Dangers of Cinnamon Challenge

The latest edition of the journal Pediatrics contains a challenge for pediatricians to educate parents and their patients about the dangers of the so-called Cinnamon Challenge. Its become an internet sensation with multi-millions of hits on videos where a person tries to swallow a tablespoon of ground cinnamon in 60 seconds without anything to drink. Dr. Steven Lipshultz say some people think watching someone cough and choke trying to swallow the cinnamon is funny, but it’s led to vomiting, asthma attacks, dozens of calls to poison centers, and emergency room visits, including for collapsed lungs. Dr. Lipshultz says cinnamon contains caustic ingredients, which first lead to choking but then something much more serious.  “When somebody takes a deep breath back in and that cinnamon dust is their body and in the air, it can go not just in the food pipe but the airway, the trachea and in the lungs.” Studies of laboratory rats fed dry cinnamon show such ingestion can lead to permanent and progressive damage to lung cells, adds Dr. Lipshultz.  “What they found was initially there was this inflammation in the airways and in the lung, but overtime that was replaced by Pulmonary Fibrosis, or scaring of the lungs.” Dr. Lipshultz tells why warnings about the Cinnamon Challenge are going out to parents and patients.  “The increasing number of calls in the United States to poison control centers about the Cinnamon Challenge supports the fact that a number of people who do this really do become sick.” This is a very dangerous dare, adds Dr. Lipshultz. “Unlike a lot of other dares or risk taking behavior that people do in adolescents and young adulthood this is potentially a health concern, short term and long term.” Even people who work around cinnamon suffer complications, says Dr. Lipshultz. “People that make cinnamon spice frequently have rashes, they frequently have trouble breathing and they frequently can get ulcers in their mouth and other areas.” Warn your kids about the dangers associated with the Cinnamon Challenge.