• A spicy meal like curry can boost your  lifespan, according to scientists
• Switching off body’s ability to feel pain  could be key to increasing lifespan
• Advice follows experiments in mice by  preventing pain signals reaching brain

A curry or stir  fry for dinner won’t just spice up your evening – it could might also help you  live longer.

Scientists say  that blocking the body’s ability to feel pain boosts lifespan – and that one way  of switching off pain is by regularly eating chilli peppers.

The culinary  advice follows experiments in mice, in which stopping pain signals from reaching  the brain extended their lifespan.

Live long: One way of switching off pain is by regularly eating chilli peppers and hot curry, experts have claimed

Animals that could not make pain-sensing protein called TRPV1 were ‘exceptionally long lived’. Not only was life 14 per cent longer, but it was also healthier.

They developed cancer less often and their memory faded less with age.

They seemed to be able to burn off calories without exercising more than usual and their metabolism, including their ability to process sugar remained youthful late in life.

This could cut the risk of diabetes, the journal Cell reports.

 University of  California researcher Andrew Dillin said: ‘We think that blocking this pain  receptor and pathway could be very, very useful not only for relieving pain, but  for improving lifespan and metabolic health and in particular for treating  diabetes and obesity in humans.

‘As humans age,  they report a higher incidence of pain, suggesting that pain might drive the  ageing process.’

The animals in his  experiment had been genetically-engineered to not make the TRPV1 pain  sensor. 

But Professor  Dillin said that regularly eating capsaicin, the compound  that gives chilli  peppers their zing, should stop the sensor from  working.

He said: ‘Chronic  ingestion of compounds that affect TRPV1 such as  capsaicin might help prevent  metabolic decline with age and lead to  increased longevity in  humans.

 Alternatively, many drugs that are already in  use, including a migraine pill, affect the way the pain sensor works.

Scientists are  around the world are searching for a ‘forever young’ drug that will give us a  long and healthy old age. 

Some say the  science is moving so quickly that it will soon be possible to prevent many of  the ills of old age. 

By taking a pill a  day from middle-age, we will grow old free from illnesses of the body and mind  such as Alzheimer’s and heart disease. 

Spared many of the  aches and pains of old age, people could work for longer – or simply make the  most of their retirement.

Some research even  suggests that skin and hair will retain its youthful lustre

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