The cinnamon dare has been around for over a decade, but its popularity took off about four years ago. It was featured in an episode of the Big Brother UK; radio programs have aired segments featuring people performing this stunt; and many celebrities and public figures have publicly attempted to beat the challenge, including NBA players.
The Cinnamon Challenge… Really
In a 2012 episode of the Discovery Channel series Mythbusters, each member of the Build Team attempted the challenge. Two people failed the challenge, while the third completed it by tucking his spoonful into his cheek and letting saliva dissolve the cinnamon, but that took more than 60 seconds to complete.
Cinnamon is a caustic powder composed of cellulose fibers, which neither dissolve nor biodegrade in the lungs.1 The powder quickly dries out the mouth, which makes swallowing the powder very difficult. Coughing and burning sensations in the mouth, nose, and throat ensue. More serious symptoms include vomiting, epistaxis, and chest tightness1 and even atelectasis.6 Furthermore, the AAPCC warns that teenager with asthma or other pre-existing respiratory problems are at greater risk for developing respiratory distress from the cinnamon challenge.5
General internists and family practitioners who provide on-campus outpatient services to college students might encounter students with respiratory problems secondary to participating in the cinnamon challenge. Peer pressure is an appreciable factor among both children and young adults concerning participation in the cinnamon challenge.1 College students might undertake the challenge as part of their initiation into a student-led organization. Persons with an allergy to cinnamon or a pre-existing respiratory condition are encouraged to disclose their condition to friends or acquaintances who participate in the cinnamon challenge so that they are less likely to be pressured into following suit.
"What will my kid think of next?!" cried the caller at the other end of my phone. "My son tried to swallow a gob of cinnamon, is this dangerous?" My first thought was, what the heck (actually I used another word) is going on? Then I recalled the recent resurgence of the "Cinnamon Challenge," the latest YouTube craze where contestants attempt to gulp a teaspoon of cinnamon. Few are successful and some end up in the hospital.
For years, eating bizarre things has been a teenage right of passage. Mid century America was besieged with college students wolfing down live goldfish. The latest craze, that of attempting to swallow a teaspoon of cinnamon without vomiting or inhaling, began in the early 2000's. Recent YouTube postings of such behavior have topped the million mark and beyond, and kids all over the country are trying to win this game...without much success.
The goal is to swallow a teaspoon of cinnamon in sixty seconds...sounds simple enough, until we consider the properties of cinnamon. Cinnamon comes from tree bark and ground cinnamon, while a fine powder, is rough. It's characteristic pungent, tongue warming flavor and unmistakable aroma derive from potent aromatic essential oils, aldehydes, alcohols and terpinoids; these chemicals are said to have medicinal properties ranging from antioxidant activity to antiviral activity in cell experiments. Further an NIH study showed that cinnamon can improve glucose and lipid levels in some people with type II diabetes. However, the latter benefits did not require consuming a teaspoon in sixty seconds. Cinnamon tastes hot because the essential oils irritate the nerve endings within the taste buds; once in the mouth, the desire for cooling water is strong.
Leaving cinnamon in the mouth or oral cavity too long can cause swelling, blisters, mouth sores and irritated gums. Further, if the fine powder is inhaled, there is concern that it may trigger asthma attacks or severe coughing spells that render breathing difficult. Small children who try this stunt may be at risk for choking; when a ball of cinnamud is created, it has the potential to lodge in the airway, thus causing a choking hazard.
To date, no deaths have been reported however, there have been isolated reports of medical emergencies related to cinnamon allergies. Allergies to cinnamic aldehyde are not uncommon and can produce skin irritation, mouth sores and in rare instances, throat swelling and anaphylactic shock.
Cinnamon may have numerous health benefits, including improved cognitive function, but consuming it as a teaspoon bolus isn't smart. So if you spy that your cinnamon is missing from your spice rack and you have a teen in the house, it might be time to have talk about the potential dangers of this fad.
The so-called "cinnamon challenge" is a popular dare that involves swallowing a spoonful of ground cinnamon without drinking water. Pediatricians are worried, because a new study shows the "cinnamon challenge" has resulted in injuries and chronic health issues.
