Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

Thedeliciousburnofareallygoodcurryorsalsaor...

The delicious burn of a really good curry or salsa or Sichuanese hot pot – that fiery goodness that makes you sweat and flush – is for many people one of life’s great pleasures. The search for the most profound scorch is a hobby of sorts, perhaps even an obsession.

对很多人来说，人生最大的乐趣，莫过于品尝美味的正宗咖喱、莎莎或者四川火锅，那种燃情的美味会让人汗流浃背，脸涨得通红。寻找最深处的焦灼感是一种爱好，甚至可能是一种痴迷。

And hot-hunters are safe in the knowledge that although capsaicin, the spicy molecule in hot peppers, is activating receptors in pain neurons in their mouths, it’s not really causing any damage. Give it a few minutes, and the feeling that you’ve torched yourself will fade.

逐辣者明白，尽管红辣椒中的辣分子-辣椒素-会激活食用者嘴部的痛感神经，但它并不会造成任何伤害。过几分钟，那种点燃你的感觉就会慢慢消退。

Well, until someone gets hurt.

然而，直到有人受伤。

Chillies are rated on a spiciness scale known as Scoville – a grading of heat that goes from the lowly bell pepper (0) right up to the fearsomely named Carolina Reaper (2.2 million). And while everyday amounts of spicy food are unlikely to do any harm, thrill-seekers have had some disconcerting experiences.

辣椒根据辛辣度（也就是众所周知的辣度单位）进行分级， 辣度最低的是甜椒(0),最高的是令人生畏的卡罗莱纳死神辣椒（220万）。尽管每天大量被摄入的辛辣食品不太可能会造成伤害，但是追逐刺激者确实有一些令人不安的经历。

In 2014, two journalists from The Argus, a newspaper in the British city of Brighton, went to test out burgers at a local restaurant rated highly on TripAdvisor. They each took a bite of the XXX Hot Chilli Burger, a specialty of the house made with hot sauce touted by the owner to score higher on the Scoville scale than pepper spray. The pain was unendurable – one reporter immediately swallowed a great deal of milk to try to stave it off, the newspaper reported. The other began to have severe stomach pains, lost the feeling in his hands, and began to shake and hyperventilate. His colleague was also seized with pain despite his efforts, and both had to go to the hospital. “I was in so much pain,” one said, “I felt like I was dying.”

2014年，两名来自英国布莱顿本地报纸《阿格斯》的记者，前往《旅行指南》高度评价的一家当地餐厅进行汉堡试吃。他们每人尝了一口XXX麻辣汉堡（这款汉堡的辣酱是店主配制的特色酱，在辣度单位上的得分高于辣椒喷雾）。这次尝试带来的痛苦让人难以忍受-据报道，一名记者马上吞下大量牛奶，想要缓解痛苦。另外一名记者开始出现严重的胃部疼痛，手部麻木，开始颤抖，大口呼吸。尽管做出了努力，他的同事仍然饱受疼痛，两个人都不得不去医院。一个人说：“我感到如此痛苦。我觉得我正在死去。”

Let’s come back to the basic biology of capsaicin. This molecule may have evolved as an anti-fungal agent for the plants that bore it. But, to humans’ joy and fascination and fear, it happens to activate certain neurons responsible for the perception of pain. Those particular neurons send a message of heat to the brain, whether the cells are activated by an actual burn or by a hot pepper. The physical effects of eating peppers can be seen as reactions to what might be — from the body’s perspective — real burns, says Bruce Bryant, a biologist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. Sweating is an adaptation for cooling off. Triggered pain neurons release substances that cause blood vessels to widen, resulting in inflammation, the better to supply the damaged area with blood and the body’s first responders.

让我们回顾一下辣椒素这一基本生物体。这种分子（辣椒素）可能已经演化为培育它的植物的抗真菌剂。但是，对于人类的喜悦、着迷和恐惧而言，它恰巧激活了负责接收痛觉的特定神经元。无论细胞是否是被真实的燃烧或者辣椒激活的，那些特别的神经元向大脑发出火热的信号。费城莫奈尔化学感官中心生物学家布鲁恩说，从身体的角度而言，吃辣椒产生的生理效果和真实燃烧是相同的。出汗是降温的一种自适应反应。被触发的疼痛神经元将释放引起血管扩张的物质，导致炎症，这样可以为受损的区域更好的提供血液。这是身体的第一反应。

When that Carolina Reaper hits your stomach lining and you retch, “that response is because there are pain-sensing nerve endings in the stomach”, says Bryant. “The body says, ‘I don’t care if it’s a thermal burn or a chemical, but I’m going to get rid of it.’”The responses that your body might have if you’d swallowed a caustic substance come into play with high levels of capsaicin because that is, after all, what the molecule mimics. Those burn-sensing neurons, in your mouth, stomach, and elsewhere, are going to do their thing whether what you’ve swallowed will really kill you or just give you some discomfort on the toilet.

布鲁恩说：“当卡罗莱纳死神辣椒接触你的胃黏膜时，你会觉得恶心。之所以有这种反应，是因为你的胃里有痛感神经。你的身体说‘我不在乎这是热灼伤或是化学灼伤，但是我要摆脱它。’”你吞下腐蚀性物质后，身体做出的反应可能和吞下高水平辣椒素的反应一样，毕竟这是种分子模拟。那些你嘴里，胃里和身体各处感受烧灼感的神经元，将会开始它们的行动，无论你吞下的东西是否真的会杀死你，或者只是让你产生一些不适。“

But, hours or a day or so of very serious discomfort aside, there don’t seem to be long-term dangers, per se, in eating very hot peppers. Biologists have observed, however, that administering capsaicin over long periods of time in young mammals does result in the death of the pain neurons, Bryant says.

但是，就吃辣椒而言，除了几个小时、一天或者几天很严重的不适外，本质上并没有长期的危险。然而，布鲁恩说，生物学家已经观察到，在年轻的哺乳动物中长时间施用辣椒素，确实会导致疼痛神经元死亡。

Interestingly, there is even a theory that pepper plants might have developed the molecule as a way to deter mammals from chewing up their seeds. Birds, which eat pepper seeds whole and helpfully spread them in their faeces, do not have the necessary receptors to feel the burn. But in humans, pepper plants have encountered a special kind of mammal that courts the feeling.

有趣的是，有一个理论甚至提出，辣椒植物可能已经培养出一种阻碍哺乳动物咀嚼辣椒种子的分子。鸟类并没有接受烧灼感的特定部分，他们整吞辣椒种子，通过粪便传播种子。但是人类是一种特殊的哺乳动物，人有感觉。

Luckily for the pepper, this does not seem to have damaged its fortunes.

幸运的是，这似乎没有破坏辣椒的命运。

来源：BBC

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