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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 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.