Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Tuesday April 10 2018, @08:16PM   Printer-friendly
from the it-wasn't-a-pain-in-the-ass dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow9228

For one brave man, eating one of the hottest peppers in the world came with an unexpected side effect: Days of splitting headaches that prompted a trip to the emergency room.

The unusual case, detailed in The BMJ on Monday, began immediately after the 34-year-old man took part in a chili pepper eating contest. He ate a Carolina Reaper, the pepper christened as the world's hottest by the Guinness Book of World Records in 2013 (though there have been several unofficial challengers to the title since).

Immediately after eating the pepper, he started dry heaving. Then he felt excruciating neck pain that soon radiated throughout his entire head. For the next several days, he would experience short but incredibly painful bursts of head pain known as thunderclap headaches. The episodes got so bad that he eventually visited the ER.

Thankfully, a brain scan didn't reveal any major neurological issues, such as a bulged blood vessel (aneurysm) or bleeding. But several of his arteries did appear to narrow significantly, a condition called reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome (RCVS).

RCVS is known to cause thunderclap headaches, and can be brought on by reactions to drugs, including cocaine and certain antidepressants. No case of RCVS has ever been associated with pepper-eating, but the main ingredient that accounts for a pepper's spiciness—capsaicin—is known to interact with our blood vessels, either by constricting or dilating them, the doctors noted. And cayenne peppers have been rarely linked to heart attacks or suddenly constricted arteries near the heart.

Source: https://gizmodo.com/worlds-hottest-pepper-sends-man-to-the-er-with-thunderc-1825110311

The Carolina Reaper was the world's hottest pepper at the time of the incident, but two varieties have surpassed it unofficially: Dragon's Breath, developed by Neal Price, NPK Technology, and Nottingham Trent University for anesthetic research, and Pepper X, created by the breeder of the Carolina Reaper, Ed Currie.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday April 10 2018, @10:21PM (19 children)

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Tuesday April 10 2018, @10:21PM (#665126) Homepage Journal

    Just once. You don't want to do that.

    Capsaicin is a mixture of eight or so capsaicinoids. Some feel immediately hot, some take much longer to come on.

    I had chewed up and swallowed the whole thing before I felt any discomfort.

    I felt the hotness in the roots of my teeth and underneath my fingernails.

    Then I started convulsing. My friend who gave it to me offered to call an ambulance but I shook my head and waved my hand in a way that managed to communicate that I wanted to ride the whole thing out.

    It was about twenty minutes before I could speak again.

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday April 10 2018, @10:22PM (3 children)

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Tuesday April 10 2018, @10:22PM (#665127) Homepage Journal

    Scotch bonnets are bright orange while habaneros are dark brown.

    What is often sold as Habanero sauce often has scotch bonnets and carrot puree.

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
    • (Score: 3, Informative) by jelizondo on Wednesday April 11 2018, @12:16AM (2 children)

      by jelizondo (653) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 11 2018, @12:16AM (#665154) Journal

      Maybe in Oregon or wherever you are the habaneros are brown. Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] shows then orange and red but I have seen mostly greenish and orange ones in the Yucatan [viamexico.mx] (just look at the picture, the text is irrelevant), where the habanero pepper is a "protected designation of origin" since 2010, a control similar to the French Appellation d'origine contrôlée, meaning they are the authentic Habanero peppers.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 11 2018, @01:14AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 11 2018, @01:14AM (#665170)

        Agree. Anything I've seen labeled as a Habañero has been orange or reddish-orange.
        ...and I'm in an area where folks know their chilis and wouldn't stand for incorrect labeling of those.

        WRT the subject of the story as well as MDC's narrative in this (sub)thread, I'm reminded of Harry Callahan's admonition:
        A man's got to know his limitations. [google.com]

        -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

        • (Score: 3, Informative) by AthanasiusKircher on Wednesday April 11 2018, @07:03PM

          by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Wednesday April 11 2018, @07:03PM (#665479) Journal

          For someone touting their superior knowledge of peppers and their proper nomenclature, you might want to learn to spell habanero correctly. (There's no 'ñ'.)

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Arik on Tuesday April 10 2018, @11:20PM (7 children)

    by Arik (4543) on Tuesday April 10 2018, @11:20PM (#665137) Journal
    "My friend who gave it to me offered to call an ambulance but I shook my head and waved my hand in a way that managed to communicate that I wanted to ride the whole thing out."

    Admit it, you're a junky ;)

    People eat hot peppers for the endorphin rush, and what you're describing sounds like a near overdose. I bet you were flying for hours.

    --
    If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 11 2018, @12:43AM (6 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 11 2018, @12:43AM (#665160)

      Serranos are the hottest [deharris.com] thing I do, so maybe I don't qualify.

      I like pasillas, anaheims, jalapeños, and serranos because of the amount of vitamin C they contain.
      (More than citrus.) [google.com]
      Yeah, the tingle is nice too.

      ...and at my green grocer (SoCal), one of those is always on special and that is always cheaper than bell peppers.

      -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

      • (Score: 2) by captain normal on Wednesday April 11 2018, @02:08AM (5 children)

        by captain normal (2205) on Wednesday April 11 2018, @02:08AM (#665186)

        You've got to be careful because some Serrano peppers can be 150,000 ~ 200,000 Scoville units, nearly as much as habaneros.

        --
        When life isn't going right, go left.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 11 2018, @06:33AM (4 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 11 2018, @06:33AM (#665257)

          I've figured out my limits with each of the types.

