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Appreciation post: That guy who argued the "Cinnamon Challenge" was good for you
I overheard someone at a coffee shop in Austin last month swear the cinnamon challenge was actually a great respiratory cleanse and people just did it wrong. He said he did it 15 times in college and never coughed once because he used a special breathing technique. But come on, that viral trend from 2012 sent hundreds of kids to the ER for lung damage, not lung health. Has anyone else run into someone defending a dangerous old fad like it was actually misunderstood?
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ray_sullivan7d ago
Gotta admit, a few years back I actually thought there might be something to those old detox theories about the cinnamon challenge. Watched some YouTube bro explain how the heat from cinnamon was supposed to draw out toxins or whatever, sounded almost plausible at the time. But then my cousin tried it at a party last summer, ended up in the ER with an inhaler and a lecture about aspiration pneumonia from the attending. Changed my whole view on it, that wasn't no cleanse, that was just straight up lung damage waiting to happen.
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Scarred lungs that never fully healed" is exactly what I read from that same article @hannah_west39 mentioned, and it's wild anyone would risk that just to feel cool about some dumb breathing trick. Seriously, what's the point of proving you can inhale something that will wreck your lungs for life?
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jenny_lee8d ago
Oh man, that guy sounds ridiculous. I actually read an article last year from a lung doctor who said people who tried the cinnamon challenge ended up with scarred lungs that never fully healed. He called it one of the dumbest internet trends ever. The whole "special breathing technique" thing is just bro science, there's no way to make inhaling fine powder safe. People will really twist anything to feel like they were in on something special.
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hannah_west398d ago
The whole "special breathing technique" thing reminds me of a tenant I had last year who tried to brag about doing the cinnamon challenge "the right way." He ended up in urgent care with coughing fits and wheezing for days. The doctors literally told him there is no safe way to coat your lungs in cinnamon powder, period. I told him flat out that fine particles don't care about your technique, they just go straight into your alveoli and scar things up. That article from the lung doctor is exactly what I wish people would read before trying something that stupid. If people really want to feel special, they should just stick to watching fail compilations from the comfort of their couch instead of becoming one.
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