This Is Why Eating Spicy Food Could Make You Temporarily Deaf

All spicy food lovers will know the feeling of your ears feeling blocked while consuming the spiciest of food. However, a video blogger who tried out the spicy food challenge took it to the next level when he complained of a temporary loss of hearing.

“The pain went all the way up to my ears to the extent where they were blocked,” said the video blogger Ben Sumadiwiria. The noodles Sumadiwiria ate were made with 100 bird’s eye chilies which have between 100,000 and 225,000 heat units on the Scoville scale used to measure spiciness, making them 45 times hotter than a jalapeno.

“I can not hear anything, man,” he said in the video, shortly before dousing his head in cold running water. Here’s why. Researchers said that the throat and ears are connected by the Eustachian tubes, which help equalise pressure in the inner ear.

“When the nose starts producing a lot of mucus it can block the Eustachian tubes”, said Michael Goldrich, from Johnson University Hospital in the US.

“Then, as a response, people would feel that their hearing was down. It is the same phenomenon that makes the world sound wrapped in cotton batting when you have a bad cold,” Goldrich said. So, spicy food lovers stay informed and aware – your love of spicy food may make you temporarily deaf!