Cayenne Pepper Benefits

If you could only have one medicinal herb in your medicine cabinet it should be Cayenne pepper. It’s an anti-bacterial, anti-viral and a sterilizer. It’ll warm you up, boost your metabolism and energize you all at once.

Cayenne pepper adds spicy heat to improve the flavor of all foods. It’s even beneficial; it’s not harmful for your digestive tract. Cayenne is also used in treating hypothermia to raise core body temps. The active ingredient, capsaicin, is what’s responsible for all the good benefits.

A Bleed Stop

Cayenne pepper has the ability to stop bleeding. Yes, if applied topically and taken internally, Cayenne pepper will stop or at least slow down bleeding. Dr. Christopher, old time herbalist and founder of the School of Natural Healing out of Springfield, Utah, has testimony upon testimony on how Cayenne pepper has stopped bleeding, from bloody noses to gunshot wounds. The way it works as a bleed stop is by equalizing blood pressure throughout the body, taking pressure from the wound, enabling it to clot.

I have found this to be true through experience. During a soccer game, our chief player Andrew encountered another boy’s head in a heated contest for the soccer ball at the goal.

One boy went to the hospital for stitches to his eyelid (other team) and our player exited the field with a bloody, gushing head wound. Upon further inspection, Andrew’s head wound proved to be small, though it produced a profuse expulsion of blood.

The coach sidelined Andrew as a student nurse cleaned up his bloody head and applied quick ice pack. The bleeding slowed down, but continued a steady, oozing discharge. My hopes for a win diminished the longer Andrew sat on the sidelines, Coach not allowing the bleeding player to re-enter the game.

After a while my wife leaned in to me and said, “Why don’t you apply what you have learned at the School of Natural Healing and stop the bleeding with Cayenne?” Admittedly, I did not spring in to action immediately, with thoughts of hurting Andrew, and even lawsuits. I mustered the courage to apply the old time herbal cure for bleeding only after calling Andrews’s mother and getting permission.

First I put a teaspoon of Cayenne powder into Andrew’s 16 oz. water bottle and had him drink it down. Next, the scary part came. Holding the Cayenne powder over Andrew’s oozing head wound, I proceeded to sprinkle the powder directly onto it, asking every step of the way, “Do you want me to continue? Does it hurt?*” To my surprise he answered “Continue,” and “No, it does not hurt.”

After applying about a half of a teaspoon of cayenne powder directly onto Andrew’s scalp wound, and after he had drank the cayenne pepper solution, all bleeding stopped. The coach cleared Andrew to re-enter the game. I wish I would have acted sooner as our team lost that day to our number one rival by a small margin. I did, however gain confidence in using Cayenne as a bleed stop and have used it a few more times for such.

You can read more testimonies on how Cayenne pepper has stopped bleeding over the years from the School of Natural Healing by following link below:
HerbalLegacy.com

Growing Cayenne Pepper

After thirty days, or whenever the pepper plants start showing roots at bottom of 72-cell tray, I pot them up in to 4” pots. You can start the seeds in any suitable container that works for you. They’ll need a sunny window or a grow bench in a greenhouse and kept at 75-85 degrees during day and no less than 65 degrees at night.

Now, I live in Upstate NY not far from Canada, so I want husky plants in the ground to start with. You may have easier growing conditions. I plant mine ten inches apart in every direction, with three pepper plants across in the row, as I have found that they like crowding. My row will then be about 30 inches wide, and whatever length I have space for.

Altogether, from seed to red pepper, it takes me about 90 days to produce a red hot crop of Cayenne peppers in upstate New York, zone 4b

Cayenne Pepper is not all that picky about fertilizer or water, except when they first start. Too much fertilizer will actually bring on beautiful foliage without peppers. A once a week watering will suffice once started. Even rainwater is usually enough. Cutworms can wipe out your whole crop if peppers are still small when planted, so put a drinking straw or paper collar around the stem base at soil level when planting.

Concoctions

My favorite way to use Cayenne pepper is as a tincture/extract. After I harvest my organic Cayenne peppers, I fill mason jars almost to top with fresh picked Cayenne Peppers and pour 100 proof Svedka vodka over them. Eight weeks in a dark place and voila, a strong herbal medicine tincture is made. I strain the tincture into one ounce medicine droppers to use until next harvest. I have plenty enough for friends and family to go around.

My claim is that the hot cayenne keeps my family mainly free of illnesses, and feeling warm all winter. The wife and I take a dropper full of my concoction three times a day in a glass of water.

Dosages: 1 TSP. Cayenne powder in 8 oz. glass of water, or 1 dropper full of tincture in 8 Oz. glass of water.

Cayenne Pepper is an easy to grow, versatile herbal medicine that should be in every prepper’s survival bag.

*Different people have different experiences when cayenne is put into their open wounds, some say it hurts others say no.

Disclaimer – This article is for educational purposes only. Herbs are not approved by the FDA to treat or cure. Herbalists in the U.S. are not allowed to diagnose, treat, or cure. See your healthcare professional for such.