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A healthy, 47-year-old man who ate a hamburger topped with pureed ghost pepper ended up in a San Francisco emergency room after a life-threatening retching fit:
The man's condition, a "spontaneous esophageal rupture," which is also called Boerhaave syndrome, is "a relatively rare phenomenon," said lead study author Dr. Ann Arens, who was a physician in the department of emergency medicine at the University of California, San Francisco at the time of the man's case in the summer of 2015. (Arens is currently an emergency medicine doctor and medical toxicologist at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.)
Spontaneous esophageal rupture is caused by violent vomiting and retching, Arens said. In other words, the man's reaction to the ghost pepper, rather than the pepper itself, caused the rupture, Arens said. The condition is very dangerous, and is fatal in 20 to 40 percent of all cases, even when patients receive treatment, the report said. "If [the condition is] left untreated, mortality approaches 100 percent," the authors wrote. When patients die from a ruptured esophagus, the cause of death is likely a "rapid and fatal infection," Arens told Live Science.
The man was sent home from the hospital 23 days after the operation, the report said. His feeding tube was still in place when he was sent home, but Arens said the tube was only temporary, until the esophagus healed. She said she believes the man is currently doing well. When Arens spoke to the man after the surgery, he "did not seem keen to try [eating a ghost pepper] again," she said.
Ghost peppers are also known as bhut jolokia. Also at USA Today.
Esophageal Rupture After Ghost Pepper Ingestion (DOI: 10.1016/j.jemermed.2016.05.061) (DX)
Spontaneous esophageal rupture, Boerhaave syndrome, is a rare condition encountered by emergency physicians, with a high mortality rate. This case serves as an important reminder of a potentially life-threatening surgical emergency initially interpreted as discomfort after a large spicy meal.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Wednesday October 19 2016, @03:03PM
I've never understood the "so spicy it screws up my whole body" mentality of "jock" eating. I like spicy. In fact, I often like things to be *really* spicy by typical American standards. Frequently when I order Indian, I'll ask for "extra spicy," and it rarely impresses. (Except for that one restaurant which actually seemed to give me "extra spicy" at the level which would actually be served in India; that was so painful I decided not to eat most of it.)
Everyone has a different threshold, and a little "pain" actually can enhance certain flavors. But at some point it becomes basically ALL pain, so you can't really even taste or enjoy the food anymore. Usually around that point your body starts reacting in ways that will make you increasingly uncomfortable -- sweating, hiccoughing, etc. (not to mention what one sometimes experiences several hours later as the spice makes its way out of your body).
I've eaten raw habeneros and Scotch bonnets. I won't do it again, because it's just not worth it. I'll cut them up into small pieces and use them in cooked food. But these new hybrids -- Ghost chilis, the Naga Viper, even the "Reaper" -- it's just insane. I suppose I could imagine using a form of them to put a small amount in large quantities of food, but putting a puree of them on top of your food? At that point you're so far beyond when your body is crying out "STOP, YOU IDIOT!" that, frankly, a story like this doesn't surprise me one bit.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday October 19 2016, @03:30PM
I started loving spicy food in Thailand. I have yet to find a Thai restaurant in America whose food tasted anything like Thai food. NOBODY uses real Thai peppers, it seems. They're tiny little things, but very potent. Start chewing on one and you'll sweat and your eyes will water. Great to get rid of a sinus headache, it really cleans your sinuses out.
I ate a whole ghost pepper a few years ago on a bet. I didn't puke until someone gave me milk to somehow make it less hot (makes no sense to me, something acidic will neutralize peppers' alkalinity but milk isn't acid). The pepper's aftertaste made the milk taste rancid.
Nasty hot things. I did win the bet, but it wasn't worth the five bucks I won. Fifty, maybe.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 19 2016, @03:32PM
I'll give you 25 to try it again, but without milk.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 19 2016, @03:43PM
I didn't puke until someone gave me milk to somehow make it less hot (makes no sense to me, something acidic will neutralize peppers' alkalinity but milk isn't acid)
Capsaicin binds with fats, not with water. Milk contains a lot of fat which will prevent it from depositing on you and thus it makes things 'less spicy' (and similarly, any capsaicin on you already will be teased off and convinced to bind with the fat in the milk). This is also why cultures that eat very spicy almost always have a yogurt- or milk-based condiment.
