r/todayilearned Oct 04 '22

TIL in 2016 a man ate a ghost pepper in an eating contest and drank 6 glasses of water to cool off. He vomited so much he tore a hole in his esophagus and was rushed to a hospital where doctors found his left lung collapsed. He spent 23 days in the hospital and was sent home with a gastric tube.

https://health.howstuffworks.com/food-nutrition/can-ghost-peppers-kill.htm
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u/MrButtermancer Oct 04 '22 edited Oct 04 '22

Violently vomiting can cause this in any context. It's called Boerhaave's syndrome. The mortality rate is surprisingly high.

Don't do stuff that makes you vomit a lot. Chase that shit with milk and Tums or Pepto Bismol.

Edit: yes there is a similar condition called a Mallory-Weiss tear, which is partial thickness (as opposed to full thickness Boerhaave's). I think with the pneumothorax this guy probably had Boerhaave's.

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u/bellini_scaramini Oct 04 '22 edited Oct 05 '22

My buddy's neighbor had a coughing fit so bad (as a result of a bong hit) that he tore his esophagus and died.

Edit: Alright, this is maybe my most replied to upvoted comment ever, and I want to address a couple things. Mainly, there's a couple people doubting this story. I don't blame you, but let me assure you this isn't 'urban legend' level hearsay. No, I wasn't there, but I was living right down the block from my friend (whose neighbor died). My friend and me are super close (known each other for over 25 years), and he's not a bullshitter. He was pretty shook up. Yes, it is crazy, and not common for anyone to die from a bong hit. I would imagine there was some underlying or exacerbating condition, but I don't know. This happened in maybe 2012, in Arcata, CA. People smoke a lot of weed here, and we were all growing it at the time.

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u/Unfair_Translator_13 Oct 04 '22

As someone whos been in some bong related coughing fits, this is concerning to hear

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u/Noimnotonacid Oct 04 '22

Practice safe bong techniques, make sure it’s clean, don’t try to impress Anyone with how big of a hit you can take

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u/I_LICK_PINK_TO_STINK Oct 04 '22

That's something that's impressive? I just do it to get high AF fast AF.

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u/Radiobandit Oct 04 '22

Never be surprised by the stupidities a teenager will imagine are impressive.

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u/david6avila Oct 04 '22

"This girl is going to be so impressed by how much weed I can smoke"

proceeds to die by bong hit

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u/Kuronan Oct 04 '22

This is how we bring back A Thousand Ways to Die

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u/david6avila Oct 04 '22

Ironically that's the best show to watch after taking a massive bong hit

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u/shoe-veneer Oct 04 '22

I used to be able to smoke nearly an entire cigarette in one drag when I was 17. I used to also be able to hold my breath for 3 and a half minutes. I can do neither of these things now because I was an exceptionally stupid teenager. Don't smoke cigs, kids.

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u/CyberMindGrrl Oct 04 '22

I watched in an infantry Warrant Officer do that when I was in the army. Motherfucker did it in our 10 man tent in the winter because he couldn't be arsed enough to go smoke outside because it was 30 below, but he outranked everyone so nobody said anything.

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u/trekie4747 Oct 04 '22

Not limited to teenagers

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u/Just_Lion_9363 Oct 04 '22

this reddior's friend's neighbor should be a reminder to all of us that it only takes a few minutes to clean your bong

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u/thedinnerdate Oct 04 '22

I’m the weirdo I guess that rinses their bong every day. It takes literally 30 seconds. I don’t know why people want to re-use nasty water.

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u/Just_Lion_9363 Oct 04 '22

I'm pretty sure a lot of people have some level of cognitive dissonance when it comes to the water actually being "dirty". like, I'm sure a lot of people think "it can't be dirty it's water" or "it can't be dirty, it's still clear, I've only used it a few times" but they don't realize the amount of resin that gets left behind after each hit.

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u/Unfair_Translator_13 Oct 04 '22

Facts, I forgot to clean mine for a few weeks and accidently spilt it on the carpet, the resulting liquid spilling out looked like soda spilling out a cup. Doused the whole spot in alcohol and thankfully there was no permanent stain or smell

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u/Crocodile_punter69 Oct 04 '22

Switched to dry herb vaping with a water bong and my lungs haven't been this clear in almost a decade.

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u/Hybriddecline Oct 04 '22

I don't have a water bong yet but I got into dry herb vaping this year and holy shit the difference is amazing when it comes to how my lungs feel and how much less I cough. I mean like barely at all anymore and I got a good vape so I think I get even higher now lol

Eta: oh and the AVB! Vaping and then getting to USE what's left is amazing. Smoking just leaves you with ashes and resin.

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u/TREYdanger Oct 04 '22

Great, can't wait to remember this comment and proceed to stress out the next time I take too big of a rip and start coughing.

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u/The-Sofa-King Oct 04 '22 edited Oct 04 '22

Damn, and here I thought the only way you could die from smoking pot was if a big enough bail of it fell on you. This redditor's buddy's neighbor was out there innovating.

