I have only heard about the positive health aspects of black pepper before, but I thought this was an interesting question so I did a little research. I found this article

I don't know what just happened there, but half of what I wrote got cut off. Let me try this again... this article

http://ezinearticles.com/?Black-Pepper----Benefits-and-Possible-Risks&id=200086

that will give you more information.