GUY EATS HOTTEST PEPPER, GETS THUNDERCLAP HEADACHES

Are you one of these people who like to eat hot peppers on a dare? The British Medical Journal this week published a case of a 34-year-old man in New York state who took part in a chili pepper eating contest. He ate a Carolina Reaper, a pepper christened as one of the world’s hottest. Immediately after eating the pepper, he started dry heaving. Then he felt excruciating neck pain that soon radiated throughout his entire head. For the next several days, he would experience short but incredibly painful bursts of head pain known as thunderclap headaches. He went to the Emergency Room, where a brain scan didn’t reveal any major neurological issues, but several of his arteries did appear to have narrowed significantly, a condition called reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome. The condition eventually went away and his headaches disappeared completely. A brain scan taken five weeks later revealed that his arteries returned to their normal size with no lingering issues.
* His rectum, on the other hand…
* A hot pepper causing a thunderclap headache. So, the opposite of a brain freeze, but on steroids and bath salts.
* Thunderclap headache. It’s like when you give yourself a particularly violent forehead slap while forgetting you’re holding a stapler.
* Then, realizing the stupid thing you’ve just done, you give yourself another one.
* Cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome. The arteries to your brain automatically constrict to limit the flow of the toxic agent into your brain. Thanks, intelligent design!
* So he won the chili eating contest?