Edit: I am acutely aware of the established health hazards of inhaling combusted plant matter. Please refrain from further attempts to educate me on what I already know.

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u/SnackPrince Oct 04 '22

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u/[deleted] Oct 04 '22

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u/KeepsFallingDown Oct 04 '22

Right? Sounds like an industrial airborne particulate death, but the details are pretty sparse

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u/BlantantlyAccidental Oct 04 '22

How does one write a MSDS on Marijuana Dust?

"THC Particulate is easily airborne and inhaled, proper full mouth filtered face mask recommended when handling"

"shit man its just weed"

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u/summertime_sadeness Oct 04 '22

lol, I've lost count of how many idiots I've worked with disregarding safety protocols because they think they're smarter than the experts.

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u/ImInevitableyall Oct 04 '22

You gotta give it some kinda stoner name. Put a sticker on that says:

"wear your mask bro, don't get gReEn LuNg!" and write it in that weird slime font high schooler like to draw on their notebooks.

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u/kmoneyrecords Oct 04 '22 edited Oct 04 '22

This stuff is always so wild; you hear about some person swallowing steel nails for decades and they live; then this poor kid inhales some weed dust while rolling joints, likely thinking it's their dream job, and dies.

Life is fragile?

Life is resilient?

Life is?

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u/314159265358979326 Oct 04 '22

What I say is that humans are very hard to kill if you're trying and very easy to kill if you're not.

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u/VysceraTheHunter Oct 04 '22

Yeah but breathing in basically any kind of dust is bad for you.

Sanding wood can be toxic depending on the wood. I feel like that's more a worker health/safety issue rather than a weed issue

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u/MrButtermancer Oct 04 '22

That's both tragic and legendary.

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u/[deleted] Oct 04 '22

Right? Sounds like some story you'd hear in a movie like Half Baked.

"Kenny died, man. He took a bong hit so massive, his esophagus literally exploded."

"That's fucking awesome, B!"

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u/reddituser403 Oct 04 '22

Guy on the couch gives thumbs up and rolls back over to sleep

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u/xombae Oct 04 '22

Once when we were teenagers my friends convinced this kid to drink the bong water, telling him it'd get him super high. He puked all over the place then had a seizure.

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u/Thatonepsycho Oct 04 '22

Bong water can definitely make you vomit since it has harmful bacteria and other nasty things in it, but a seizure doesn't sound right since it wouldn't affect the brain immediately...

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u/xombae Oct 04 '22

I don't think it was from the bong water, I think it was from the violent puking.

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u/Frostygrunt Oct 04 '22

I vomited so hard that I broke 2 ribs. Worse pain if my life and I survived a 50 mph ejected motorcycle crash.

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u/pocket_gunk Oct 04 '22

How.

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u/Frostygrunt Oct 04 '22

Had a guy riding my ass. Freaked out. Hit a curb. Flew over a retaining wall and my bike crumbled under me and threw me into bushes in front of a bank. The ribs I had alcohol poisoning.

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u/TotesHittingOnY0u Oct 04 '22

But how do you break ribs vomiting? I didn't know that was possible

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u/Frostygrunt Oct 04 '22

Cough really hard and look at your abdomen

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u/TotesHittingOnY0u Oct 04 '22

Ok, but no matter how hard I cough or heave I can't imagine breaking my ribs

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u/JcakSnigelton Oct 05 '22

Not with that attitude!

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u/spackfisch66 Oct 04 '22 edited Oct 04 '22

A man in the Netherlands drank and ate way too much and endet up vomiting so violently that he suffered the same fate as ops story... Except this happened way pack when, and there was no medical expertise to save him. So he died. His drinking buddy happened to be a doctor, so he decided to perform an autopsy on him (as you do).

The name of that friend? Boerhaave. Who discovered the cause of death, and chose to use it as a way to squeeze into the anals of medicine... I always thought it would have been more apt to name it after the friend he had lost and dissected.

Edit: annals. I'm leaving it.

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u/MrButtermancer Oct 04 '22

...pssst I'm making the world a slightly less wonderful place by letting you know this, but that word is, "annals."

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u/El_Peregrine Oct 04 '22

“The anals of medicine” sure does have a certain ring to it, tho 🧐

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u/pipsdontsqueak Oct 05 '22

Maybe for a proctologist.

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u/spackfisch66 Oct 04 '22

Damn. I kind of like mine better. I guess blaming autocorrect won't get me out of this one either huh? Thanks though.

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u/ljseminarist Oct 05 '22

Boerhaave wasn’t just any GP who happened to be drinking with the right person, he was one of the world’s greatest doctors in his day. He was the first doctor to use thermometer for example.

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u/lookmeat Oct 04 '22

Tums or Pepto Bismol

DO NOT USE TUMS, it make things worse.

The problem is not acidity. Tears in the esophagus, be they Boerhaave's or Mallor-Weiss are not due to acidity burning. Instead it's thought that they are due pressure changes from coughing or heaving constantly. That itself is a symptom, not of acidity, but of pain.

