What could be some of the side effects of extremely hot sauce? Could you die?

Factual Questions
1

Check out the hot sauces on this site:

http://www.smegghead.com/Hot%20Sauce/hothome.htm

Now, when I was in high school I had this stuff called Dave’s Insanity Sauce and it was so #$%^&*% hot that no one would seriously eat it. We would trick people into eating it or slip it to them as a prank, and let me tell, the victim was never happy. I mean I can’t even describe how hot this stuff was, it was HOT. Now this new “Ultimate” Insanity Sauce (TWICE as hot as the stuff I had) is more than halfway down this list. I can’t begin to imagine how hot some of this stuff is. Several of them require you be over 18 and/or sign a disclaimer to purchase. So what could happen from eating this stuff? What kind of side effects could one expect to encounter? Could you end up in the emergency room? Could you die?

2

I once got some chiles from India on a shaving cut near my lip and the whole side of my face got swollen, I had to take an antihistamine to get it to go down.
I saw a documentary on the topical use of capsicum for treatment of intense chronic pain. This stuff is medical grade, distilled to thousands of times the intensity of food-grade peppers. The doctors were applying it to the patient while wearing a full-body biohazard suit, with a gas mask and thick rubber gloves. The patient was merely wearing the gas mask. They said the stuff is so intense, if you breathe the fumes, your bronchia would swell up until they closed and you’d die of anaphylactic shock.

3

A few words from Unca Cecil’s guest panelist George Angehr on capsaicin and Scoville Units, and then a recipe for making pure (more or less) capsaicin and an attendant warning.

I haven’t had Dave’s Insanity sauce, but a burrito stand right outside my office (Montfort, SqrlCub, and dcnewsman know who I’m talking about) features a line of excruciatingly hot sauces called Blair’s. I had the one rated XXXX hot on a burrito once and the endorphin rush was amazing. However, both my tongue and my rectum were incredibly upset with me. Not an experience I choose to repeat.

4

I actually have (and regularly use) a bottle of Dave’s Insanity Sauce. I find a 1" stripe is enough to flavor a skillet of burrito stuffings very nicely.

Endorphin Rush is much worse, IMO.

5

All I’m saying is, never handle Dave’s Insanity Hot Sauce immediately before peeing.

Because…um…I know this guy, and…

Worst kind of pain there is.

6

There’s always the risk of a talking coyote…

7

As anyone who remembers my “Flaming Meteorite Cock” thread will attest, I’ve got more than a little chile experience under my belt…(sometimes literally).

If we’re discussing people who

a) don’t already have ulcers

and b)aren’t allergic to it;

I’m probably going to come down with a tentative “no” vote here.

Googling for “fatal hot sauce” and “hot sauce fatalaties”
gets you a lot of shite about “kill-ya hot” sauces, but did come up with this:
http://www.fiery-foods.com/dave/cap_od7.html

So unless you have a low tolerance or allergy to it, I doubt that it could kill you outright. You might wish that you were dying, but the chances of keeling over dead from a shot of Inner Beauty or Dave’s are slim.

I can attest, however, that high doses of Scorned Woman in Bloody Marys can lead to vomiting. Maybe it was the pepper vodka, though.

The hottest thing I’ve ever put in my mouth (minds out of gutters, please) was habanero vodka I made myself. I have no-one else to blame for this. I took a empty 750ml bottle, cut up six orange habaneros, and filled the bottle with vodka. Three months later, I was rummaging in the cupboard, found the bottle, and decided to try it.

Bad. Idea.

It didn’t smell that bad, sort of fruity/vegetably, like when you cut up a bell pepper.
One straight shot back, however, burned a Wile E. Coyote/Back to the Future style flametrail all the way to my sphincter. Holy shit, was that hot. As I’m gasping for air and my eyes are tearing up, Mr. Stomach decides that’s the last straw–“Everybody out of the pool!”
I think the only thing more painful than the shot going down was it coming back up. Imagine habanero vodka mixed with stomach acid. Now imagine it coming out your nose. Gah.

