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Whether it's a jalapeno, a serrano, or even the infamous ghost pepper, we all have a heat threshold or level of spiciness that we can tolerate.
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But can anyone handle the Carolina Reaper?
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And what would happen if you ate it?
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The Carolina Reaper, a hybrid pepper specifically bred to be as hot as possible, is the current record holder for hottest pepper in the world.
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The Scoville heat scale is used to measure the spiciness of peppers.
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To put things in perspective, a jalapeno comes in at around eight thousand units.
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A habanero is a blistering three hundred and fifty thousand units, while a Carolina Reaper tops the scale at a whopping two point two million units!
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So what happens when you eat a pepper this spicy?
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First, the high concentration of capsaicin, the chemical that causes spiciness in peppers, binds to a nerve receptor in your mouth.
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This triggers an intense and extremely painful burning sensation.
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Obviously there's no actual heat emanating from the pepper.
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But your brain is tricked into thinking that your mouth is on fire, and that you're burning up!
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And since the brain believes you're overheating, it immediately takes corrective action to flush out the toxin.
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You'll experience extreme sweating, accompanied by crying eyes and a runny nose.
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You might think it would get better once you start to digest the pepper, but you'd be wrong!
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The pepper continues to wreak havoc on your insides, resulting in severe pain and nausea that can last for up to eight hours!
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And while it won't kill you, or cause any permanent damage, there's not much you can do at that point but suffer, and wait it out.
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Keep in mind.
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You can alleviate some of the painful burning in your mouth by drinking milk which contains casein, a protein that neutralizes the pepper's capsaicin.
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So think long and hard before biting into one of those super spicy peppers.
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This bear is just going to have to stick to bell peppers for now.
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