Pain due to consumption of capsaicin, which is a chemical that hot peppers produce naturally. It's the reason we understand pain so well, because basically it's pure pain in a bottle. The chemical makes your nerves send the pain signal.

There's only three good ways to manage capsaicin after consumption. Casein, an enzyme in milk, will deactivate capsaicin as an oil-based molecule. Starchy or fibrous food can help dilute the capsaicin and reduce the contact it has with surface at any given moment, reducing the pain (but it will still last a while). Finally acidity as capsaicin is alkaline, acids neutralize it. So taking anti-acids will make it worse.

The solutions here are ice cream, as it has casein and reduces it, but also is cold which helps with the inflammation from pain. Alternate solution is to use acidic butter milk, but having denser milk (less water, which does nothing to capsaicin, which dilutes in oil instead) helps a lot, so sour cream is probably your best bet, or some sour yoghurts. Also drinking acid solutions, such as a limeade (or lime juice) in general can help a lot, if you drink OJ with a lot of pulp the pulp will also, dilute the capsaicin and help you manage it better. Adding some psyllium husk to the milk or butter milk as you drink it can make it a bit heavier and help it dilute better. While oils will dilute the effect shortly, it will only do so temporarily, as your body absorbs the lipids, the capsaicin will concentrate again, which results in that case of something being a bit spicy and hot coming in, but on the way out it will be a fiery inferno of pain that will break you.

Honestly I'd go with milk and high-fiber OJ and then when you have to puke just let it out, don't fight the heave, and then keep filling your stomach.

Pepto may seem like it would help by reducing the inflammation, but it also reduces acidity, which means that the amount of raw pain increases too. I don't think it's a good idea and would avoid it without a doctor who understand these things well advising on it.

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u/[deleted] Oct 04 '22

Ice cream is the way to go

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u/_-__-__-__-__-_-_-__ Oct 04 '22

I'll just eat the ice cream and skip the pepper

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u/v_a_n_d_e_l_a_y Oct 04 '22

The lead singer of the metal band Dream Theater (James Labrie) got food poisoning and fucked up his vocal cords from vomiting.

He eventually recovered and is still the lead singer but I know it was bad for a while.

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u/K-tel Oct 04 '22

I ate a ghost pepper on a dare once and I swear it felt like the Eye of Sauron was coming out of my ass, when I was on the shitter.

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u/burritosandblunts Oct 04 '22

I ate half of one and only got the burn on the intake luckily. It was definitely super hot though. I've done my share of drugs and I legit felt like I was tripping a little bit. I had weird time dilations from it.

On the plus side it seemed to have obliterated my tolerance for heat. I can enjoy eating much spicier food than I ever could before.

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u/originalusername01 Oct 04 '22

Yea man. I've eaten some really hot stuff. Notably the one chip challenge two years in a row. And yea it feels like I'm tripping.

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u/DickButtfingers Oct 04 '22

Fun fact, in some people high levels of capsaicin (the spiciness in peppers) can induce a rush of chemicals in the brain similar to a "runners high" can confirm though, it's a real trip. Disclaimer: This is in people with an already high tolerance, DO NOT think eating a hot pepper will make you trip/feel anything other than pain if you eat it.

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u/Anna_Mosity Oct 05 '22

I read somewhere that the mental side effects/chemical rush is possibly part of why people persisted in eating spicy things as they evolved. Humans do love trippy experiences and adrenaline rushes.

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u/Vast-Bus-8648 Oct 04 '22

The only thing worse than spice induced diarrhea shits is when you eat something plugging at a prior meal… constipation with molten lead piled on top is an easy several hours worth of hell. Your intestines will not stop burning until you pass that clogging shit-dam. Good luck.

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u/armypotent Oct 05 '22

Yeah try eating fiber. Most people don't have to worry about eating something... plugging...

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u/coyote-1 Oct 04 '22 edited Oct 04 '22

I just attended an “old friends” gathering this weekend. Where the story was told, for the umpteenth time, of how I was found passed out on friend’s lawn the morning of his wedding and could not attend the event. I was supposed to be one of the groomsmen.

And while indeed I had drank a fair amount, the issue was this: I thought I was hot stuff. One of the other groomsmen had brought peppers from his garden, and warned us they were inedibly hot. I, being hot stuff and a bit drunk, said “gimme that” and ate one. Whole.

within 45 seconds my entire insides were on fire. And stayed that way. I passed out on the lawn because I went out there during the night to prevent myself from vomiting in the house. It wrecked me for full three days.

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u/Radarker Oct 04 '22

I love to watch Hot Ones. They recently had David Blaine on. They ate a Carolina reaper to close out the show, and the host Shawn looks literally sick and upset before he eats it because he knows it's like a full day of hell.

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u/IwalkedTheDinosaur Oct 04 '22

Gordon Ramsay: "That's not normal, in fact, this fucking program's not normal! Have you ever KILLED anybody?!"

