped.

It’s harder to put a warning label on a beer belly, but it’s worth spreading the word any other way you can.

Before antibiotics, a ruptured appendix was tantamount to a death sentence. And until 1922, when a 14-year-old Canadian teen was injected with insulin, people with Type 1 diabetes would nearly starve themselves trying to extend their lives.

A new research study suggests that many wounds — even large ones bleeding heavily — might also become something modern medicine can triage into a far less life-threatening category.

Scientists at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have created a spray-on powder that instantly forms a strong gel barrier over a wound.

While other products like patches, wound dressings and powders have long been used in combat, the study says the new product, called AGCL powder, simply works better.

The researchers say it can cover deep, irregular wounds that conventional treatments struggle with. Notably, the powder can absorb more than seven times its own weight in blood, which lets it rapidly stop even heavy-duty bleeding.

Another benefit of the spray-on wound sealant is that it is shelf-stable, meaning it can hold up under different temperatures and humidity, something conventional products also struggle with.

The powder is durable and worked well for at least two years under room temperature and high-humidity conditions.

The technology was invented for national defense, but researchers believe it will likely someday be a boon to emergency medicine. It could be used by those helping people during natural disasters, in developing countries and in medically underserved areas.

A spray that patches a wound. If that isn’t a modern-day miracle, what is?

Is there anything better than sitting? By looking at the rates of Americans who engage in the sedentary activity — roughly half of the population, by the way — you’d guess no. And, though your body prefers moving to sitting by miles, we’re going to tell you what you really want to know: how to sit better.

A study led by the University of Glasgow found that breaking up your sitting by short movement breaks was associated with an 18% lower risk of death from diabetes- and obesity-related cancers per each added hour of relentless reclining.

Researchers defined “interrupted sitting” as a sit either lasting less than half an hour, or one broken up by some kind of activity.

Though previous research has largely targeted decreasing how much total time we spend on our rears, this study posited that simply decreasing the duration of each “sit” could matter just as much as sitting less.

When they modeled these results, scientists noted that swapping out even one hour of uninterrupted sitting with the intermittent version was linked to a 12% lower risk of death related to cancer. The analysis drew from the data of more than 90,000 participants across 12 years. To get an idea of how often people were moving, researchers relied upon wrist devices that tracked activity as opposed to self-reports of movement.

Though more research is needed to understand what’s prompting these improvements, scientists think extended sedentary periods could be impacting mechanisms like blood sugar regulation, scientists say. Getting up, even for a little, keeps your body running smoothly.

Taking the time to leave your chair to rinse out a coffee cup has never felt more important.

The joy of probiotics is largely exhibited — and, let’s be honest with ourselves, felt — in the bathroom. A healthy gut allows for smoother moves, so to speak, and enables you to spend less time exerting yourself in ways that have been linked to hemorrhoids, anal fissures and, in extreme cases, rectal prolapse.

Now, a study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society suggests that a daily probiotic taken in step with standard antidepressant treatments might see improvement in symptom management. That’s compared with a group who took a placebo pill.

The pilot study analyzed data from 58 adults of at least 60 years of age who had been diagnosed with moderate depression. Each of the participants received either a daily probiotic or a placebo for 12 weeks alongside their typical depression treatment.

Though both groups saw an improvement, those who were given the probiotic demonstrated a larger improvement in their symptoms of depression and anxiety over the course of the study. They reported better scores on rating scales measuring mental health. Researchers believe this could be due to the established gut-brain connection, or the relationship between your gut microbiome and mood, linked by different biological corridors.

Like many small studies, this one bears replicating in a larger group. Scientists say they want to better understand what kind of patient is most responsive to a probiotic, and whether the pilot study’s results hold true across different demographics.

But there’s no harm in remembering to bring a yogurt for lunch.

Fish oil supplements are a huge industry. Americans spend more than $1 billion a year on them, hoping to support brain health by taking in the omega-3 fatty acids they contain.

A new study may provide a dose of reality, however. A two-year clinical trial conducted by University of Southern California researchers found that while fish oil supplements do deliver omega-3s to the brain, there is no meaningful benefit for memory, cognition or Alzheimer’s-related changes.

On its face, taking fish oil supplements is not illogical. Omega-3s, healthy fats found in some fish, help build the connections between brain cells key to our ability to think and remember.

More than 350 people between the ages of 55 and 80 who rarely ate fish were enrolled in the study. All were at elevated risk for Alzheimer’s disease. They were placed in two groups. One group was given a daily, high-dose fish oil supplement; the other group got a placebo.

Each supplement contained 2,000 milligrams of docosahexaenoic [duh-kow-suh-hek-suh-know-ick] acid, or DHA, an omega-3 important in brain function. For the brain, DHA is like premium oil is to an engine.

By measuring DHA levels in participants’ cerebrospinal fluid, they could see it did indeed reach the brain.

Even so, that did not equate to measurable cognitive benefits. Participants went through memory tests at the start of the study and two years later. Those who took DHA supplements performed no better than the placebo group.

For now, the researchers say those who hope to safeguard brain health should focus on eating nutritious food and staying fit. And eating salmon, mackerel, sardines and anchovies surely can’t hurt.