Chili Peppers Could Help Heart Attack Victims

Capsaicin, the chemical that makes chili peppers so spicy, could turn out to be the newest—and oddest—heart drug, the Wall Street Journal reports. Scientists applied the chemical to the abdominal skin of mice then induced heart attacks; their hearts suffered 85% less cell damage than the mice treated with a placebo, possibly because capsaicin activates nerves linked to the spinal cord, which then trigger survival-oriented nerves in the heart muscle. (More capsaicin stories.)