Please stop doing the Cinnamon Challenge

If you have never heard of the Cinnamon Challenge, consider yourself lucky. It's a stupid dare, mainly undertaken by college-age kids and teenagers who are too dumb to know better. The dare is to try to swallow an entire tablespoon of cinnamon powder.

At first glance, it may not sound too bad. I mean, hey, I love cinnamon! But an entire tablespoon isn't just powerfully strong, it's also dry and choking. Search YouTube for Cinnamon Challenge videos if you dare. The results are usually vomiting at best. It seems that it is physically impossible to swallow an entire dry tablespoon of cinnamon, but that hasn't stopped thousands of people from trying. And quite a few of them have ended up in the emergency room as a result.

Excessive cinnamon consumption isn't just painful and disgusting. It can also lead to severe inflammation of the lungs, nose and throat. Cinnamon is a cellulose (like paper) that doesn't break down: it's like inhaling sawdust into your lungs. Sawdust coated with caustic cinnamon oil.

According to a nation-wide network of Poison Control Centers, 139 calls were made for cinnamon emergencies - 122 of them as a direct result of the Cinnamon Challenge - in the first three months of the year alone. 30 of them required immediate medical intervention. Several teens have been treated for collapsed lungs or put on a ventilator. Other long-term results include permanent lung scarring (pulmonary fibrosis), or chronic inflammation.

Why is the Cinnamon Challenge such a popular trend? Probably because this Jackass-style stunt requires just cinnamon to perform. Cinnamon seems so innocuous, not like jumping off a roof or having your friends push you down a hill in a shopping cart (not that people don't do that, too). But make no mistake: Trying to swallow a tablespoon of the stuff will mess you up good.

Image courtesy Flickr/TheDeliciousLife