I could use a little help here. The little woman suffered a few minor cuts recently from all the holiday cooking, cleaning etc. One of her last chores was the preparation of some stuffed jalapenos. This resulted in enough of the juice getting into the otherwise minor cuts to make her hands very painful. I recall recent threads about how to the relieve the heat when one eats this stuff, but can’t remember the cures. Would these things be helpful, or would ordinary analgesics be in order here? Any help or secret remedies would be appreciated.
Assuming that she’s washed her hands thoroughly with soap and water to get the juice out of the cuts? Then you can apply a baking soda paste, then rinse, which helps neutralize the capsaicin.
Then I’d just take some Tylenol or your choice of other OTC pain reliever.
She has my deepest sympathies.
Capsaicin, the chemical that causes burning, is soluble in fats and alcohol.
Have her rinse her hands in beer or diluted rubbing alcohol, or have her apply liberal amounts of hand lotion, preferably hypoallergenic so as not to irritate the cuts further.
Then she can wash with soap and water if she desires.
A good cure is non-nutritive sweetner, for when you eat something hot, not in cases like this one though. Advice? Flush, flush, flush with cool (not cold) clear water. Then soap and water, and only after the burning stops, fragrance free lotion.
Thanks for the advice. I s’pose she will try the baking soda first as it sounds the least painful to her.
Oh and make sure she doesn’t rub her eyes or, ahem, other sensitive spots, until she’s thorougly cleansed her hands.
I once put a tiny, tiny dab of “Dave’s Insanity Sauce” from the tip of a toothpick on my finger to taste it. It set my mouth on fire.
A couple hours later, I rubbed my eye with that finger.
Aieeeeeeeee!!!