If you just had something super spicy, and are in a lot of pain, one of the worst things you can do is drink water because all it does is distribute the capsaicin around in your mouth even more.
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Thursday October 20 2016, @03:22AM
Something I'm curious about is how the pickled ginger at sushi restaurants kills the wasabi spice. I mean, I get too much wasabi, and I roll a piece of ginger around on my tongue and it's just gone. I didn't think there was really any significant amount of fat in ginger, otherwise I'd think people would sell ginger oil. Maybe they do and I've just never noticed?
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 1) by GDX on Thursday October 20 2016, @04:20AM
Because wasabi don't contains capsaicin, the capsaicin is basically exclusive to the peppers but I'n not sure if also can be found in some relatives of the Solanacea family. The wasabi is from the Brassicaceae family like the horseradish and the mustard and it have basically the same chemistry for it hotness ( mainly due to the "allyl isothiocyanate").
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday October 20 2016, @12:29PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Informative) by rufty on Wednesday October 19 2016, @03:46PM
The idea is the spicy substance, capsaicin, is oily and doesn't dissolve well in water, but does in fat as in whole milk. But you'd be better chugging a bottle of olive oil.
(Score: 4, Informative) by AthanasiusKircher on Wednesday October 19 2016, @03:47PM
I didn't puke until someone gave me milk to somehow make it less hot (makes no sense to me, something acidic will neutralize peppers' alkalinity but milk isn't acid).
That's not why people recommend milk. Capsaicin doesn't dissolve in water, but it does dissolve in fat and other things (e.g., ethanol). Apparently, the milkfat in milk helps to dissolve the capsaicin, and more importantly the casein in milk can help bind it (and effectively neutralize it). Whereas drinking water (as the guy in TFA did) will just spread the capsaicin around more and make things worse. But there's an obvious limit to the effectiveness of milk (and dairy products in general), and some people seem to find it works better than others.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Wednesday October 19 2016, @04:10PM
As a rule of thumb, the smaller the pepper, the hotter. The milk thing works for me. The hotness of peppers isn't due to alkalinity.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 19 2016, @04:35PM
Forget milk. At least after ingestion of peppers.
Dry bread. Soak up the remaining capsaicin oil (along with saliva, etc.) and get it into your stomach where the most it might cause is hideous ingestion and (if your body isn't prepared by regular spice ingestion) ulcers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 19 2016, @05:14PM
If you're in Portland, OR, try Baan Thai, off Broadway Ave near PSU campus.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 19 2016, @04:11PM
that was so painful I decided not to eat most of it
This is why most restaurants do not serve much above the typical "American standards" unless you are a regular. A strategy that I use is to ask for extra chilli on the side, so I can add as much as I like.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 19 2016, @05:52PM
This is why most restaurants do not serve much above the typical "American standards" unless you are a regular. A strategy that I use is to ask for extra chilli on the side, so I can add as much as I like.
Someone I knew told of his disaster ordering the hottest spicing on a meal. He was a regular at a restaurant that served spicy food, Thai IIRC. The food was rated on a scale of 1 to 10. Most Americans couldn't handle above a 5 or 6, but this fellow regularly ate at a 7 and sometimes an 8. One day he decided to go for 10. The waiter wouldn't let him. Eventually, he got the manager, who wouldn't let him either. Eventually, his persistence made them bring out the owner, who offered him a free meal if he'd take an 8 instead. Finally he won out and got a 10 but suffered terribly from the first small taste. He said to save face he had to eat every bite while people watched though it felt like it was giving him blisters.
