Doctors write in the journal BMJ Case Reports that competing in a hot pepper eating contest might have some unintended repercussions.
Their warning follows a young man who consumed a “Carolina Reaper,” the spiciest pepper in the world, and ended up in emergency care with excruciatingly severe episodic headaches.
His symptoms, which included dry heaves, began as soon as he had the chilli. But over the next few days he began to have acute neck discomfort and crushing headaches, each lasting only a few seconds.
He sought emergency care due to his excruciating agony, and tests to rule out numerous neurological disorders all came back negative.
Given the development of symptoms immediately after exposure to a known vasoactive substance, it is plausible that our patient had RCVS secondary to the Carolina Reaper.
The authors
The doctor diagnosed him with thunderclap headache secondary to reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome (RCVS) after a CT (computed tomography) scan revealed that many arteries in his brain had narrowed.
Temporary artery narrowing and headaches like a tongue-lash are hallmarks of RCVS. It doesn’t always have a clear cause, however it sometimes happens in response to some prescription medications or after using illicit narcotics.
The authors note that although consuming cayenne pepper has been linked to acute constriction of the coronary artery and heart attacks, this is the first case to be connected to eating chilli peppers.
“Given the development of symptoms immediately after exposure to a known vasoactive substance, it is plausible that our patient had RCVS secondary to the Carolina Reaper,” write the authors.
The man’s symptoms cleared up by themselves. In addition, a CT scan performed 5 weeks later revealed that the damaged arteries’ width had returned to normal.
