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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.


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  • (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...