Hot Tip For A Longer Life: Spicy Food

Here's a hot tip for a healthier life: spicy food. It turns out that 5-alarm meal may be a ticket to longevity. And the more often, the better.

The research comes out of the British Medical Journal and followed close to 500,000 Chinese over a seven year period.

Anyone with heart disease, cancer, or other serious illnesses were excluded from the study—so basically it was a matter of following half a million people in reasonably good health.

It turns out that those people who ate chili peppers in some form at least once or twice a week had a death rate 10 percent lower than those who didn't eat chili peppers at all.

For those daring souls with cast iron stomachs who were able to eat the spicy stuff 3-7 times a week, well, their death rate was about 14 percent lower.

The actual amounts eaten were not measured, it was simply the number of times per week that researchers examined.

So what is so magic of igniting your mouth with this fiery spice? The main player may be something called capsaicin, it's a chemical that's as hot as hot can be. And it's believed that it helps to relieve inflammation in the body, protecting the heart, lungs, blood vessels, and so forth.

It's important to emphasize that there was no direct cause and effect found here, it just seems like chili peppers are good for you and may do something to protect your body from the ravages of disease.

By the way, capsaicin in an actual red hot chili pepper seems to pack more punch and protection than that found in powdered form, although both types seem effective.

So if you're looking for the hottest trend in health, capsaicin may be it. Just remember, more may not necessarily be better and you don't need to have smoke coming from your mouth to get some protective effect. And if you hate hot stuff, you can always get your health benefits from other foods as well as an active lifestyle.

A final note if you may want to chomp a chili but tend to avoid them since they set your mouth on fire: a few sips of milk will lessen the burn. A protein in milk tends to neutralize the effect of capsaicin on your taste buds without taking away any protective benefits farther down the hatch. Good luck!

Dr. Dave Hnida is CBS4's Medical Editor. He blogs about the latest studies and trends in the health world. Read his latest blog entries, check out his bio or follow him on Twitter @drdavehnida