A Competitive Eater Suffered a Rare 'Thunderclap' Headache Brought on by the World's Hottest Chili P

[Judi Lynn]

By LAIGNEE BARRON 12:02 AM EDT

A 34-year-old man ended up in an emergency room with an excruciating, days-long headache after he ate a “Carolina Reaper” — the world’s most intense chili — at a hot-pepper-eating contest.

The symptoms began immediately: First, dry heaves, and then intense neck and head pain, according to doctors at the Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown, New York. While those side effects may not be uncommon after consuming ultra-hot peppers, things quickly escalated. The man began experiencing very rare “thunderclap” headaches — that’s the medical term for a headache that escalates suddenly and staggeringly with maximum pain experienced in 60 seconds or less. With these thunderclap episodes continuing over several days, the man headed to the ER.

Doctors couldn’t initially figure out what had gone wrong. The man was not showing neurological impairments such as slurred speech, muscle weakness or vision loss that could indicate a stroke. CT imaging also ruled out an aneurysm. But then scans of his head and neck revealed constriction in some arteries supplying the brain, which can cause intense headaches, the doctors wrote in the journal BMJ Case Reports, published Monday.

They added that they’d never seen such symptoms related to peppers or cayenne.

More:
http://time.com/5234177/thunderclap-headaches-carolina-reaper/

[forgotmylogin]

1. Doctors couldn't figure out what's going on?

The man's body was reacting to an irritant that approaches the level of poison. I thought read somewhere that genetically those hot peppers evolved to prevent the fruits from being eaten extensively - animals learn to leave them alone, or will only carry them a short distance and then nibble and drop them instead of swallowing the seeds.

[pansypoo53219]

2. humans obviously are stupider than animals.

[marble falls]

3. Competitive eating is a disgusting thing on a lot of levels.

[forgotmylogin]

4. I certainly hope it wasn't a competetive "who can eat the most of these..." thing.

I've seen reaction videos where one tiny bite of a ghost pepper can effectively disable a person for half an hour. They are eating what amounts to the ingredients of defensive pepper spray. A competition where a person tries to eat a bunch of them at once - they might gobble several before the effects fully kick in - is practically criminal and mean-spirited to set up.

I had a friend with a great southern accent whose would comment on these matters, "Tha's just God weeeeeed'n out th' stupid people!"

I hope this guy is okay and doesn't suffer any permanent effects.