I used to like spicy but not that spicy. De gustibus non est disputandum
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday October 19 2016, @04:17PM
The whole "jock" mentality is that your body crying out "STOP, YOU IDIOT!" is a signal to keep doing what you're doing, rather than to, you know, stop. That kind of thinking leads to more than a few Darwin Awards.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 19 2016, @05:11PM
I was going to make a comment about this being a hipster joint and the guy didn't know what he was getting into... but...
47 years old, a puree of one of the hottest peppers ever... Yeah, he's to blame, I can't even imagine a restaurant doing this as a prank or serving this as a regular thing. I'm glad they left the name out so as not to give them bad press over a customer's bad choice.
(Score: 3, Informative) by edIII on Wednesday October 19 2016, @05:27PM
A ghost pepper is not that bad. My first experience was the "jock" one because I wanted to try it. I got over halfway through before needing to stop, but I didn't hurt myself. The indigestion though, holy shit. Actually, molten hot lava shit, but that was afterwards.
Where it gets insane is using 20-30 peppers for a meal. That's fucking nuts, but I'll still eat a chicken wing or two for the heat.
I grow Ghost peppers and eat them regularly. Sometimes I'll eat one raw for fun, but they're truly best minced in olive oil and allowed to mellow for 30 days. You take a nice mellowed teaspoon of it and mix it in with chili and it's less hot than habenero, but better tasting.
Out of all the peppers, Ghost has been the best for me by far. To cook and eat with, not just blow somebody away :)
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 19 2016, @11:49PM
Yeah. There's an old joke about a guy who makes sure he orders ice cream to have after he eats the hot stuff.
Later, on the toilet, he's saying Come on, ice cream. [google.com]
A ghost pepper is not that bad
The hell you say.
Normal people might use ONE per GALLON of salsa--and then warn folks.
When I make a pot of rice (1 cup of dry rice), I often add finely-diced peppers; my limit is 4 serranos.
A Serrano may be a bit shorter than a Jalapeno and is a bit skinnier. [google.com]
As has been noted, picante is reliably inversely proportional to size. [deharris.com]
The next thing up from that and which is common is a Habanero.
That's beyond my tolerance.
...then there's Pasillias or Anaheims for -real- gabachos. [google.com]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by edIII on Thursday October 20 2016, @12:31AM
I think the dude's name is Cheech, and I know the scene :)
Granted, I can tolerate a lot more heat than the average person, but it still isn't that bad :)
Remember, I said it mellowed after a few weeks. Some peppers can mellow, while other peppers seem to get hotter with age. Ghost peppers are the mellowing variety as near as I can tell. I think that one teaspoon was out of at least 8oz, and the whole thing only had 3 or 4 of them.
It mellows, trust me. When it has mellowed the taste surprised me. I mean I could still taste it raw, but the mellow flavor it has is really nice.
I promise :)
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 19 2016, @09:58PM
"Darwin Sandwich"
(Score: 2) by Marand on Thursday October 20 2016, @04:50AM
I've never understood the "so spicy it screws up my whole body" mentality of "jock" eating. I like spicy. In fact, I often like things to be *really* spicy by typical American standards.
People always seem to assume that because they think it's too hot, then it must be too hot for everyone and the only reason to eat it is one-upmanship. I love super spicy food and insanely hot peppers, and it has nothing to with "jock eating".
A big part of it to me is the peppers' flavour, but if you don't eat the really spicy stuff often enough you wouldn't know it because you won't taste anything in those peppers except the pain. I don't know if it's normal (I suspect it is), but over time I've become able to eat hotter and hotter peppers and now I barely notice the milder ones that most people consider spicy. Maybe it's because I've been eating spicy food for so long, frequently pushing the limit of what I can eat, and I built a tolerance.
Whatever the reason, I can eat habaneros on (and in) food the way most people eat jalapenos, and I started to notice that these superhot peppers have different, often fruity tastes. They're good in food, but only if you get where you can handle the heat. Right now I'd say ghost peppers are about my limit, though I have a carolina reaper based hot sauce that tastes great but is difficult to eat except in small doses.
That said, some people will do stupid shit to show off or to try winning an eating contest, yeah. But that's far from the only reason to eat this stuff.