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Black Pepper's Impressive Anti-Cancer Arsenal
Plus: a very effective stretch for lower back pain
The 10almonds Team
August 07, 2023
Today’s almonds have been activated by:
Loading Screen Tip: each morning, ask yourself “how motivated am I feeling for today?”
Your responsibilities will remain your responsibilities, but you can budget your day’s energy a lot better.
⏰ IN A RUSH?
Today’s 30-Second Summary
If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:
Black pepper has many health benefits, including:
Antioxidant properties
Anti-inflammatory properties
Anti-cancer properties
Neuroprotective effects (against Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and more)
Blood-sugar balancing / antidiabetic effect
Good for gut microbiome diversity
Heart health benefits, including cholesterol-balancing
Boosts bioavailability of other nutrients/drugs
In the category of its anti-cancer properties, it’s not just that it reduces cancer risk or slows progression, it can also actively help cancer recovery in two additional ways:
It is selectively cytotoxic to cancerous cells, while remaining non-toxic to non-cancerous cells
It can reverse multi-drug resistance in cancer cells, meaning that chemotherapy will be more effective specifically against cancer cells, without increasing the dose
Testosterone levels in men often decline severely after the age of 45. This commonly results in a dropped libido, low mood, reduced energy, blood sugar problems, loss of bone density and muscle mass, and more.
Today’s sponsor, Wellcore, offer at-home kits for checking T-levels, and then provide appropriate testosterone therapy (again, at home) with the goal of restoring youthful vitality.
Sugar is terrible for the health. That may not be news in and of itself, but it’s implicated in everything from metabolic syndrome to cancer to Alzheimer’s.
See today’s featured book for more about this!
Read on to learn about these things and more…
👀 WATCH AND LEARN
Try This Very Effective Stretch If You Have Lower Back Pain
💊 MAIN FEATURE
Black Pepper’s Impressive Anti-Cancer Arsenal (And More)
Piperine, a compound found in Piper nigrum (black pepper, to its friends), has many health benefits. It’s included as a minor ingredient in some other supplements, because it boosts bioavailability. In its form as a kitchen spice, it’s definitely a superfood.
What does it do?
First, three things that generally go together:
These things often go together for the simple reason that oxidative stress, inflammation, and cancer often go together. In each case, it’s a matter of cellular wear-and-tear, and what can mitigate that.
For what it’s worth, there’s generally a fourth pillar: anti-aging. This is again for the same reason. That said, black pepper hasn’t (so far as we could find) been studied specifically for its anti-aging properties, so we can’t cite that here as an evidence-based claim.
Nevertheless, it’s a reasonable inference that something that fights oxidation, inflammation, and cancer, will often also slow aging.
Special note on the anti-cancer properties
We noticed two very interesting things while researching piperine’s anti-cancer properties. It’s not just that it reduces cancer risk and slows tumor growth in extant cancers (as we might expect from the above-discussed properties). Let’s spotlight some studies:
It is selectively cytotoxic (that’s a good thing)
Piperine was found to be selectively cytotoxic to cancerous cells, while not being cytotoxic to non-cancerous cells. To this end, it’s a very promising cancer-sniper:
It can reverse multi-drug resistance in cancer cells
P-glycoprotein, found in our body, is a drug-transporter that is known for “washing out” chemotherapeutic drugs from cancer cells. To date, no drug has been approved to inhibit P-glycoprotein, but piperine has been found to do the job:
Targeting P-glycoprotein: Investigation of piperine analogs for overcoming drug resistance in cancer
What’s this about piperine analogs, though? Basically the researchers found a way to “tweak” piperine to make it even more effective. They called this tweaked version “Pip1”, because calling it by its chemical name,
((2E,4E)-5-(benzo[d][1,3]dioxol-5-yl)-1-(6,7-dimethoxy-3,4-dihydroisoquinolin-2(1 H)-yl)penta-2,4-dien-1-one)
…got a bit unwieldy.
The upshot is: Pip1 is better, but piperine itself is also good.
Other benefits
Piperine does have other benefits too, but the above is what we were most excited to talk about today. Its other benefits include:
Enjoy!
❤️ OUR SPONSORS MAKE THIS PUBLICATION POSSIBLE
Wellcore: Boost Testosterone and Restore Vitality
For men, low testosterone can result in far more than a dropped libido—low mood, reduced energy, blood sugar problems, loss of bone density and muscle mass, and more.
And yet, up to 40% of men have low testosterone, and testosterone levels often drop sharply especially after the age of 45. Of these cases, 95% go untreated.
Wellcore believes in doing better for men. To make treatment much more accessible, they offer an at-home kit for effortless, no-mess, blood testing (they have a special device that does it for you). They’ll then analyse the results, and provide the appropriate testosterone therapy themselves, with the goal of restoring many aspects of youthful vitality.
PS: 10almonds subscribers can use the code HELLOVIP for a discount!
Please do visit our sponsors—they help keep 10almonds free
🌏 AROUND THE WEB
What’s happening in the health world…
More to come tomorrow!
📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW
The Case Against Sugar – by Gary Taubes
We generally already know that sugar is bad for the health. Most people don't know how bad.
Taubes makes, as the title goes, "the case against sugar". Implicated in everything from metabolic syndrome to cancer to Alzheimer's, sugar is ruinous to the health.
It's hard to review this book without making a comparison to William Duffy's 1975 bestseller, "Sugar Blues". Stylistically it's very similar, and the general gist is certainly the same.
However! Where this book beats Sugar Blues is in content; Duffy's book often makes bold claims without scientific backing. Some of those claims didn't stand the test of time and are now disproven. Instead, Taubes' book leans on actual up-to-date science, and talks more about what we actually know, than what we imagine.
If this book has a weak point, it's when it veers away from its main topic and starts talking about, for example, saturated fat. In this side-topic, the book makes some good points, but is less well-considered, cherry-picks data, and lacks nuance.
On its main topic, though, the investigation of sugar, it is rather more thorough.
Bottom line: if you want a next-level motivation to reduce or eliminate dietary sugar, this book may certainly provide that.
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Wishing you the very best start to the week,
The 10almonds Team