April 10, 2018

Man eats a whole Carolina Reaper pepper and gets "thunderclap headaches."

The NYT reports:
Dr. Lawrence C. Newman, a neurologist and director of the headache division at NYU Langone Health, said, “On a one to ten scale, it’s off the charts.”....

The new study does suggest that capsaicin, being investigated for its role in alleviating pain and lowering blood pressure, can have unexpected effects on certain people....

The Reaper was bred to reach record levels of heat. Reached by phone at the PuckerButt Pepper Company in Fort Mill, S.C., the Reaper’s creator, Ed Currie, offered mixed advice on pepper consumption.

On the one hand, he said, “People who eat whole Reapers are just being stupid.” But Smokin’ Ed, as he calls himself, also gave the impression that wasn’t such a bad thing. “We eat them all the time,” he said, with no ill consequences beyond pain.

15 comments:

rehajm said...

An Orange Creamsicle® will extinguish the fire up to about a Scotch Bonnet or Habanero. Once you get over 250,000 Scoville all bets are off. A Carolina Reaper is well over 2 million SHU- yowza!

William said...

Someone in the firm has a poet's flair for naming peppers and pepper companies. Those Carolina Reapers are all over your mouth like a cheap dentist. See. It's not that easy to do.. .

gspencer said...

"The Merciless Pepper of Quetzalacatenango, also known as the Guatemalan Insanity Pepper, is an insanely hot type of pepper that Chief Wiggum serves in his chili at Springfield's Annual Chili Cook-Off. The peppers are so hot that the only way to eat them is to coat one's tongue and mouth with a protective substance such as candle wax, and those who do manage to eat them will find that they are hallucinogenic."

Wince said...

Oh yeah, I remember those late night gin joints and "thunderclap headaches"...

There is the blonde who gives you the up-from-under look and smells lovely and shimmers and hangs on your arm and is always very tired when you take her home. She makes that helpless gesture and has that goddamned headache and you would like to slug her except that you are glad you found out about the headache before you invested too much time and money and hope in her. Because the headache will always be there, a weapon that never wears out and is as deadly as the bravo's rapier or Lucrezia's poison vial.

Oso Negro said...

Perhaps it is just me, but ingesting anything with "Reaper" in its name seems an unsound practice.

Leland said...

Great example of "stupid is as stupid does"

Bill said...

I've heard of the Virginia Creeper and the California Reefer but never the Carolina Reaper.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

Here. Hold my Tabasco Sauce and watch this!

Clyde said...

For some, it's Carolina Reapers. For others, it's Tide Pods. Each no doubt would proclaim the merit of their favorite snack.

tcrosse said...

We got married in a fever, hotter than a pepper sprout.

Ralph L said...

No masochism tag?

Grandma said people who liked really spicy food were usually heavy drinkers. Or was it vice versa?

Churchy LaFemme: said...

We got married in a fever, hotter than a pepper sprout.

Holy Cow! I've gone over 40 years wondering what "Marietta Fever" was. Now it makes sense.

LordSomber said...

I like spicy food and have at least a dozen sauces and powders (including Trinidad Moruga Scorpion), but hot for the sake of hot is just sophomoric.

That said, capsaicin seems to release endorphins and ease depression, at least personally.

mikee said...

Anything can be a dildo, if you want it to be.
And no, I am not changing the subject from hot peppers.
Just being disgusting.

tcrosse said...

Sometimes a dildo is just a dildo.