The hot pepper linked to teen's death can cause arteries in the brain to spasm.

Harris Wolobah, a healthy 14-year-old from Worcester, Massachusetts, tragically died last Friday, hours after eating a single ultra-spicy tortilla chip seasoned with two of the hottest peppers in the world.

  • guyrocket
    17•1 year ago

    It surprises me that it is possible for capsaicin to kill someone. Maybe it is something else or a combination of things but I await further evidence.

    I do like to eat spicy but I top out somewhere around habaneros. It would be good to know if the peppers might kill me. I already think I’m pretty careful with them, but I’ll be more so if there’s real danger.

    Unfortunate for this kid. Best wishes to his family.

    • @Bodongs
      10•1 year ago

      It didn’t, there’s obviously something else going on here

      • Ganondorf
        4•1 year ago

        I haven’t dove too deep on the subject but iirc dying from capsaicin is so rare that it’s most likely caused by an underlying health problem - which the one chip challenge clearly says “do not eat this if you have health complications”. One death out of the millions of eaten chips clearly shows this was an anomaly.