Chili peppers may help keep you warm, but some can be fatal
Digital Reporter
Friday, October 21, 2016, 4:05 PM - There's no denying that chili peppers make the list of fiery foods that can help keep you warm this winter.
But an incident recently reported in The Journal of Emergency Medicine finds that when daring to try significantly spicier variations -- like the ghost pepper, among the hottest in the world -- it's best to exercise extreme caution.
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A 47-year-old man found this out the hard way, after consuming a hamburger served with a ghost pepper puree.
These peppers have a measured "heat" of more than a million Scoville heat units (SHU) -- to put this in context, a habanero pepper has half the amount of spice, a jalapeño measures between 2,500 and 8,000 units, and a bell pepper falls at zero units on the Scoville scale.
The man was admitted to the emergency department after the ghost pepper puree left a hole in his esophagus, while causing severe abdominal and chest pain.
After spending more than three weeks in the hospital, the man was discharged and sent home with a gastric tube in place.
But what happened to him is considered a fortunate outcome.
Doctors who authored the study based on this case say that spontaneous esophageal rupture is a rare condition for emergency physicians, and it has a high mortality rate.
"This case serves as an important reminder of a potentially life-threatening surgical emergency initially interpreted as discomfort after a large spicy meal," the findings note.
Related Video: Eating healthy this winter is easier than you think. Find out why, below.
