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Eating chili peppers may prevent fatal heart attacks and stroke

Chili peppers aren’t for the faint of heart, but maybe they should be. Scientists in Italy say the spice slashes the mortality rate from heart attack and cerebrovascular disease (which restricts blood flow to the brain and includes strokes and aneurysms).

The study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology on December 24, included 22,811 Italian men and women, who reported their chili pepper intake over an 8-year period. At the end of the study, people who consumed the spice at least four times a week reduced their risk of dying from a heart attack by 44 percent and from cerebrovascular disease by 61 percent.

Study author Marialaura Bonaccio, PhD, of IRCCS Neuromed Mediterranean Neurological Institute in Pozzilli, Italy, tells Yahoo Lifestyle that consuming chili peppers won’t prevent heart attacks or stoke, but rather the risk of fatality. The observational study did not identify exactly why chili peppers were so beneficial.

“But we know the results are independent of diet quality,” says Bonaccio. “This means that even if you don’t always adhere to the Mediterranean diet, the chili peppers will still have an effect.”