For a while now I have noticed that when I eat very spicy food, even though I feel the burn in my mouth, I do not notice any burn on the way out.
For example, a few nights ago I finished a chicken vindaloo (among the spiciest of curries generally available here in sunny England). But since then I have not experienced anything that might be called ring sting.
Many years ago, when I started eating such foods, it did result in a burning bum but, I can’t remember the last time this happened to me.
One possibility is that my final sphincter has simply become desensitised to it, since it is not really intended to be a sensory organ (at least not for this sort of thing). Whereas my mouth is a sensory organ and so it is natural that it retains some sensitivity.
A more interesting possibility is that over time I have acquired a gut biome that can break down capsaicin, so that by the time it reaches the end there isn’t much left.
Does this phenomenon have an accepted explanation?
I don’t know, but I agree with your findings. I have eaten some wickedly (and incrementally) hot stuff lately, and really not suffered any afterburn; I certainly used to. Could it just be one of those ‘getting older’ things?
I’m 45, and I don’t really ever remember getting “afterburn.” Ok, I must have at some point, because I know what it is, but certainly by my 20s, I haven’t experienced it. I do tend to eat a lot of spicy stuff, but it goes in waves. I may go a couple weeks with habaneros at practically every meal to weeks where I just lay off. The only effect it sometimes has on me is the next morning it may give me not quite the shits, but that sort of sudden urge to go to the bathroom. For this reason, I avoid eating anything extremely spicy the night before if I have anything important to do in the morning.
Over 60+ years I have no experience ever of burning sensation while shitting. And I eat some serious scary hot stuff most folks can’t get close to handling. Though the stupid-hot stuff sometimes does result in urgency to poop the next day, with correspondingly loose stools.
I vote the OP has finally cauterized some nerves @pulykamell and I killed unnoticed while a teen or even before.
The closest I’ve ever had to, ahem, afterburn, is whenever I’ve eaten undercooked jalapenos. Let’s just say that within an hour, the smell - just the smell - will start tootin’ out the other end.
That statement about an adapted microbiome is interesting, and not unlikely.
Your GI tract has probably just become more adept at handling and absorbing capsaicin over time. That’s the reason for reduced incidents of Wolf Ass (insert howling noise of your choice). It no longer makes it to the exit
It just so happens we got Thai food takeout for dinner last night, at a place that makes their curries HOT. Every Thai p[lace I’ve ever gotten a red curry at, I’ve ordered it ‘Thai spicy’ and it’s never been too spicy for me, but this place, which warns its customers that they ain’t fooling around, makes it so hot that my wife and I ask for ‘Medium plus’ for spice now, and it’s still at the borderline of our pain threshold.
But then while taking care of my morning ablutions earlier I did not notice any ‘burning ring of fire’, so maybe my system has developed some immunity as well. Or maybe the capsaicin just hasn’t worked its way completely through yet.
When I was six, I remember my brother eating so many Atomic Fireballs that his rectal area actually became inflamed. My mother treated his rectal area with aloe.
@saffer I should add that if you really want to see if your anus is truly more tolerant to capsaicin as you assert it may be, you could try applying the hot sauce directly to your anus and see what happens.
Yeah, afterburn has always been a pretty unpredictable phenomenon. I can go eat a big meal of really spicy Thai or Indian food, and have no afterburn. But other times, I may eat a normal portion of something mild like jalapeno potato chips and have it feel like I’m passing a piece of lit charcoal.
Come to think of it, I do have a vague recollection of pickled hot peppers sometimes doing it to may back in my teen years, where regular ones didn’t seem to. But, once again, these days, it doesn’t matter, pickled or not, peppers or extract, powdered or fresh, it all seems to go through fine. The only issue I’ve had is if I eat an ultra hot pepper on an empty stomach, as I’ve foolishly done a couple of times. That will cause my stomach to cramp up and not be happy with me. Get some bread down there to buffer it, and it’s fine.
What exactly are we talking about? I looked up vindaloo and it’s not possible to nail down the heat level since there doesn’t seem to be a standard type. There are multiple recipes with different types of peppers. What is the heat level or at least what pepper is being used in what you are eating?
In curry houses round these parts, vindaloo is typically the hottest dish on the menu. Actual hotness varies from place to place of course.
The one I had was substantially hot (though I have certainly had hotter), and I like to think I have a high tolerance to this sort of thing.
Yeah, on most of the curry menus I’ve seen, only Phall (/Phaal/Fal) curry exceeds Vindaloo in heat.
From experience, I would say Vindaloo is somewhere around the level of the Samyang 2x spicy ramen noodles.
Well, your anus is downstream of your stomach acid, so it’s accustomed to heat (or built to withstand it), whereas your mouth is (usually, hopefully) upstream, so it’s not.
Once contents leave the stomach, they leave the acid medium (pH ranging from 3.5 down to 1.5 unless one is on acid blockers) there. The small intestines transform their contents to a pH of about 7 to 9 (neutral to basic) and the large intestine varies from about 6 to 7 (slightly acid to neutral).
And besides, capsaicin heat is VERY different from acid heat. Acid heat can be neutralized by dilution or a base or by shutting down proton pumps. Capsaicin heat is quenched only by dissolving/neutralizing it in appropriate solvent molecules like casein, or by shutting down the nerves with lidocaine.
