Can you develop resistance to pepper spray by eating spicy food?

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
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Regarding this column: Can you develop resistance to pepper spray by eating spicy food?
Link: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/080711.html

Perhaps Irma has a vigorously defensive mucous membrane system (or poor nerves in that area) and therefore is able to derive more joy from eating spicy foods, purely because she receives less of the “heat” associated with them.

And perhaps this same mucous membrane system she has also defends her against the hot effects of the pepper spray.

I’m suggesting that her natural defenses may contribute to both her love of spicy foods, and resistance to pepper spray.

I’ve also found that one’s level of “resistance” to the spiciness of peppers might be limited to one type of pepper. I’ve seen people who can eat habaneros like mad, but expose them to a vietnamese pepper and they lay writhing on the floor. On the other hand, a person who frequents restaurants like Pho 88, and can gobble those peppers, react to strong Indian spices.

Cecil mentions the “chemical compound capsaicin and some of its close relatives,” I am assuming that the relative’s heat feels different to you when you expose your mucous membranes to them.

Also, some people do accidentally expose their eyes to the stuff. I remember a particular trip to Pho 88 … a guy named Bill with us loves the hot stuff. He was dissatisfied with the red sauce they gave us, it only had a little spice. They brought us a yellow mustard sauce after that which he said had a bit of kick. Then they brought out some orange stuff with seeds in it - that sauce curled my nose hairs.

Anyhow, he loved it and ate a ton of it, despite the fact that it made his nose and eyes run as he ate it.

When we got back into the truck after lunch, he wiped his running eyes with his fingertips. Unfortunately, he must have had some of the sauce on one of his fingers, because he started screaming and trying to claw his eye out. We were on the road already, and couldn’t do anything for the poor guy. It took about 20 minutes before his eye stopped burning. And that was just a mild touch, in one eye, by a pepper served in a restaurant (albeit a hot pepper).

Imagine a full dose, in both eyes, of a concentrated solution. I can also imagine if they use more than just capsaicin, and combined some of its close relatives, that it would feel worse.

One more question here - is it true that you can build up a resistance to pepper spray by being blasted with it repeatedly? I’m sure Irma can answer that question for us (as it appears to happen in her training). I saw a movie once where a guy was blasted in the face with pepper spray and he shrugged it off, and said you can build up a tolerance to the stuff.

I can definitely raise my resistance to pepper in the mouth by eating a lot of it, but do your eyes and nose adjust the same way?

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Well, if you can build up a resistance to iocaine powder…

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I don’t have an answer to that question, but I have gotten jalepeño juice in my eye, and it felt pretty awful. What was worse, however, was when my bf got the brilliant idea to rub jalepeño juice on my nipples, just to see what would happen. Well, my entire breast on each side turned bright pink, and my nipples were a fiery red. This went on for about an hour, during which my breasts felt like they were burning right off of my body. I could feel those scovilles from my nips to my ribcage. I put a whole lot of ice on them, and jumped around in pain. It was not a sexy experience. So, I have a decent tolerance for spicy foods in my mouth, but that tolerance clearly does not extend to the rest of my body.

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I wonder why the suggestion wasn’t to rub the stuff on his testicles? I bet that would have been even more fun! :wink:

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I’ve been pepper sprayed once. While time has dulled the memory, I was in pain for some time. Fortunately I wear glasses, & I blinked/squinted reflexively, so maybe it wasn’t as bad as it could be. But it still was an ongoing pain that was hard to get used to. I’d wager pepper in the eye feels a tiny bit different from pepper in the mouth, just 'cos the nerve receptors aren’t entirely the same, but it’s still that kind of irritation.

As for Irma, I think she just feels piquant stimuli differently than most of us.

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I’ve been pepper sprayed before. I’ve also gotten hot sauce in my eyes that claims to have a scoval level of hundreds of thousands. I can guarantee you that at least in my experience the hot sauce was no where near as painful as the pepper spray.

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I hope you took plenty of photos for the journal article.

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…but what if it got in your eyes?

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I also want to add that in some cliques, eating spicy food can be seen as a sign of “manliness.”

At one job, guys would occasionally bring in a new hot sauce, pepper, or dip that they found on the Internet, at a specialty shop, or at a gun show, and they’d see who could tolerate the most of it. “Ass-Kicking Hot Sauce,” “Doctor Death,” “Hot 21,” and one bottle which had no name, but a warning label against who should take it (like pregnant women, children, etc.), were some memorable ones.

There were two or three of us who could normally hold out until the later rounds, when we’re putting several daubs of the hot stuff per chip or spoonful, and one guy who would usually win (not me). His nose would run (enough to get slight sniffles) and eyes would water or feel like they’re burning just like ours, but he could bear up to the heat (or piquancy, thanks, foolsquinea) in his mouth better.

So, what causes the eyes and nose to water in that situation? Is it the fumes from the stuff we’re munching on, or do the eyes and nose respond due to the stimulus in the mouth? I’m assuming the watering is a defense to wash out anything that might be irritating the eyes or nose, but if I’m only putting the liquid fire in my mouth, why do those membranes respond?

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The three most hot-eating people in the world I know are all women. (I’m fourth best at it of anyone I know.) My one friend happily swallows spoonfuls of habanero sauce like it was ice cream. Another is this meek little woman who puts boastful, swaggering tough guys to shame when she swallows without even blinking a spoonful of extra-hot sauce, one teeny dab of which can reduce the average tough guy to a pathetic mass of whimpering quivering jelly. They learn very fast not to challenge her. She says she has an asbestos mouth.

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I’ve eaten some hot stuff before. My father grows Habeneros in his garden and I split them and stuff them with pimento cheese and eat them raw.

I’ve also pepersprayed people before. I don’t buy that ANYONE can build up a resistance to that stuff. You might build up a tolerence to the pain, but it tends to blind you and cause your sinuses to run to the point you gag…We had a guy on PCP once at a club I worked at that they gassed. He still had some fight in him but he was blinded and they just pretty much beat him down with mag lites since he couldn’t see them. Glad I was off that night.

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Its not so much the pepper spray that would bother me as much as the beating that would ensue soon thereafter.

Being pepper sprayed is no joke. I had to endure it when I was in the service for MP training. There was a story of only one person who didnt seem to be affected by it. (Or at least he was a damn good actor) But Im not so sure I buy that after being hit by the CS itself…
(And yes I am a hot food nut as well)
-Me

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Depends, I suspect, on whether or not the cops get to hold your eyes open and rub the stuff in good and proper.
Peace,
mangeorge

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I carry pepper foam these days…Its pepper spray…but it goes on like shaving cream. I haven’t used it yet, but one of my old cop friends says it’s quite effective

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Makes me glad I have a beard. :smiley: