From the October 1999 Idaho Observer:

Cayenne: A stimulant Herb by Dr. John Christopher

Cayenne is one of God's wonderful herbal creations that never ceases to amaze! Lecturing recently, we heard the following story:

One told how he had cut deeply with a sharp instrument the inside of his hand, fingers and palm. The blood spurted out in streams. He poured a large amount of cayenne pepper into the wound, and within seconds the blood flow slowed down to congealed dripping and the bleeding stopped entirely before many seconds had passed.

With a goodly amount of cayenne covering the wound, he then wrapped it. He was so excited about the rapid results he could hardly wait for the regular herb meeting. But, as he said, the "punch line" was lost, because instead of a nasty ragged scar to show how severely he had been hurt, the area was healed and there was no scar.

Many of the old herbalists claim that in cases of severe cuts, gunshot wounds, etc., cayenne can be taken internally as a tea and the bleeding will stop by the time, in most cases, you can count to ten.

Cayenne goes immediately into the bloodstream and adjusts the blood pressure from the top of the head, to the bottom of the feet, equalizing pressure over the whole body. This takes the high pressure, which causes rapid bleeding, away from the wound and clotting starts immediately.

Cayenne has been accepted by some of the orthodox medical profession, as mentioned in Merck Index, Maleria Medica and Pharmocology and other standard volumes.

Let's go into more detail. In the first place cayenne is classified as a "stimulant." Stimulants are herbal agents that quicken, excite and increase nervous sensibility, thereby stimulating the functional activity and energy of the body. These herbs (stimulants) are naturalsanative substances (Remember that alcohol is not a stimulant, but an irritant and a depressant). Stimulants increase the power of the pulse and carry the blood to all parts of the body, tending to equalize and restore the balance of circulation in all parts.

Cayenne has been used for ages to aid stomach ulcer cases. We have seen some of the extremely painful cases given relief, and then healed by using cayenne faithfully each day over a period of weeks or months. It should be used until pains are gone and permanent relief is assured.

A story flashes back to my mind of an interesting case of stomach ulcers. A lady had been attending our herbal lecture series for some time. One day she told us about her husband's severe case of stomach ulcers. The recommendation from their doctor was to have part of his stomach removed, but he said he would rather suffer the pain than risk such an operation. He also refused his wife's suggestion to try cayenne, ridiculing her studies.

When he would see me in town, he would bellow, "Hello, Doc! Killed anybody with cayenne, today?" He became so obnoxious, I avoided him when I could. Months went by and one day I saw him coming down the street toward me. I tried to avoid him, but he came, "head on." This time I was amazed, because there was not cutting remarks or sarcasm. In fact, he was very apologetic and asked if he could talk to me for a minute, and then told me this story.

He had come home from work one night, "sick enough to die," with stomach ulcers. His wife was not home. He was in such pain he wanted to commit suicide. He went to the medicine cabinet to find some kind of medicine poisonous and deadly enough to kill him. But he discovered his wife had thrown out the old bottles of pharmaceutical medicine. All that was left in the medicine cupboard were some herbs and a large container of cayenne pepper. He was so angry that, upon seeing the cayenne, figured it, in a large dose, would kill him by burning him up.

He took a heaping tablespoon of the cayenne in a glass of hot water, gulped it down and rushed into the bedroom. He fell upon the bed and covered his head with a pillow so the neighbors couldn't hear his "dying screams."

The next thing he knew, his wife was shaking him awake the next morning. She told him he had slept all night (instead of being up every half hour for anti-acid tablets). To his amazement he discovered that the pain was gone, for the first time in months. He continued using cayenne three times a day faithfully.

I have had a very interesting life watching thousands of people receive successful results with the use of herbs. Many calls and letters come from people who say their lives have been changed to healthier and more pleasant living through the use of herbs.

Cayenne is one of the finest healing, nutritional herbs known to mankind. It is not a drug, it is a food of the highest value. I personally have used it faithfully for well over thirty years. This is one reason I have the strength and energy to lecture in 40 to 50 cities a year all over the United States and Canada, i.e., one week on the west coast, next week in Canada, and the following week Ohio or New York!

With natural living, the use of cayenne and other herbs, I, at my age, have been fortunate enough to not suffer "jet lag" with all this year 'round traveling.

-- Susan Barrett (sue59@bellsouth.net), November 30, 1999

Answers

Works great, have had wonderful results with it.

-- River Soma (riversoma@aol.com), November 30, 1999.

"Cayenne goes immediately into the bloodstream and adjusts the blood pressure from the top of the head, to the bottom of the feet,"

Ahhh.... so THAT'S what's happening when it feels like the top of my head is about to separate from the booster rockets.

Does anyone have a source for mass quantities? I have purchased a couple of the little 2-3 oz. spice-size jars of cayenne pepper, but have been searching for the pound sized containers at a much more reasonable price... without luck so far.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), November 30, 1999.

