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Alcohol mitigation!

Gomojoe

Gomojoe

So how much does prior consumption of alcohol mitigate the pain from super hots?  Ate my first super hot, a ghost scorpion, and it was hot enough to give me hiccups for a bit and make my eyes water, but not nearly as bad as I expected.  I thought it had a pretty good flavor.  I had had a few drinks.  I was not drunk, just slightly buzzed, when I ate a whole pepper minus the seeds.  I did not remove any placenta.  So my question is, how much would my slight buzz have mitigated the pain from the pepper? I've included the picture of the pepper I ate.
 
 
Not in the slightest. Might make you too loopy to care, but no less painful nonetheless :)
 
it's very simple.   ethanol is a pain reliever.
 
I injured my wrist during while mountain biking a few years ago.   at the end of every day, i was in wincing pain, but after a few beers i couldn't even feel it.
 
Yes and no. Alcohol doesn't actually stop pain, it just makes you care less about it. (Ha!) Keep in mind that alcoholic beverages are typically high in sugar, and sugar does mitigate the heat, at least up to a point. Plus alcohol dissolves capsaicin, effectively acting as an astringent in the mouth. Plus, some pods are just not as hot as others - you might have just gotten a mild pod. 
 
     As geeme said, having a buzz will make you not care so much. But a shot of hhwhiskey while the heat is still in your mouth will put you in a world of hurt. The alcohol will dissolve the capsaicin and spread it evenly over your whole mouth and throat. 
 
I'm going to agree with others here that alcohol you had PRIOR to eating a pod/sauce/etc. won't affect the mouth burn.  Alcohol you are currently drinking or will drink while you still have mouth burn will affect how your mouth feels.  At least high percentage alcoholic drinks will.  I do mine and a couple other peoples fair share of drinking, and I cook spicy meals and use pepper sauces/powders all the time, so I speak from experience.  On drinking nights I switch from whisky to beer while we eat supper.  The beer doesn't make spicy food noticeably hotter, but the whisky would.  After I've eaten and finish the beer I switch back to whisky.  
 
Given a sufficient quantity of alcohol before eating peppers I do not find the heat to be as painful.  They don't magically change into milder peppers but I don't feel the pain as much.
 
Keep in mind that before the invention of anesthesia, alcohol and opium were considered by the medical profession at the time to be the only two effective ways to decrease pain during surgery, though it took large quantities to do the job.
 
In my experience prior alcohol consumption means squat. Whether I've had a few brews before or not, the heat's always been there the way it should be. That being said I've never had a superhot while blotto either. However, thanks to advice from the boss here, if eating supers and it gets too much White Russians work great too lessen the effects. 
 
I haven't felt a super hot (yet) but eating a raw orange habanero and sipping on a glass of ice cold Ketel One straight up has been a slightly pleasant experience. I'm not going to say it made it better or worse, but as TB said it is illegal NOT to do something like that here in Texas. We have these laws for a reason people.
 
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