How to Stop the Jalapeno Burn in Your Nose (3 Ways)

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Most people understand that jalapenos are very hot and that you should be careful when handling them. You likely know that eating jalapenos can cause you some level of pain depending on how hot the pepper that you ate was.

Even touching jalapenos can cause you problems, though. Some people have made the mistake of touching their faces or scratching their noses after handling jalapenos.

It can be especially painful if you’ve been messing with jalapenos and jalapeno seeds and accidentally touch the inside of your nose. You might have had an itch on the inside of your nose and made an error that you regretted instantly.

Jalapeno burns in the nose can be incredibly painful, and you might not even be sure what you can do to try to stop it. What can you do to get relief when you’re experiencing excruciating nose pain due to jalapenos?

Keep reading to get information about how to stop jalapeno burn in the nose. This should allow you to get yourself back to feeling normal over time.

Also see: How to Keep Peppers Fresh After Cutting Them.

Don’t Use Water

Have you ever heard the saying that “water only makes it worse” in relation to hot peppers? That’s going to be true in this instance.

Your instincts might tell you that you should wash your nose with cool water to try to soothe things. In reality, this is only going to make your pain worse.

Water is going to reactivate the capsicum in the jalapenos and make the burn worse. You’ll wind up hindering your recovery rather than helping it if you turn to water.

It’s normal to make mistakes such as this because you might not be thinking straight while you’re in pain. If you ran to the sink to run water over your nose right away, then you wouldn’t be the only one who made that decision.

Water might make the jalapeno burn a bit worse for a little while. Try to remember to stay away from water when you’re experiencing jalapeno burn in the future.

All is not lost, though, because there are still things that you can do. Some methods might help to provide you with relief so that you can get closer to feeling fine once more.

1 – Inhale Milk Vapors

It’s fairly common knowledge that drinking milk helps to soothe the pain that comes from eating hot peppers. When you eat a jalapeno and you’re really feeling the burn, it’s going to feel great to drink a glass of milk.

The problem is that you can’t drink milk through your nose. You could try, but that probably wouldn’t end too well for you in all likelihood.

Thankfully, you don’t need to put milk directly in your nose to get relief. It’s possible to inhale milk vapors to soothe your aching and burning nose.

Simply warm up some milk on the stove and stand over the top of it. Inhale the milk vapors and it should provide you with comfort that will put you at ease.

You could try to use milk in other ways to get relief if you don’t want to heat the milk. Some people have said that sticking their noses in bowls of milk worked like a charm.

Some have even tried getting milk on cotton swabs and dabbing the insides of their noses. It’s probably more practical to inhale the milk vapors, but you can go whichever route makes the most sense to you.

The important thing is that you start to feel better after using the milk on your nose. It might not be practical to keep liquid milk in your nose, but the vapors really do work wonders.

2 – Sour Cream Works

Another weird idea is to use sour cream to help to take away the pain of the jalapeno burn. Sour cream is something that can deactivate what’s going on with the jalapenos while also providing you comfort.

The problem is that getting sour cream in your nose seems like a challenge. Shoving sour cream up your nose isn’t exactly something that you would normally expect to do, after all.

However, in this instance, it isn’t as crazy as it sounds. You could put a bit of sour cream in your nostrils if you think that it would help you to feel better.

Some people have placed sour cream directly on their noses to provide some relief. If you want to, then you could slather some sour cream on a tissue of some sort and then use that to get the sour cream where it needs to go.

This is going to be at least kind of awkward no matter what you do. Even so, you might not be worried about looking silly when your nose is burning so badly due to the jalapeno burn.

Give this a shot and it should help you to feel better fairly quickly. Once the burn is gone, you should be able to wash out your nose using something such as vinegar.

3 – Yogurt

Yogurt is another option that you can use when you don’t have milk or sour cream around. This is something that works in a similar way to milk or sour cream to soothe jalapeno burns.

You can use yogurt in basically the same way that you would use sour cream. Getting some yogurt on the parts of your nose that are experiencing the jalapeno burn sensation should help you to feel better.

If the burn is inside your nose, then you might wish to dab some yogurt in your nostrils somehow. This could be accomplished using cotton swabs or tissues without it being too big of a deal.

During this time, you’re going to want to avoid breathing through your nose if you can help it. It shouldn’t be hard to remember this with how your nose is feeling due to the burning and having yogurt in your nostrils.

Over time, the yogurt should work its magic and help you to feel more normal. Once you start feeling as though the burning sensation has passed, it’ll be safe to wash your nostrils using a vinegar rinse.

Keep This From Happening Again

The best thing that you can do is to endeavor to keep something such as this from happening again. If you’re making a dish with jalapenos in it, then you’ll want to be sure to avoid touching your face.

Jalapeno burns will seriously hurt, and it can be hellish to experience burns in certain places. You already know that it hurts badly when you have jalapeno burns in your nostrils, and it’s easy to imagine how bad it would feel to experience that same pain in your eyes.

Wearing gloves while handling jalapenos during cooking is a strong idea. It’ll likely keep you from making mistakes, but you’ll still need to remember not to touch your face.

It’s also going to be imperative to wash your hands thoroughly after handling jalapenos or even just eating jalapenos. Don’t risk hurting yourself by making a careless mistake and forgetting to wash your hands.

Even if you’re taking care of jalapeno plants, it’s going to be important to be careful. Just handling the plants can sometimes cause you to get exposed to things that could cause jalapeno burn.

Respect the potential for jalapenos to cause you pain and take the necessary precautions. If you do experience jalapeno burn, then try to stay calm and take smart actions to reduce how bad it will be.

Typically, people who have experienced jalapeno burns will be vigilant about not making the same mistake again for a little while. Try to keep the memory of the pain in the back of your head so that you make good decisions moving forward.

Final Thoughts

You should definitely use some of the methods above to soothe your jalapeno burns in and on your nose. Experiencing pain such as this is something that can be hard to deal with, but it will pass eventually.

If you ever have something such as this happen again, then at least you’ll know what to do. It can be tough to soothe jalapeno burns in your nose due to the location, but there are still many things that help.

You could inhale milk vapors if you have milk around and are in the right frame of mind to heat it up in a small pan. Some people might have an easier time using sour cream or yogurt to make themselves feel better.

The important thing is to take action and to avoid using water to try to give yourself relief. Water will make it worse, but milk, yogurt, and sour cream will have a positive impact on your condition.

Do your best to keep this from happening to you again in the future. Being a bit more careful when handling jalapenos will usually be enough to prevent things such as this from occurring.

Pass this information on to friends and family members as well. Ensuring that more people know what to do when put in this situation will help to keep them from having to needlessly suffer.

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