This is scientific American 60 second science. I'm Christopher in Tagayata.

The ingredient that makes hot chilies hot is called cap-saysin, and it can set your mouth on fire. But the spicy compound has a soothing effect too.

In your gut it kicks off a chemical cascade that might calm the immune system and reduce

inflammation. Researchers studied that phenomenon in mice. Once inside the gut, the

capacacin molecule is plugged into a specific receptor, spurring the release of

another compound called anandomide. Anandomine happens to be an endokininoid,

similar to the active ingredients in marijuana,

and it binds to canabenoid receptors in the gut.

That last step in the cascade,

ramped up the production of cells that damp down inflammation in the mice,

and even cured them of a mouse model of diabetes type 1, an autoimmune disease.

If all this sounds a bit similar to the chemical messaging that happens in the brain, that's

because it is.

The gut has a very large well-a nervous system.

It's almost as large as the brain itself.

Promotes Rivosteva, an immunologist at Yukon Health and one of the study's leaders.

We don't quite fully understand what is this huge amount of neurons are doing in the gut.

We don't understand its language and the molecules and mediators and I think with this work we can at least claim to have found a couple of words in that language.

The studies in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

So to recap that chemical chain,

chilies cause the production of endokinabonoids, which

produce immune suppressant cells which soothe inflammation. So what if you cut out the

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