Linda, for years my supplies of bulk cayenne and other herbs come from Herbal Products Co. in N. Hollywood, Ca, tel.(818) 508-6567, I found their prices reasonable. Another wonderful universal remedy, which I have prepared and used for years with great success, are Swedish Bitters drops (rediscovered by Swedish doctor in 19th century and widely used by Austrian herbalist Maria Treben). I am only a customer of this store. K

-- Kassandra (kasia@nctimes.net), November 30, 1999.

A man who taught food prep for our y2k group this year told about his wife who was hemorrhaging after delivering one of their babies. Midwife made her swallow mouthfuls of cayenne (not sure how she achieved it!) and saved her life!

-- Sheri (wncy2k@nccn.net), November 30, 1999.

Hummmmm! Add the cayenne, with the tomato paste (from a post to the prep forum), 4-5 shots of vodka, a little tomato juice for good measure, a few ice cubes, and it sounds like a great health drink... or a mean bloody mary!

-- suzy (suzy@nowhere.com), November 30, 1999.

A good, inexpensive source for bulk herbs, spices and essential oils is:

http://www.sfherb.com

LunaC

-- LunaC (LunaC@moon.com), November 30, 1999.

Susan: I take the cayenne pepper pills for my joints. I'm 62 and have mild arthritis. I play competitive tennis 3 times a week and golf twice. It has been a boon for me.

-- Neil G.Lewis (pnglewis1@yahoo.com), November 30, 1999.

As a hardcore pepper addict (I consume more sri racha, cholula, tabasco, and huy fong vietnam sauce than anyone I know), I have to weigh in with "the other side of the story".

If I consume too much pepper (and from the descriptions above, I'd say the quantities specified would probably qualify), I *will* find my ol' emerod bleeding the next day.

Maybe just a single data point, maybe a caveat.

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), November 30, 1999.

Now I am really confused - you say that Cayenne is good for ulcers?? On the bottle of Cayenne pepper my husband takes for strengthening heart and blood pressure - 100,000 H.U. - it says "Mpt recommened for individuals with peptic ulcers, gastritis, inflammatory bowel conditions or hiatal hernias. Do not open, bite of chew capsules, avoid contact with eyes".

Is the difference here that this is so "hot" and that ordinary cayenne is much cooler? His heart is strong and BP good, so we know it is helping, but he does have an acid stomach from stress, but he doesn't complain about swallowing these capsules. Please explain a bit more about the labelling on this cayenne...thanks.

-- Laurane (familyties@rttinc.com), November 30, 1999.

Laurane, The warning you cite sounds as if it was required by our friend the FDA, which might well be working to remove this product from the market as they've removed so many others. On the other hand, Dr. Christopher and/or Richard Schulze (at the moment I can't recall which, but probably both) discourage using cayenne in capsule form, since preventing the body from detecting it in the mouth also may inhibit the stomach from being fully ready to receive it.

-- David L (bumpkin@dnet.net), November 30, 1999.

Thanks for the sources.

http://www.sfherb.com/he rbsspices.html

CULINARY HERBS & SPICES 4 oz 1 lb 5 or more

CAYENNE (40 HEAT UNIT) DOM. 1.40 4.45 4.01

CAYENNE (60 HEAT UNIT) IMP. .96 2.80 2.52

CAYENNE (90 HEAT UNIT) IMP. 3.60 3.24

Incredibly cheap. Thanks.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), November 30, 1999.

Cayenne should be taken "open." In capsule form, it is somewhat of a shock to the stomach. Open the capsule and add the contents to a glass of cold beverage. I use plain cold water. This method allows the stomach to "prepare" for the surprise. 90,000 is very hot, and should be "worked up to" gradually. Once you get used to hot pepper, it is almost addictive, and you will relish it simply as a cold beverage. The warnings on the labels are there because the companies don't want to be sued by someone who gets some in their eyes or something (although painful, I don't believe this is harmful at all, but actually beneficial, and I have heard Dr. Schulze talk about it).

-- Liz Pavek (lizpavek@hotmail.com), December 01, 1999.

Laurrane, It is interesting that many of us with inflammatory bowel problems take cayenne to stop internal bleeding.

-- Homeschooling Grandma (mlaymon@glenn-co.k12.ca.us), December 01, 1999.

Any reference,anecdotal or otherwise, to this being used successfully as a topical vasodilator to improve circulation to hair follicles? Seems I read something in this regard in an herbal book one time.

-- Concerned (receding@hairline.com), December 01, 1999.

Susan, Thank you for your time!

-- Hatti (klavine@tco.com), December 01, 1999.

The wife just made about 3/4 quart of tincture a couple of weeks ago (should be about a lifetime supply). It is good for a lot and the concentrate she made only requires a few drops for most purposes. Don't know the recipe for the tincture or all of what she has in mind for it. She has several books she uses as well as a few Indian elder type contacts. If anyone is interested in what books she finds the best, e-mail me at this address and I'll see what info I can pass on.

-- BH (bh_silentvoice@hotmail.com), December 01, 1999.

I heard an anecdote (third hand now) about a bag of cayenne being thrown at a horse who was frantic from blood loss from an accident, and seemed to work externally.

-- Firemouse (firemouse@fcmail.com), December 01, 1999.