When someone tries to swallow a spoonful of cinnamon without water, it almost always results in choking, according to a co-author of the study, which appears in the journal Pediatrics. Cinnamon can also coat the airways and get stuck in the lungs.
Symptoms of cinnamon inhalation include coughing, nosebleeds, burning in the throat and vomiting, according to Reuters. The risks can be worse for people with asthma. The study also finds that doing the "cinnamon challenge" once can trigger an asthma attack.
Last year, a mentally disabled man's family sued a Mississippi city when police officers encouraged the 18-year-old to attempt the "cinnamon challenge" while he was performing community service at city hall. The teen coughed out a plume of the spice and gagged, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reported. The officers were fired.
Doctors are encouraging kids to resist peer pressure and "just say no" to the "cinnamon challenge." As one of the study's co-authors told Reuters, "We all were teenagers and college students at one point and did things we later regretted -- most of the time there's not lingering consequences. The concern here is that may not be the case."
Long after it started, the Cinnamon Challenge endures. For those who understand food science, or who have seen the challenge personally, they know the conclusion: Hacking, coughing, and sputtering, with cinnamon going everywhere.
There are no major benefits to the Cinnamon Challenge, depending on the value placed on Internet fame. Yet according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, in 2012, poison centers received 222 reports of cinnamon abuse in the United States.
Data from the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC), which maintains the only poison information and surveillance database in the United States, mirrors the Google search trends. In 2011, the AAPCC reported 51 calls to poison centers involving misuse or abuse of cinnamon by teens aged 13 to 19.[3] There were 222 such reports in 2012, and 20 in the first three months of 2013. [4] Some of the calls to the AAPCC required medical attention.
Within the past five years, the Cinnamon Challenge has become a certified viral trend. Hitting its peak in 2013 and 2014, the "challenge," being able to eat an entire spoonful of powdered cinnamon in one go (and of course filming it for posterity), has been accepted tens of thousands of times, and all videos are essentially the same: The person (usually a teenager) puts the spoonful in their mouth, coughs, gags, chokes, lets out a huge plume of cinnamon, drinks some water, and everyone laughs. But this gag is actually a lot more dangerous than it seems.
First, think about what cinnamon is: It's basically powdered tree bark, or cellulose. As opposed to simply swallowing it down as many expect they'd do, because the powder is so fine they usually end up inhaling it, triggering the gag reflex, causing burning and inflammation in the airways and lungs, and potentially setting up long-term lung damage because cellulose doesn't break down, it simply stays in the lungs. It's also coated with cinnamon oil, which is a caustic substance that can lead to chronic lung inflammation and eventually lung scarring, which can permanently affect your ability to breathe normally.
If you happen to inhale a whole spoonful of the stuff, you can be in big trouble. Last year, for example, a four year-old who came across a jar of cinnamon powder put some in his mouth and accidentally inhaled it, and he sadly ended up choking to death.
That is the warning from concerned parents, school administrators and medical experts alike in response to the "Cinnamon Challenge," a game challenging people to swallow a teaspoon of cinnamon without water in 60 seconds.
"If you have some fine particles, like cinnamon in your lungs, it may be hard to clear out," said Dr. Robert Zaid of Providence Hospital in Mobile, Ala. "Your lungs can kind of collapse on you. There have been several cases reported where kids needed ventilator support because they weren't able to maintain their airway."
In Michigan school administrators are sending advisories to parents alerting them to the dangers the challenge could pose to their children after four apparently related cases were reported to the Children's Hospital of Michigan Regional Poison Control Center in the last month alone, according to the Detroit News.
In November, during the NBA lockout, basketball stars Nick Young and JaVale McGee attempted the cinnamon challenge in a YouTube video that has been viewed more than 100,000 times and posted on ESPN.com. In February Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn took the challenge while appearing on a talk radio show, though he drank water to get it down.
Although the boy's death was an inadvertent one unrelated to the infamous "Cinnamon Challenge," thedangers of that challenge activity are well known. Attempting the dare, which involves eating a tablespoon of ground cinnamon without water (or anything else), typically ends with the participant spewing out clouds of cinnamon dust amidst fits of choking, gagging, and vomiting: 2ff7e9595c
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