Hot Pepper Oil + Hands = Pain
A couple weeks ago, I was prepping a bucket of SWEET peppers to roast on the grill. Yum, roasted red & yellow peppers, my favorite summer bounty. Suddenly, my hands start to burn. It occurs to be that I had a bucket of Anaheim (hot) peppers next to a bucket of Carne del Toro (sweet) peppers in my truck. A hot pepper or two must have tumbled over. Unfortunately, once the “pain” kicks in, its too late to wash - the oil has already absorbed. Capsaicin is the oil in peppers that causes the burning (pain) reaction and is known to take about 2 or 3 days to naturally come out of the skin. This is time that I did not have to wait…
In my massage practice, I specialize in hot stones and had 2 clients in about 18 hours. I couldn’t afford my hands to be on fire. So much so, that I *never* work with hot peppers, I leave that to my significant other who uses gloves… the standard Chile pepper precaution.
I googled all sorts of phrases trying to find a remedy. Most seemed just absurd. I finally found a forum with endless amounts of advice & experiences. found the most significant though temporary relief from sour cream. Thanks to that whole 5 minutes of my hands ceasing to burn, my brain was able to make a connection. Although it FEELS like they are “burning” it is actually Contact Dermatitis, much like Poison Ivy/Oak. I’m, actually a little bit of an “expert” on that, especially since getting it in a VERY uncomfortable place a few years ago.
I have a whole “Poison Ivy” kit with various topical applications for the relief, removal, eradication of Urishol, the PI oil. One such product is “Zanfel” - its a ridiculously expensive little tube of scruby stuff with very particular instructions. It feels a lot like sand paper is removing your skin when applying, but it actually worked. My hands were slightly “burning” when i went to bed, but a tolerable & significantly less amount. When I awoke, absolutely NO pain. YAY!
So, I realize that if you are reading this you might have found it while googling for a suggestion to help your chile pepper hand pain… And that you may not have Zanfel on hand… many stores do sell it, so go check by using their locator!
My suggestion - if you like the outdoors & are allergic to poisoin ivy AND you love hot peppers, I would keep Zanfel around. It does double duty! Poison Ivy & Hot Pepper Oil
April 1st, 2009 at 11:28 am
There are some other “scrubby” style poison oak remedies that aren’t so pricey and in my experience seem to work as well as Zanfel. Worth a try. You might want to check out rite-aid, as that’s where I’ve found some of the “off” brands. I think even Tecnu makes a “scrubby” now. I think it’s called Tecnu Extreme.