I thought this had the potential to be an interesting question, but the other guy was unable to phrase it properly.
Which do you think caused more immediate pain - eating the worlds hottest chilli or breaking a bone?
I haven’t eaten the worlds hottest chilli, but I did break my femur, and that was fairly high on the pain scale. I’ve broken other bones (clavicle, various bones in my foot and hand) but they weren’t too bad on the immediate pain scale.
From the other thread:
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I’ve only broken one bone in my life, my wrist (OK, probably I’ve broken toes, but who gets that checked out). I wouldn’t even describe this as remotely the same kind or category of pain as too-hot hot sauce. I tried some from my father in law’s collection that sent my brain into a weird sort of fight-or-flight mode - you really can’t think anything else other than “something is very very wrong FIX IT!”. Whereas my wrist breaking was a sharp jolt followed by a dull ache.
Depends on the bone.
I’ve eaten some pretty damn hot stuff.
That level of pain cannot compare to what I felt when I broke my leg.
Breaking a collar bone on the other hand wasn’t a sharp pain but a dull ache.
I’m not sure the level of pain can be divorced from the subjective aspect of it. When you knowingly eat hot sauce, you put yourself through pain but can tolerate it because you know it won’t do any harm except maybe an upset stomach. Whereas I have definitely (having eaten ghost pepper sauce) experienced much much much worse pain than having blood drawn, but having a needle sticking into you just feels wrong, so the subjective experience was around the same even though the actual pain per se was barely noticable for the needle.
(I can’t compare ghost sauce to breaking a bone, never having broken one except perhaps a toe for which I didn’t go to the doctor. That was slightly worse than hot hot sauce or blood draw considering I knew it would last for weeks. Much worse than that was an infected wisdom tooth. That was worse than any pain that lasted for more than a minute or so (despite this, I only rated it an “8” at the ER.))
I’d suggest it depends on the bone AND it depends on the gustatory history of the person consuming the hot pepper. I am not particularly tolerant of spicy food (what friends find pleasant I can find quite unpleasantly spicy), so I am sure I would find a hot pepper far more painful than someone that enjoys very spicy food regularly.
I’ve broken four ribs. Sometimes when I twisted the wrong way they gave me the sharpest pain I’ve ever felt. I’d far rather eat the hottest peppers I’ve ever eaten again than feel that pain again.
Broken ribs suck hard. I was terrified of sneezing.
My asshole friends would tell me jokes so I’d laugh. Bastards.
There is no right answer… I’ve broken my leg, and it honestly didn’t hurt that severely, but it was still painful any time I tried to walk even a month later. Peppers can knock you off of your feet, but a few hours later it is just a memory. The leg was definitely more of a burden if that helps at all.
I’d tell people “It only hurts when I laugh…or breathe.”
I’ve torn rib cartilage before, and for sheer irritation that was up there.
When I broke my femur I actually passed out for a period, so I may have missed the most of that pain. I was in traction for about 6 weeks and got a nasty infection (in hospital, of all places) at the site of the pin. That was fairly painful as well.
Ope fracture of tib/fib. Passed out, and hit the ground. Impact woke me up, and I was horizontal, but my left foot was still standing up on the ground, bare bones pointed straight up. I didn’t feel a thing, as I think adrenaline kicked in, and by the time I might have felt it, the paramedics had given me some “joy juice”, as they call it. A bit sore later, when recovering, but not too bad. The REAL pain was when they put in a titanium tibial nail (there permanently). The fracture site just above the ankle only gave an occasional dull ache, but the area below my knee, where they made the incision hurt like the Dickens for weeks, and I had to be put on opiates.
Hot chilli? No idea. I love that stuff. It can be slightly unpleasant if you overdo it, but it also makes me feel wonderfully alive.
So yeah, on balance, I’ll take the broken bone. Pain-wise, that is. The weeks recovering, not so much.