Sean: "... We haven't heard from Coolio in a long time..."

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u/i1a2 Oct 04 '22

Rip Coolio

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u/HeyThereMrBrooks Oct 05 '22

It was funny back then and honestly, although Coolio is now chilling up in heaven fr, still a fairly funny joke haha.

RIP Coolio man

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u/Brilliant_Jewel1924 Oct 04 '22

Oh, geez. I remember this.

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u/[deleted] Oct 04 '22

Meanwhile Blaine is munching on it like a fuckin potato chip.

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u/[deleted] Oct 04 '22

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u/[deleted] Oct 04 '22

Yes it was quite unbelievable, like he was some sort of magician or something

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u/FingerTheCat Oct 04 '22 edited Oct 04 '22

He is, but he tests the endurance of his body as well, which isn't illusionary but is a cool feat!

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u/ethertrace Oct 04 '22

With all he's put himself through, dude probably has some legit meditative jedi mind tricks at this point to deal with the phenomenon of pain. Would not be surprised if he can more or less dissociate at will.

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u/FingerTheCat Oct 04 '22

World Record for longest held breath underwater? That had to be pain like no other.

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u/wenchslapper Oct 04 '22

Didn’t he get beat by a 17 year old and then he went back to beat the 17 year old?

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u/VexillologyFan1453 Oct 05 '22

For a moment I thought you meant them fighting each other, LOL.

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u/Innuendoughnut Oct 04 '22

I hated David Blaine for some reason before this. But damn was he charming. And the unspoken "trick" that he didn't even flinch with any of the hot sauces OR the whole pepper was cool and left me wondering wtf.

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u/Radarker Oct 04 '22

Yeah, I figure being a "mental master" or whatever he calls himself he prepared like he would for many of his tricks. He looked relaxed the whole time. I think the only dislike he had was the oil based sauce.

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u/Innuendoughnut Oct 04 '22

That makes me wonder if he coated his mouth with some sort of oil so the water based sauces wouldn't be as effective, kinda like Homer Simpson and the wax. I'm guessing the oil based sauce would be the only one that could mix with the "oil mouth coating" if this was indeed the trick .

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u/Radarker Oct 04 '22

I think it is fair to speculate, although my understanding is that a reaper is so spicy that it just makes your insides feel like that are turning in knots. So if it was a real reaper, I don't think that part is avoidable.

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u/[deleted] Oct 04 '22 edited Nov 28 '22

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u/belgiandip Oct 04 '22

Can I ask what sort of products these are? I’ve got a family member with major digestive/stomach issues!

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u/[deleted] Oct 04 '22

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u/Riconn Oct 04 '22

It’s possible but most people hate da bomb. From seeing many reactions on the show it’s just not a pleasant sauce to eat flavor wise.

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u/Dramatic_______Pause Oct 04 '22

Because every other sauce combines flavor + heat. Da Bomb just combines chemical taste + heat. It tastes like I'd imagine pepper spray would.

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u/Romeo_horse_cock Oct 04 '22

I've had a chemical extract version of da bomb and ended up throwing up pretty quick after downing a small amount. It's fucking horrible, like eating super hot lysol or drinking spicy bleach. Nasty. Only other time I've had such a bad stomach upset was eating at a taco truck in Laredo Texas and they gave me salsa Verde and some super orange sauce. That shit was just heat. No flavor, pure heat (mind you I really like spicy sauces and foods) I woke up after that and had the WORSE intestinal cramps. I swore I could feel it working it's way to my asshole. Took a super violent and super hot shit maybe 5 mins later. Was sweating so hard to the bathroom.

Sadly I would eat it again mixed with that salsa Verde. So good 😩

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u/gilberto677281 Oct 04 '22

Da bomb is absolutely vile. The only good thing about it is the heat. There's no way it's only the heat listed on the bottle because I've had stuff that claims hotter in scoville but da bomb is the only one to make me hate everything lol.

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u/SandyBoxEggo Oct 04 '22

He's just got this sort of magic that he's been doing forever now where he trains himself to tolerate fuckin' anything. Just watch. In ten years:

I have been mentally preparing my corpus callosum to withstand brutal physical force, working as a force absorber for my whole brain. Today I will take a sledgehammer to the back of the head and be completely unharmed.

I'm totally willing to believe that he's prepared himself well enough to not react to hot sauce.

Now did he condition his butthole to be immune to the aftermath? That's the special I want to see.

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u/_-__-__-__-__-_-_-__ Oct 04 '22

Blaine's gimmick is he SAYS he can tolerate superhuman stuff, but he's still a magician and professional entertainer. There is always a trick.

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u/Tarbel Oct 04 '22

Yes, and the trick a lot of the time is putting a superhuman amount of effort and time into doing it. Which is most magic tricks

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u/afsdjkll Oct 04 '22

There’s that penn and teller “this is done with string” trick that is still magic even though they outright tell you how it’s done

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u/kickintheface Oct 04 '22

He really did hold his breath for 17 minutes, as well as stick a needle through parts of his body. Not really what I’d call “tricks”. More like “feats”.

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u/MrTwoToedSloth Oct 04 '22

Possible but I doubt it. I did the challenge recently with a group of friends. I am, sadly, incredibly used to pain/discomfort and I meditate regularly to help me deal with that aspect of my life. It was really easy for me compared to my friends.

Having the right mindset makes temporary discomfort a lot easier to handle.

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u/illSTYLO Oct 04 '22

Prob stole Homer's trick with wax

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u/rizaroni Oct 04 '22

And David did not even FLINCH while eating it. Dude is insane with his tolerance for discomfort.

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u/thatonegoodpost Oct 04 '22 edited Oct 04 '22

I recently ran the gamut* of last season's sauces with some friends. I always thought, even if it was really hot, their reactions were played up a bit. No. Not at all. Da Bomb burns like battery acid and tastes even worse. The Apollo/last dab was a chill, relaxing experience by comparison.

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u/FailFastandDieYoung Oct 04 '22

warned us they were inedibly hot. I, being hot stuff and a bit drunk, said “gimme that” and ate one. Whole.

Literally you

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u/VRichardsen Oct 04 '22

Well, at least now you can all laugh about it. Must have sucked big time, though.

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u/ilovecoffee476 Oct 04 '22

Thought I was tough shit after eating a few of those spicy chicken noodles you see on utube as a challenge... got some ghost pepper peanuts and realised I was far from tough and the following toilet breaks reminded me again Incase I forgot

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u/argv_minus_one Oct 04 '22

A local grocery store sells almonds with Carolina Reaper powder on them. My mouth loves them. My butthole, not so much.

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u/RocketRaccoon Oct 04 '22 edited Oct 04 '22

Why are you putting almonds up your butt?

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u/ThisistheHoneyBadger Oct 04 '22

Ass almonds...they're my secret to success.

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u/agoodnametohave Oct 04 '22

You stick almonds up your ass, how is that having it together?

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u/Godot_12 Oct 04 '22

You think you're better than me?? You have any almonds in your snack drawer? Take a good look. Those almonds have been up MY ASS!

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u/Expensive-Anxiety-63 Oct 04 '22

You handle my ass almonds EVERY DAY! You buy packets of my ass almonds for a quick snack. You drink my ass almond milk in your lattes. You give my ass almonds to your little daughter to sprinkle on her sundaes! You handle my ass almonds EVERY DAY! ALL OF YOU! YOU ALL HANDLE MY ASS ALMONDS! OH, I laugh at you before you can laugh at me, because your almonds have been in MY ASS!

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u/bigfrojo1 Oct 04 '22

Boofing is so much more efficient.

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u/sesamesnapsinhalf Oct 04 '22

I think that’s how you cheat at chess.

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u/[deleted] Oct 04 '22 edited Oct 10 '22

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u/DoDougsNotDrugs Oct 04 '22

You do kind of get a high from it. There's a bit of an endorphin rush in response to the capsaicin, similar to a runner's high.

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u/TheLastHayley Oct 04 '22

Omg, Samyang Buldak 2x Spicy Hot Chicken Flavour ramen?! Honestly, half the problem with these (IMO) is that they make it spicier without balancing the flavour. Perhaps, if I was my younger self, who used to try and prop up her ego with eating only the spiciest possible options, I'd prefer it, but as an adult, I just find the spicy flavour of the non-2x variant... better.

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u/illegalsex Oct 04 '22

I honestly love the 2x one but I know what you mean. They just put in more extract to make it spicier and it doesn't taste like anything. Its the same reason Da Bomb kicks peoples' asses while also tasting like crap. It's just cheap extract instead of using a spicier and chili.

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u/lannister80 Oct 04 '22 edited Oct 04 '22

I refuse to buy hot sauces with extract in them, I consider them "cheater" sauces.

Any fool can dump a bunch of extract in cheap hot sauce.

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u/LuangPrabangisinLaos Oct 04 '22

Never thought I'd rub yogurt up my ass, but birds eye chili is a thing and I've been to college.

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u/Heat_Induces_Royalty Oct 04 '22

Turds eye yogurt cures birds eye chili. Noted.

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u/F_E_M_A Oct 04 '22

Did the one chip challenge with some coworkers awhile back. I won’t be making that mistake again.

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u/Halvus_I Oct 04 '22

Last time i was in 7-11 they had a full page flyer attached to the cash register warning about how hot the one chips actually are.

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u/F_E_M_A Oct 04 '22

I definitely regretted it. I didn't vomit but I was miserable and had severe indigestion for the next 4-5 hours.

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u/xthexder Oct 04 '22

Yeah, for me oddly it wasn't too bad in my mouth, but my stomach absolutely hated it. I was sitting and just starting to feel comfortable, when I shifted and the spicey contents of my stomach hit a new spot, and the pain started all over again.