          A good thing about chilis is that their hotness is roughly inversely proportional to their size.
          I dice them up and add them to food.
          The smaller ones, I pretty much mince.
          So far, so good.

          My problems have come when I'm not fastidious about cleaning out what's under my fingernails after preparing a meal with picante.
          Wiping my eye then becomes really unpleasant.
          Maybe I should look into a food processor.

          -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

          • (Score: 2) by Arik on Thursday April 12 2018, @12:12AM (1 child)

            by Arik (4543) on Thursday April 12 2018, @12:12AM (#665645) Journal
            Look into disposable gloves.
            --
            If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 12 2018, @12:30AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 12 2018, @12:30AM (#665656)

              Good idea.
              I've got plenty of produce bags and bread wrappers.
              That's even more economical.
              I used to use those. Don't recall why I stopped.

              -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

          • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday April 12 2018, @12:15AM

            by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Thursday April 12 2018, @12:15AM (#665646) Homepage Journal

            When I came back in about ten minutes later, the teacher asked me to step back outside so we could have a private discussion.

            Perhaps he was concerned I'd shit myself, but no, that was not to be:

            "I went home for lunch, then cooked a grilled cheese with hot peppers on it. I ran out of your class because I rubbed my eyes with spicy fingers, then ran to the boy's room to rinse my eyes out."

            He was down with that.

            --
            Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 12 2018, @06:10PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 12 2018, @06:10PM (#666082)

            Wiping my eye then becomes really unpleasant.

            Might want to be careful when peeing too, probably a lot less sensitive than the eyes but the really hot peppers might have some effect...

  • (Score: 2) by archfeld on Tuesday April 10 2018, @11:34PM (2 children)

    by archfeld (4650) <treboreel@live.com> on Tuesday April 10 2018, @11:34PM (#665141) Journal

    LOL I grow numerous varieties of peppers in part of my garden then slice them, very carefully deveining and deseeding them. I then roast them on the grill, outside mind you. When they have been roasted and dried I use an old coffee grinder and grind them into a rough powder that I use sparingly to flavor lots of things. I challenged my brother once to take a bite of a scotch bonnet pepper. OMG that was funny...

    --
    For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 11 2018, @12:50AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 11 2018, @12:50AM (#665164)

      A friend gave me some fresh hot peppers from his garden. He suggested I dry them, then grind for spicing things. They shriveled up (dried) nicely in a warm dry spot and turned from bright red to a dull reddish brown. Now stored carefully in a ziploc bag.

      When we need some hot pepper, one (about 2 inches / 5cm long) goes into a little coffee grinder (looks like a tiny blender), seeds and all, to be turned into powder. It does a good job of spicing a pot of chili (6-8 servings) to a comfortable "medium hot". We don't do this very often, don't have the tolerance for violently spicy-hot food.

      The little coffee grinder is carefully cleaned afterwords...

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 11 2018, @07:46AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 11 2018, @07:46AM (#665280)

    My dad brought some fresh peppers to a party many years ago. Among them were a few habaneros intended for slicing up into the host's salsa. He joked 'Anyone here want to eat one of these?' A rather macho acting guy, possibly trying to impress a date grabbed one and despite my dad telling him 'Dude, that will make you sick!' popped it in his mouth. That guy spent the rest of the night over the toilet puking his guts out.

    Why do I mention this? Because as long as I avoid the seeds, I can eat those whole with only a mild burning sensation in my mouth and throat. The seeds however are far more irregular in their heat, and getting them caught in your throat/swallowing the seed core whole can very well make you feel very sick unless you are eating hot peppers regularly.

    I went through some hotter varieties of jalapenos and then various other peppers before working up to eating any habaneros, and it took me two years of eating habanero salsa before I dared chew on a whole one. Doing otherwise is foolhardy, just like drinking large quantities of milk, or consuming lots of sugar, or anything else that can trigger your body to purge a percieved threat from its system.

    • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday April 12 2018, @12:19AM

      by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Thursday April 12 2018, @12:19AM (#665649) Homepage Journal

      That can cause a heart attack. I Am Absolutely Serious.

      My Happy Pills have a side effect called Psychogenic Polydipsia - "Thirst Of The Mind". I have a raging unquenchable thirst.

      A few months ago I asked if my coworker could take me to the Emergency Room. "Yes".

      I told the triage nurse about my thirst. Happily she didn't just tell me I had diabetes. While a raging unquenchable thirst is indeed a symptom of diabetes, in my particular case it is not.

      EKG was - happily - normal.

      A blood test showed that I had Hyponatremia - low sodium. The doc advised me to drink gatorade or tomato juice instead of water. I stopped drinking gatorade for tomato juice because gatorade doesn't really have much sodium.

      Note: "Hypo" not "Hyper". Hypo means roughly "less".

      --
      Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Wootery on Wednesday April 11 2018, @08:57AM

    by Wootery (2341) on Wednesday April 11 2018, @08:57AM (#665298)

    You're crazy alright, MDC.

  • (Score: 1) by infodragon on Wednesday April 11 2018, @04:28PM

    by infodragon (3509) on Wednesday April 11 2018, @04:28PM (#665419)

    It's not the consumption of the pepper I am most concerned with. I had a reaction to the diced habanero in a steak ranchero and the resulting waste was weaponized. It burned going in (very tasty) however, I thought I was dying when it left me... My anus burned for days after that weaponized habanero test!

    --
    Don't settle for shampoo, demand real poo!