Diet Pills With Capsicum

Capsicum refers to a family of hot peppers that contain a potent ingredient known as capsaicin. Capsaicin has been touted as a treatment for a variety of illnesses but also as a way to help boost your metabolism and spur weight loss, one reason it's included as an ingredient in several over-the-counter diet pills. Although laboratory studies show promise for using capsicum as a weight-loss aid, they aren't yet sufficient to promote capsicum pills as a magic diet potion. Before you take any supplement or weight-loss aid, it's best to consult with your health care practitioner.

Identification

Capsicum chili peppers belong to the plant families known as Capsicum annuum L. and Capsicum frutescens. The level of hotness in a given capsicum species depends upon the concentration of capsaicinoids like capsaicin in the fruit; they are even classified by that concentration. Paprika has 10 to 30 parts per million capsaicinoids, chili peppers 30 to 600 parts per million and red peppers like cayenne 600 to 13,000 parts per million, according to Purdue University's Guide to Medicinal and Aromatic Plants.

Effects

One popular capsicum-based diet pill, with the slogan "Slim At Your Desk" and used by several high-profile celebrities, claims that you can burn as many calories as an 80-minute walk or 25-minute jog while you sit. A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled crossover study sponsored by the manufacturer at the University of Oklahoma Biophysics Laboratory found that when subjects took one of the pills an hour before exercising on a treadmill, they burned more calories compared to when they took a placebo. Capsicum pills were also investigated in 2009 by a team at the University of Maryland School of Medicine who discovered six milligrams a day of a supplement with capsaicinoids was safe and associated with a significant reduction in abdominal fat, although there wasn't any weight loss.

Expert Insight

In 2005, researchers in the Netherlands published a study in the International Journal of Obesity that showed giving subjects capsaicin with meals increased satiety and energy expenditure and decreased appetite. A study on laboratory animals, published in the American Chemical Society's journal Proteome Research in April 2010, investigated capsaicin's ability to help fight obesity. The team was led by Jong Won Yun at Daegu University in Korea and found that capsaicin-treated rats lost 8 percent of their body weight and had alterations in 20 key proteins allowing them to break down fats in the body.

Considerations

Hot peppers are known to cause stomach irritation in sensitive people. If you decide to try a diet pill containing capsicum extracts, you should look for one that has a protective coating that will prevent gastric irritation. However, if you have a serious gastrointestinal disorder, you should check with your health care provider before taking capsicum supplements.

Warning

Studies of the effects of capsicum on women who are pregnant or breast-feeding are mixed, so if you are pregnant or trying to become pregnant, you should use caution in taking pills containing capsicum. Likewise, research on diabetic animals in the lab shows both positive and negative results on glucose metabolism and insulin levels, something to be aware of if you have diabetes. If you have an allergy to latex, bananas, kiwi, chestnut or avocado, it may make you more susceptible to a capsicum pepper allergy, according to Drugs.com. If you have any of the above conditions or are uncertain about whether capsicum is right for you, consult your physician.