News: Man with "thunderous headache" in hospital by the world's hottest pepper

A man from the United States ended up in the emergency room after he had eaten the hottest pepper in the world.

After working in the Carolina Reaper, he suffered from severe headaches, according to a recently published article in the medical journal BCJ Case Reports.

The 34-year-old man ate the chili pepper in 2016 at an eating competition in the state of New York. Shortly afterwards he got pain shoots in his neck and head. He also had vomiting, without actually surrendering. Only after a few days did the so-called thunderclap play headaches, short periods of intense headaches.

The pain became so bad that the man reported on the first aid. There a narrowing of the brain vessels was determined after several neurological tests. The man is the first person to receive this diagnosis after eating a pepper.

'Big surprise'
Normally, this type of headache is associated with drug use or heavy medication. "It was a big surprise when it turned out that something else was going on," says one of the doctors who described the case.
The complaints of the man disappeared after about five weeks. A scan showed that his brain vessels again had the normal width.
Much hotter than jalapeño
Nevertheless, the doctor advises people not to eat Carolina Reaper peppers. The chili peppers are grown in the state of South Carolina. The spiciness of an average Carolina Reaper is estimated at nearly 1.6 million Scoville Heat Units (SHU), the unit in which spicy food is measured.

For comparison: a jalapeño pepper scores on this scale between 3500 and 8000. A dish that is experienced as spicy between 500 and 100 SHU.