Is Capsaicin the Next Ecstasy?

Capsaicin, the “active ingredient,” to so speak, of Cayenne Peppers is powerful stuff. Eating it can cause you to break out in a sweat, screaming “whooo!” while your eyes water. Turned into a spray as mace, it can bring you to your knees. Formulated as a nasal spray it can… Clear your sinuses?

Amazingly, the answer seems to be yes. Capsaicin nasal sprays are said to be Drano of the nose, fixing sinus problems that were incurable with conventional medicine. I actually recommended them to my mother after she lost her sense of smell last year following repeated sinus infections.

Here’s where the twist comes in.

As you might expect, blowing capsaicin up your nose f-ing KILLS. Anyone who loves spicy food knows breathing out through your nose while eating something really hot is a bad idea, and that’s just a whiff of the stuff.

My good friend Sandra tells the story of trying Sinus Buster after getting some from its creator, Wanye Perry on her myspace blog. It’s no big surprise that it hurt. The surprise is that she went back for another hit, and couldn’t quite explain why.

She’s not alone. Lots of people have commented that Capsaicin not only cleared up their sinuses and relieved sinus headaches, but also gave them a feeling of focus and wellbeing.

OnlyPunjab explains that the rush is due to the natural flood of endorphins triggered by the pepper spray, likening the feeling to that experienced by those who have gotten multiple tattoos or piercings, or long distance runners.

Capsaicin nasal spray is like an instant runners high that just happens to clear the sinuses.

Add to that the fact that endorphins are natural performance enhancers, and it’s easy to see why athletes are using sinusbuster or another similar product before every workout. Skeptics will note here that firing burning pepper spray up your nose repeatedly sounds like a pretty classically bad idea. It turns out that for all the pain capsaicin causes,
it produces almost 0 irritation to the skin or membranes it is applied to. All that pain is caused by a chemical reaction, and capsaicin is even marketed as a topical pain relief ointment under the brand Capzasin-HP.

It doesn’t take long for word of a safe, natural high to spread, and you can bet bottles of this stuff will migrate from the locker room to the club pretty quickly.

I wonder how long it will be before we see batches of people outside the clubs in NYC going *sniff/snort* “Aughhhh ohhhh yeah!” and then shaking their heads and pumping their fists in the air, conquering the pain and then enjoying the immediate rush.

• Read more about “Sinus Buster” and its accidental inventor, Wayne Perry at About.com