A man was left hospitalised with severe thunderclap headaches after eating a ‘Carolina Reaper’, the world’s hottest chilli pepper.
Doctors explained in the journal BMJ Case Reports that the 34-year-old’s symptoms began immediately after eating the chilli, with dry heaves followed by severe neck pain and extremely painful headaches, each of which lasted just a few seconds and continued for the next several days.
The Carolina Reaper ranks between 1,500,000–2.2million units on the Scoville Scale, which is a measurement of the spicy heat of chilli peppers. By comparison a Jalapeño pepper scores 2,500–5,000, while a Scotch Bonnet pepper is 100,000–400,000.
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