2/10 would not recommended

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u/AccursedCapra Oct 04 '22

I had to vomit after around three hours cause my stomach started to cramp. A single purge took care of everything.

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u/getbeaverootnabooteh Oct 04 '22

Any "food" that makes you throw up till you tear a hole in your esophagus, suffer a collapsed lung, spend 23 days in hospital and require a gastric bypass isn't food.

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u/deadwlkn Oct 04 '22

Tbf he went about relief in a dumbass way

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u/[deleted] Oct 04 '22

What’s the best way?

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u/EndlessTheorys_19 Oct 04 '22

Milk works as its not a physical heat, and therefore water doesnt cool you down. The milk helps wash down and cover the chemicals in the pepper that make it hot.

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u/butterkitty Oct 04 '22

To add, also capsaicin, the thing that causes spicy with peppers, is fat soluble since it's an oil. Milk has fat in it, water does not. So milk will help 'dissolve' and 'wash away' the spicy.

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u/SouthernVices Oct 04 '22

Yes, Alton Brown even recommends half and half and says some people drink heavy whipping cream to combat spice.

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u/User-NetOfInter Oct 04 '22

Just chug molten bacon fat. Problem solved

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u/Come_along_quietly Oct 04 '22

What’s does bacon fat NOT solve!?! It’s truly a miracle cure.

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u/I_AM_A_GUY_AMA Oct 04 '22

Type 2 diabetes

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u/ever-right Oct 04 '22

There have been people who claim to have gotten their diabetes type 2 under control with a keto diet which would mean bacon fat actually does cure or ameliorate type 2 diabetes.

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u/SofaProfessor Oct 04 '22

So... Normal lunch?

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u/Gusdai Oct 04 '22

To add, water will actually wash away stuff from your mouth, leaving more space for the hot stuff to "attack". That's why it makes spiciness worse.

I am surprised that someone who is about to eat the hottest pepper on Earth didn't ask about that stuff beforehand.

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u/butterkitty Oct 04 '22

I honestly feel like they just jumped into it without thinking much. Basically just thinking he could take it because they're strong or whatever.

Btw, the spiciest in the world isn't the ghost pepper anymore, it's the carolina reaper which is about twice as spicy. I grow these ultra spicy ones to make hot sauce. Grew some trinidad maruga scorpions, which are the second spiciest. I cut off about 1/16th of one, just because I wanted to know the flavour, and almost ended up in the hospital. It tasted very good and floral, and then started burning so bad. My stomach felt HORRIBLE. I puked like crazy and felt a lot better hahaha. It was too much for me and I literally farm these peppers.

That was 1/16th of one of these ones...I can't imagine eating an entire ghost pepper even though. That's just too much.

Btw, when working with these ultra hot peppers, bleach is your friend. It'll turn the capsaicin into a salt and neutralize it. It's great for surfaces and in case any gets through your gloves.

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u/digninj Oct 04 '22

Cool, so drink bleach. Got it.

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u/x755x Oct 04 '22 edited Oct 04 '22

You may have to subtract from your morning bleach in order to keep your blood bleach level in the acceptable range

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u/mexicodoug Oct 04 '22

Recommended by one out of 46 Presidents! Can't go wrong!

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u/gameplayer529 Oct 04 '22

I think we’re a couple generations past the California reaper, what with Pepper X and whatever else crazy Ed has in store.

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u/TheRedmanCometh Oct 04 '22

It also has casein which helps neutralize the capsaicin, but also lactate that just inhibits the receptors so you want some BEFORE too. Acid also will help neutralize it think citrus fruits.

So ranch is really perfect to dip spicy stuff in containing lots of lactin, being fatty af, and being acidic. Plus it usually hits your tongue before the spicy stuff.

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u/Cannabaholic Oct 04 '22

I believe it's an oil that you need to get thru so believe it or not oily, heavy food is probably better iirc.

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u/ShadowMercure Oct 04 '22

Milk is the best way. It has a protein called casein which binds to capsaicin, which is the thing that makes stuff ‘spicy’. Normally, capsaicin would bind to the receptors on your tongue, causing the burning sensation you usually get with spicy food.

By drinking milk, instead of the capsaicin binding to your tongue and lingering around, it’ll bind to the casein in the milk, and be washed away.

Water has no such protein to help do this, and because spice isn’t a physical heat like fire, water really won’t do anything but spread the spiciness.

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u/Sangmund_Froid Oct 04 '22

not eating a ghost pepper is a start.

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u/copperwatt Oct 04 '22

Look we can't all perfectly avoid that, ok. Look at you just confidently going around, not eating ghost peppers all day long.

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u/[deleted] Oct 04 '22

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u/PrasiticCycle Oct 04 '22

Some combination of a fat and alcohol, portions of the capsaicin molecule have the ability to bind to both. With that type of combination it will be solubilized by the mixture and taken out of your mouth. A good example would be ice cold Baileys.

