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Short term endorphins vs longer term mellow feeling

Nigel

Nigel

I`ve eaten a few hot peppers recently and have started to notice not only slightly different forms of heat, for instance, annuum sting vs chinense burn, but also a difference between heat and pain in the superhot category. So far, when I`ve had both extreme heat and pain together (Douglah x Butch T) I`ve experienced a big endorphin rush that made me very shaky and light headed. On a couple of occasions this short endorphon rush (5-10 minutes) was followed by a period of feeling very laid back and mellow, a real high in other words. 30-45 minutes for the Madballz 7, 90-120 mins for the Douglah x Butch T. 
 
Today I ate 2 Nagas and for me they weren't that hot, but they were quite painful. I experienced zero endorphins, as best I can tell, but I have had a good 20-25 minute high. As a biologist, I find that very interesting. 
 
I`ll look into pain vs heat perception and see what I can find, but I suspect it`s very complicated!
 
an overload of something that sends or receives dopamine somewhere along the chain? It is a drug after all,and in a class I took in college,all they kept telling us for Three years...Drugs do 3 things...Help you,hurt you,or nothing. Of course it was our job to find out all of that LOL. Just on people,not people,and plants. 
 
I have noticed it seems the more pain= bigger rush. Which of course makes perfect sense.
 
I have had a couple over the past couple days that made me feel like I might pass out. (Madballz 7, Butch T).
 
Which has me wondering if it even is possible to pass out from the rush?
 
Have you had the numb/tingly sensation yet? Ive only had it a few times and it was also during a massive endorphin rush! The pods that caused this also produced tons of saliva, runny nose, watery eyes.
Ive only experienced this with the hottest of super hots that Ive eaten for the most part.
PepperDaddler said:
I have noticed it seems the more pain= bigger rush. Which of course makes perfect sense.
 
I have had a couple over the past couple days that made me feel like I might pass out. (Madballz 7, Butch T).
 
Which has me wondering if it even is possible to pass out from the rush?
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It could be possible. Very unlikely but possible. If the consumer of the pod is known for fainting due to dizzyness, lightheaded, or other medical conditions. It could be possible! Or maybe if somebody consumes one of the hottest super hots and has never tried anything hot before?
Fremp said:
an overload of something that sends or receives dopamine somewhere along the chain? It is a drug after all,and in a class I took in college,all they kept telling us for Three years...Drugs do 3 things...Help you,hurt you,or nothing. Of course it was our job to find out all of that LOL. Just on people,not people,and plants.
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Dopamine yup, that about sums it up brother! ;)
 
You ate a lot of pods dude. Lol... I know they weren't the hottest but still. Lol! Keep up the good work brother and can't wait to see what ya got to say about those tasty little buggers i sent.
 
My suspicion is that it`s far more complicated that just activating dopaminergic pathways. 
 
What I`m trying to say is that there are aspects of each pepper that can induce heat or pain or both. Extreme heat causes pain, but I think I can feel a difference between heat and pain caused by some extremely hot peppers. What that could mean is (a) I`m delusional or (b) there are different receptors in the skin of the mouth/throat that are activated differently, depending on the pepper. Are we just talking capsaicin and it`s metabolites? Or do some chilis have different compounds in them that cause pain in addition to the heat? 
 
Initially it`s about detection. Can anyone really tell the difference between extreme heat and pain? 
 
There are also at least 2 types of nerve conduction caused by pain. One is very quick - pick up a hot pan and you know in milliseconds and one is much, much slower. You also have dormant pain receptors that don`t work unless another type of pain receptor picks up a signal, then allows the dormant ones to be switched on. See what I mean about complicated?
 
Pleasure = dopamine release from the VTA to the Nucleus Accumbens (the pleasure pathway that leads to addiction). The endorphin rush you are referring to soothes pain and in doing so is pleasurable (you feel it when running and doing strenuous excercise). I believe that the shakes and chills are side effects/unwanted effects of ingesting something that your body finds initially unpleasurable. I have experienced pain in my ventromedial hypothalamic region in the form of heat and ear-ringing, suggesting that the satiety center of the brain (located adaptively above the roof of your mouth) is screaming "stop eating this now", which is protecting my body from ingesting any more peppers. Immediately afterward, severe lower gastrointestinal expulsion of the substance rid my body of the substance. My lateral hypothalamus was further suppressed from the traumatic experience, resulting in absolutely no appetite at all for the following 3 days! I learned with that experience that some things are just not meant to be ingested. I love peppers, but some simply are unkind to my body.
 
So why doesn`t eating Durian cause shakes and chills? That`s FAR more noxious than any chili pepper, however hot   :P
 
Nigel said:
So why doesn`t eating Durian cause shakes and chills? That`s FAR more noxious than any chili pepper, however hot   :P
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Have you ever tried it? If yes, could you try to describe the smell and taste please. The food network never goes into too much detail.
 
I have never heard of Dorian. Is it a chemical or a food?
Okay. Just Googled it. Thats the fruit that was on Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern. It is foul smelling and tasting. Foul smell and flavor would deter ingestion but would not cause shakes or chills. It is probably just an adaptive way to prevent its seeds from being eaten (like peppers) but it lacks psychoactive properties (unlike peppers).
 
Yes, I`ve eaten Durian. More than once, unfortunately. It`s a southeastern asian fruit that smells like a very volatile cross between rotten eggs, rotten onions, way over ripe but very, very sweet avocados and a hint of bitterness. It has the texture of a mushy avocado, but with a stringy feel. The taste is nothing short of astonishing. It has a nasty texture, but is extremely sweet, briefly. Then your mouth, throat, nasal passages fill with noxious fumes that makes your eyes sting and are pure rotten egg, but nastier. 

 
I always thought these were funny:
 
durian-sign.jpg

 
No+Durians+Allowed.jpg
 
Lol. I am wanting to experience one now. I wouldn't know where to get ahold of one in Pennsylvania though. So, the taste is not the issue. It is the smell that is offensive. Even without psychoactive properties, it seems that it would be an interesting experience as flavor = taste + odor. The smell could lead to aversions even though the taste is good. If any southcentral Pennsylvanians know of a source for purchasing, let me know.
 
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