A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, Mary Poppins famously sang, but a spoonful of cinnamon can cause dangerous side effects.
That is the warning from concerned parents, school administrators and medical experts alike in response to the "Cinnamon Challenge," a game challenging people to swallow a teaspoon of cinnamon without water in 60 seconds.
The game has gone viral, spurred on by teens uploading thousands of videos on YouTube and Facebook showing them gagging, choking and spitting while trying to complete the challenge.
Doctors say the challenge is impossible because the cinnamon cannot be digested without water and warn that by inhaling the cinnamon dust teens run the risk of inflaming or scarring their lungs.
"If you have some fine particles, like cinnamon in your lungs, it may be hard to clear out," said Dr. Robert Zaid of Providence Hospital in Mobile, Ala. "Your lungs can kind of collapse on you. There have been several cases reported where kids needed ventilator support because they weren't able to maintain their airway."
In Michigan school administrators are sending advisories to parents alerting them to the dangers the challenge could pose to their children after four apparently related cases were reported to the Children's Hospital of Michigan Regional Poison Control Center in the last month alone, according to the Detroit News.
Dejah Reed, a freshman at Huron High School in Ann Arbor, Mich., spent four days in the hospital with an infection and a collapsed right lung after she ingested cinnamon two week ago.
"She was going in and out of consciousness. She couldn't breathe. She was turning pale," her father, Fred Reed, told local affiliate WXYZ. "I hope parents and kids learn that it's not fun and games. She could have died."
Source:abc News
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