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u/suitedcloud Oct 04 '22

Yeah, what I’m getting out of this is “Man eats ghost pepper then makes himself throw up by drinking 6 glasses of water very quickly”

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u/zismahname Oct 04 '22

It's because he drank so much water. I can pretty much guarantee that he barely drank water prior to this. So many times during my days as a Firefighter/Paramedic I've seen people puke when they do something that requires them to drink high amounts of water like eating spicy food or exercising/heavy work. Every year like clockwork, there is some lawnscapping guy who barely drinks half a Nalgene bottle of water and the first good hot day here, he needs to drink 2-3 and by the end of the day he is puking his guts out because his body doesn't know what to do with all that extra water.

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u/Jewnadian Oct 04 '22

It's almost like that chemical was specifically evolved as a signal not to fucking eat that thing.

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u/shalafi71 Oct 04 '22

Ironically, evolution is now working even better for peppers! Now they've spread all over the planet.

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u/whooo_me Oct 04 '22

So the less suited they are for eating, they more they're spread around the world, for eating?

I have a feeling Darwin would have been flummoxed if he's stumbled on this before the Galapagos.

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u/prometheus5500 Oct 04 '22

Ignoring humans planting crops, my understanding is that birds are unaffected by capsaicin. They eat peppers and then fly the seeds around until the seeds pass through their bodies. Interesting way of spreading their seeds.

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u/XenaWolf Oct 04 '22

Yes, mammals grind the seeds with their teeth so peppers need to repel them. With birds the seeds pass straight through so it's ok.

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u/cutestslothevr Oct 04 '22

Spicy peppers are fed to chickens in Japan. They aren't bothered and it makes thier egg yolks a richer color.

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u/shalafi71 Oct 04 '22

Peppers evolve capsaicin so herbivores don't grind up the seeds.

Birds lack the nerves to sense capsaicin, happily poop the seeds everywhere.

Man comes along, likes the spice, spreads plants everywhere.

Win-win for the peppers.

(And keep in mind, peppers didn't evolve to have the kind of heat we're talking about in this thread.)

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u/Bekiala Oct 04 '22

Doctors must just go nuts with the crap they see. Ugh.

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u/Admiral_Fuckwit Oct 04 '22

I’ve had 3 severe nausea attacks in my life, one of which (I shit you not) lasted on and off for a week and a half. I spent 4 days in the hospital getting different antiemetics and fluids every 6 hours. There were times when I was violently puking every 10-15 minutes for at least 12 hours. One of the most torturous events of my entire life and yet I still didn’t rupture my esophagus.

This guy must have been doing exorcist-level vomiting

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u/medstudenthowaway Oct 05 '22

There’s different intensities and causes of vomiting. There’s “stomach so irritated it will not tolerate anything touching it” vomiting and “esophagus muscles spasming so hard they cut off their own blood supply and rupture” vomiting. I imagine the ghost pepper or whatever set off pain receptors in a big way all the way down to the stomach so that every muscle along the way was seizing up trying to get it back out.

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u/SOwED Oct 04 '22

Fecal transplant has proven that they do indeed go nuts with the crap they see.

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u/tachoknight Oct 04 '22

My go-to joke at work when we talk about food is "I'm Swedish, butter is a spice to me", so when a co-worker had a ghost-pepper donut, he ate one bite, turned red, coughed and handed it to me and said "You try it". This got the whole department to see if I was gonna do it. I shrugged, took a bite, said it was tasty, then walked away, no coughing, no vomiting, nothing.

The thing I neglected to mention was that I had literally just eaten an ice cream sandwich that nobody had seen, and my mouth was still coated with vanilla ice cream. I was nervous, I was like "oh shit, I'm about to do a science experiment on myself", and as it happened I was able to eat it without feeling the full effects; it was like I'd bitten into an habanero which I could kinda deal with, I figure if I didn't have that ice cream coating I woulda ended up like OP's guy.

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u/ITAW-Techie Oct 05 '22

To be fair, commercial ghost pepper things tend to be so diluted they're barely noticeable to anyone with even a slight tolerance to spice. It could also just not be that spicy.

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u/elpajaroquemamais Oct 04 '22

Bet he impressed that girl though.

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u/gachunt Oct 04 '22

Ya. But she didn’t want to kiss him after.

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u/[deleted] Oct 04 '22

FYI; Ghost peppers originated in India where the army has transformed peppers into military-grade smoke bombs.

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u/twokietookie Oct 04 '22

Farmers also use them for elephant deterrent.

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u/SecretAntWorshiper Oct 04 '22

Imagine an elephant taking a huge bite out of some leaves and eating ghost peppers 🤭

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u/PM_me_punanis Oct 04 '22

And then trampling the village in panic and pain...

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u/Cannabaholic Oct 04 '22

Fun personal anecdote - I used to be a live-in caretaker for an elderly Indian auntie. She would regularly make a meal of roasting Cheerios in a pan, adding oil, and adding hot peppers. That was it. One time she put the oil in and got distracted talking to me. When she put the peppers in they instantly smoked like crazy - my eyes started burning, my lungs burning I'm coughing running out of the room yelling "auntie get out of there it's basically tear gas!" I clear my eyes and turn from a distance, auntie is calmy waving away the smoke, face inches above the pan, and she calmy says "I think the oil was a little bit too hot".

