My friend’s mom told me the other day that pepper helps cure arthritis. I eat a lot of pepper and would love to be able to validate my consumption. Is this true?
I think the story got confused in the telling … I can’t find any references to eating pepper and arthritis, but there may be some reason to believe that capsaicin (the “hot” in spicy peppers, not black pepper) may have some pain-relieving effect when appropriately applied to the arthritic joint. See Hot Peppers Lead to Even Hotter Research on Arthritis and Other Conditions (sounds a little overenthusiastic to me). From Osteoarthritis Treatments:
“Hot pepper might cool your pain as well. A cream or gel that contains capsaicin, which is found in cayenne pepper, interrupts substance P, a neurotransmitter believed to carry pain messages to the brain. Brands include Zostrix, Zostrix HP, and Capzasin-P.”
The same paragraph appears in Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatments.
Sad to say for your eating habits, there are some claims that eating black pepper causes or worsens “allergy arthritis”. From Arthritis Cure (which may or may not be trustworthy):
"A prominent food toxin that is said to affect knees is piperine, found in the pepper family which includes black and white pepper (not cayenne). The Solanaceae family of plants (potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, tobacco!) also has a common “allergen” that produces joint pain. Try going off these for two weeks to see if it helps.