8

:eek:

Two great pains that…oh, fuck it. Damn, I should mail you a gold sticker or something.

9

MMMMM, Dave’s Insanity Sauce. Personally, I don’t think even the hottest brands (XXX hot at the place Olentzero is referring to) is very hot. Predator is pretty hot but just basically tastes like black pepper. Blair’s Afterdeath is hot though. MMMM. Not overly hot though. The only thing I have had that was too hot was some extra hot green chili enchiladas from New Mexico. It was good for one enchilada but then it just upset my stomach.

HUGS!
Sqrl

10

Damn Texans, they always braggin’ they got the extremes and nothing else measures up.

Proably brag about it if they had the highest per capita freon ingestion rate in the States, too. :wink:

11

Long ago Cecil did a column on this topic, which appears in The Straight Dope, pg. 280. Unfortunately this column is not on line.

A discussion of the topic can be found in this thread. In short, a capsaicin overdose, while extremely painful, probably won’t do you any severe damage (at least in the long term) and won’t kill you. (At least not directly - I wouldn’t rule out the chance of indirect death due to something like a heart attack.)

George Angehr
Straight Dope Science Advisory Board

12

IIRC, I think Cecil’s column mentioned that the respitory system can shut down from drinking a glass of Tabasco. I’d check the book, but I’m not home.

13

Check the link, I quote most of the column in the thread.

14

Hmm, no mention of respitory problems. Either I read it somewhere else, or possibly I’m thinking of something else.

15

I would imagine that under certain circumstances, the shock of eating something excessively hot could trigger problems in someone with a weak heart, but a normal healthy person, like False(Flaming Meteorite Cock)God says, is only going to wish they were dead.

The worst experience I ever had like this was with some home-grown long green chillies; I picked a few, they looked very fleshy, like a bell pepper, I cut one open and tasted a tiny piece, it just tasted nice and sweet, so I took a big bite, chewed and BANG! - it felt like someone had hit me in the face with a white-hot hammer, I spent the next half hour running cold water over my lips and tongue. My heart definitely got a test run that day.

16

Warning! Personal anecdote follows!

My only encounter with “Dave’s insanity Sauce” was at a shop at Mall of America, in Minnesoooota. Fortunately I’d had previous experience with “endorphin rush” and other hot stuff. I went in, saw a tray of sauces and crackers to sample, and started loading up a cracker with about a quarter tsp of “Dave’s”. A small crowd gathered, and the guys behind the counter started snickering, saying things like “he’s gonna die” and giggling. Well, I ate it, and wandered around the store for about another five minutes, complaining that they didn’t have any of Dave’s “special hot sauce” or “pure cap” for sale. While I did that, another guy who’d watched me eat the sauce tried it, and ran out of the store. Finally I got bored, bought some goodies, and slowly walked out. As soon as I was out of sight, I headed immediatly for the ice cream store and stuck a large lump of ice cream in my mouth! About one hour later I was pain-free. But it was worth it.

Also, for some individuals, spicy foods like these can trigger bronchospasm, which does kill people every year.

QtM

17

I believe the hottest stuff you can get commercially is da Bomb. I have some in our 'fridge. I’ve never opened it.

18

<Homer>If this is about the Insanity Peppers, I’m way ahead of ya there</Homer>

19

I would imagine cultural and individual tolerance varies. On a flight on Air India, I was offered my food regular, spicy, hot or Indian style. I took Indian and the crew was surprised that I thought it was just fine.
In many places in Europe, two grains of normal black pepper in a casserole will cause people to scream it is too spicy, whereas in parts of Southern California you can buy jalapeno ice cream (it has a nice kick).
I guess too much of anything can kill ya…and while I can think of many extremely pleasurable overindulgences that could cause death, eating jalapeno cheezits isn’t one of them.

20

I’ve heard of people using pepper spray in food too.