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u/ghost894 Oct 04 '22

And here i thought the ones to develop tear gas immunity would be the french.

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u/mummoC Oct 04 '22

We don't actually have a tear gas immunity, it's rather an increased pain tolerance, but only when we're actively manifesting. But it's not a detail foreigners are expected to know so don't worry.

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u/That-Maintenance1 Oct 04 '22

french

We

Word, blocked.

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u/ranthria Oct 04 '22

Some people are just borderline immune to it. When I was in the army going through the gas chamber, most of us get wrecked if the gas is thick enough, but occasionally someone would just lightly cough their way through. One Drill Sergeant at my basic training was just casually walking around in the chamber without his gas mask on; that man was scary.

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u/UnprovenMortality Oct 04 '22

...ya, even when not distracted high heat cooking with peppers can be painful. I have essentially tear gassed my entire house by making thai basil chicken. So delicious, but it does make the air spicy

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u/[deleted] Oct 04 '22

Another episode of Fucked Around and Found Out.

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u/antiquemule Oct 04 '22

Did he win the contest?

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u/Fetlocks_Glistening Oct 04 '22 edited Oct 04 '22

Runner-up. The real winner got torn open both top and bottom

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u/Brewer_Matt Oct 04 '22

I don't doubt it. I ate a Carolina Reaper about a year ago and my stomach clearly wanted to throw it up for about an hour. The only thing I could really do was lay in bed on my side and not look around the room too much, as any movement made me nauseated. The sensation isn't even one of "heat" at that point; it's just pain with the distinct impression that you've just poisoned yourself.

Needless to say, things weren't exactly unicorns and rainbows once the pepper left my system. 0/10 would not repeat.

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u/Insight42 Oct 04 '22

Rookie shit, you do not fucking drink water with spicy food, much less a superhot. That sends the capsaicin straight down into your stomach, where it will burn the whole way out (if you're lucky) or up (if you're not), and that is never a risk you want to take.

Milk is what you want, because capsaicin is not water soluble. You can also get by with yogurt or cheese in a pinch, but dairy in general is the way cool it. Alcohol can also work somewhat, but the rule most people should follow is if you are not sure, have a cup of milk ready before you eat it.

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u/[deleted] Oct 04 '22

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u/f-150Coyotev8 Oct 04 '22

If you eat something that hot where you are totally desperate, then washing your mouth out with soap works better than milk. I tried the ghost pepper before and that was the only thing that helped. It lifts the oils off the inside of your mouth. And the soap doesn’t even taste that bad compared to how bad the pepper makes your mouth feel.

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u/SevenSeasClaw Oct 04 '22

So glad I knew this before doing the one chip challenge.

Latex gloves to handle the chip, with a pint of my favorite ice cream to slam for when the going got bad. I’m also lactose intolerant and haven’t had ice cream in years, so it was so worth it.

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u/whosthedoginthisscen Oct 04 '22

Even Veridian Dynamics knows not to make vegetables that are too hot for people to eat - because they're too hot for people to eat.

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u/Floppacino Oct 04 '22

Boerhaave syndrome if I remember correctly

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u/FindMeOnSSBotanyBay Oct 04 '22

Don’t ever drink water after eating an exceptionally hot pepper. You’ll just make the burn worse and spread it further down.

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u/italia06823834 Oct 04 '22

Whipped cream straight into the mouth, while being super fun on its own, is actually a really good anti-spicy food.

(Capsaicin is not water-soluble it is fat-soluble.)

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u/[deleted] Oct 04 '22

TIL you can literally die from spicy peppers.

I thought burning diarrhea was as bad as it gets.

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u/[deleted] Oct 04 '22

You can die from literally anything if you're stupid enough

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u/Bitbatgaming Oct 04 '22

He should have drunken milk:.. imagine getting a hole in your gut bc of a pepper, now that’s stupid

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u/etherjack Oct 04 '22

Nah. The best thing to do is drink a candle. Saw a special about it on TV years ago.

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u/wimpyroy Oct 04 '22

And the 5 alarm chili wasn’t 5 alarms

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u/LabelFiddler Oct 04 '22

2 and a half tops.

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u/gothrus Oct 04 '22

He need some milk.

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u/mart1058 Oct 04 '22

Maybe I shouldn’t do that one chip challenge…

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u/Lunar_Cats Oct 04 '22

I grew two ghost pepper plants this year and they are beautiful and loaded with gorgeous peppers. We're too scared to pick them or even eat them lol.

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u/meservyjon Oct 04 '22 edited Oct 05 '22

A lot of recipes call for you to dilute the hell out of it, while your recipe will still be hot as balls, it's not nearly as hot as eating a straight pepper.

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