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Chile Head Upper Limits of Tolerance

dvg

dvg

From some of the reading I've been doing, it seems that the more hot pepper based foods that chile heads eat, the more tolerance they develop to those hot foods.

The science behind it goes something like this: There is a neurotransmitter compound called 'Substance P' that relays pain signals to the brain, letting it know that it is being burned, whenever capsaicin is detected by the bodies' nerve endings.

However, by consistently eating more and more hot foods, the bodies reserve of Substance P is depleted, and with less of this compound being available, fewer pain signals end up being sent to the brain.

Thus, less pain is experienced by veteran chile heads when they eat hot pepper fueled foods...foods that would bring the less initiated to their knees in pain.

Now my question is, would there be an upper limit to a chile head's tolerance if they continued to eat super hot peppers every day?

The reason I ask this is because of seeing the Youtube video of the Indian women who supposedly ate 60 bhut jolokis peppers in a very short time span. She then had the audacity to rub the raw pepperes in her eyes, while seemingly being impervious to the pain one would have imagined she should have been feeling.

I believe she claimed she could do that because she had been eating those peppers ever since she was a young girl.

That may be true, but birds can eat hot peppers with full impunity, because they do not have the same pain pathways that mammals have.


So maybe the Indian women also had a different pathway for pain, so that she didn't react the same way to peppers that you or I would. But that is only speculation, on my part.

I have been eating one or two raw whole Habanero peppers everyday now, for over three weeks. I have to say that I have definitely built up an immunity to the Habs heat. I still feel their heat, but the intensity of that heat has lessened remarkably for me.

So I'm curious to know what would happen if a person were to eat a raw superhot pepper everyday for say a month or two.

Would they be able to do it and continue to do so?

I know some of the reviewers on here eat a pretty steady diet of superhots. They have to have built up a remarkable tolerance to do what they are doing.

Would any of you reviewers consider eating a superhot everyday over an extended period of time, or do you think that would be unsafe or unhealthy to keep up that habit?

Any thoughts? At least one inquiring mind wants to know.;)

Cheers,

Doug
dvg
 
Pretty interesting topic there dvg, I'd say you can build a tollerance to it, everything in the world you can build up a tolerance to, but rubbing them in the eyes, there's nothing for that.....

I can tell my tolerance is pretty low, all I got for super hots is just the powders/flakes I got sent in.
 
Eat a superhot everyday, and you will become Neil :) But you're right that everyone's wired differently; different receptors respond to the same chemical signal. It's easy to develop tolerance to the general burning pain. It's another thing to develop tolerance to gut pain or sweating, if at all possible. Notice how Neil sweats to nearly every hot pepper.
 
I am a reviewer, and I can tell you that I have eaten nearly every superhot whole, there is something to the tolerance thing. If you eat them often you can know what to expect and the reaction is less severe. As far as the Indian woman, I would suspect that she has no reaction whatsoever. It is a rare but proven fact that some people are immune to the heat of capsaicin.
 
intersting theory. i don't know if i could do one every day for a month or 2. it's not the mouth tongue and throat burn you get right away. it's the build up of the superhots in my stomach. if i could escape that i'd do it everyday. the 15 minute burn in the beginning is nothing compared to the belly rumblings 5 hours later. i wish i could build a tolerance for that.
 
+1 JayT , You know what to expect!,
I dont agree with the tolerance idea. I think that peppers burn me just as much as anyone,I just enjoy the burn and I know what to expect :)
 
I also review, and I eat some super hots every day. But, for anyone that knows me, they know that I am not a firm beleiver in HAVING to eat a WHOLE pepper. You can get the same amount of burn out of a half of a pepper. I have stomach problems, and this helps that. CAN I, and HAVE I, eaten whole pods? Yup. I have eaten plenty of them WHOLE. But, like a couple of members here have already stated, its bad for the gut. I have naturally bad stomach problems. And I seriously feel that these have helped me. Sure, they grumble their asses off while they are in there!
But yeah, I typically eat a half of one a day. Sometimes I will eat a whole one over the course of a full day. I have never thought about the scientific values of this. I just do it because I like the feeling AFTER the endorfin rish. Yes, the feeling AFTERWARDS! The rush is great and all, but I like the feeling of how GOOD I feel afterwards. I have said this to a few people before....my dad used to always say a phrase...."Its like hitting yourself on the head with a hammer because it feels SO good to stop!" lol
 
Hot Pooper said:
You can get the same amount of burn out of a half of a pepper.
Click to expand...
I disagree.
More pod = more capsaicin that will be spread throughout the mouth in a less diluted form. Also, chewing the pod longer will extract more of the capsaicin and give it a chance to really dance. Watch a snacksandsuch vid and observe how he chews a pod an average of 30 seconds or more. This little man can take the heat. :hell:
 
That snack kid is crazy :) But I agree: if you're going to judge a pepper on heat, you need to eat the whole pod. You will know when the pepper will have a lot of capsaicin when your mouth digests as much as it can and allows the remaining hot stuff to pass through the body. The body has to feel the heat too--not just the mouth.
 
Thanks to all of you for your input and comments on this subject.

JayT said:
I am a reviewer, and I can tell you that I have eaten nearly every superhot whole, there is something to the tolerance thing. If you eat them often you can know what to expect and the reaction is less severe. As far as the Indian woman, I would suspect that she has no reaction whatsoever. It is a rare but proven fact that some people are immune to the heat of capsaicin.
Click to expand...


JayT, I found your comment that some people are immune to the effects of capsaicin quite intriguing, so I did some more searching.

And I came across an interview that was done with "The Pope of Peppers", Dave DeWitt. He was busting some of the commonly held pepper myths out there.

Of interest to this discussion, he did say that some people are more sensitive to capsaicin than others and can actually get a blister from touching a hot pepper. The condition is a type of contact dermatitus.

But at the opposite end of the scale, Mr. DeWitt also stated that some people are immune to the effects of capsaicin.

For any of you that may be interested in reading some of Dave Dewitt's thoughts on busting some of the chile myths out there, here is the link:

http://www.scottrobertsweb.com/FireTalkers-Busting-Chile-Myths-with-Dave-DeWitt

Cheers,

Doug
dvg
 
I guess we will have to agree to DISagree about the "whole pepper/half pepper" deal. Once it leaves the mouth, there isnt much more you can do to improve your "resistance." Setting your colon on fire does nothing for the effect of capsaicin in your mouth, helping you handle more pepper. I promise you that I can handle just as much "fresh pods" as anyone on here. THAT is not the point. The point is to stimulate your pain receptors in your mouth. So, the more you eat peppers, half or whole, the better the resistance to capsaicin.
 
all i know is, in order to know what to do with a pepper, you have to eat one raw. you have to eat one fresh. you have to savor it. you have to think of what would do well with it.

=D
 
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