= Chicken soup is medicine, U.S. scientists confirm = October 17, 2000

Web posted at: 4:24 PM EDT (2024 GMT)

WASHINGTON -- Scientists say they have confirmed what grandmothers have known for centuries -- that chicken soup is good for colds. Chicken soup -- as made by grandma -- contains several ingredients that affect the body's immune system, a team at the University of Nebraska Medical Center found. Specifically, it has anti-inflammatory properties that could explain why it soothes sore throats and eases the misery of colds and flu, Dr. Stephen Rennard and colleagues said Monday. "Chicken soup may contain a number of substances with beneficial medicinal activity," the researchers wrote in their report, published in the journal Chest. "My wife was making chicken soup one year for the Jewish holidays and we were talking about its effects on colds," Rennard, a specialist in pulmonary medicine, said in a telephone interview. "I said 'well, maybe it has some anti-inflammatory effect,' and she said 'really?' and I said 'why not?' and I said maybe we could find out in the lab." As it turned out, Rennard's lab was well-suited to making such tests. "In the lab we study inflammation and injury and repair mechanisms in the lung as related to asthma and emphysema and so on," he said. So Rennard's wife Barbara Rennard made up a batch of her grandmother's chicken soup, which includes chicken, onions, sweet potato, parsnips, turnips, carrots, celery stems, and parsley. Rennard said his wife added no salt but did include matzo balls, a kind of dumpling. Then they ran laboratory tests. Not only did they test the soup as a whole, but they separated out the components. "These tests were in the laboratory and it doesn't test (chicken soup) clinically in colds," Rennard stressed. They found that chicken soup and many of its ingredients helped stop the movement of neutrophils -- white blood cells that eat up bacteria and cellular debris and which are released in great numbers by viral infections like colds. Neutrophil activity can stimulate the release of mucous, which may be the cause of the coughs and stuffy nose caused by upper respiratory infections such as colds. "All the ingredients were found to be inhibitory, including the boiled extract of chicken alone," they wrote. Rennard said vitamins and other agents in the ingredients could, plausibly, have biological action. The researchers also went to the store and bought 13 different commercial brands of soup to test. "About a third of them were more active than grandma's soup," Rennard said, adding that he could not remember which kinds of soup they were. "One or two of them had very little activity at all. Vegetarian vegetable soup had some activity." To be safe, they also tested plain Omaha tap water which, to their relief, had no effect. "If tap water were active, that would be disturbing in a number of ways," Rennard said. Some researchers have suggested in the past that perhaps the steam from the soup, or the chicken fat, may play a role in soothing inflamed airways. Rennard said this was possible. He also said there could be a "TLC" (tender, loving care) factor. "If you know somebody prepared soup for you by hand, that might have an effect," he said. Rennard said he had no immediate plans to test chicken soup any further. "I have no doubt that generations from now, people will read this and the only thing of interest will be the recipe," he said. "It really is good soup."

Here's the summary from Ken Hollis and the alt.spam FAQ:

First off NEVER reply to the "Remove Me" e-mail addresses or sites. This only confirms that you have a live e-mail address and makes *your* e-mail address more valuable to sell to other spammers.

Start off by reading the spam FAQ in the related link below.

It may take a while to digest all of the new information, but just read it and see what you can get out of it.

Start complaining to the ISP (Internet Service Provider) of where the spam came from. Understanding the "Received:" headers is key to this. Trace back in the Received: header to where it looks like the spam came from and complain to that provider about the spam.

Look in the body of the e-mail. If someone tells you to reply to back to a e-mail address or if they point you to a web site then complain to the ISP owner of that web site or e-mail address (NEVER complain to the spammer, they already know it is wrong and will ignore you).

These steps will help get the spammers accounts eliminated.

Will it stop you from getting spam? Probably not. If spammers have your e-mail address it is already too late. They are selling your address to each other, passing it around. About the only way to do that is to change your e-mail address and give it out to as few people as possible.
Delete the message, block the sender, and contact the police if it contains bad content.

You can, because you have the ability to, but it doesn't mean you will or you should. Most people don't feel like swimming with the flu. If you have the flu you should be resting in bed to allow your body to have all the energy it needs to fight the flu and heal yourself.

If you have a fever from the flu, swimming in a lake or cool pool can mask the symptoms and make you feel temporarily better, but that will only be temporary and the exercise will make you feel worse once you get out. If you get in a heated pool, it could make your fever worse. Don't use a hot tub when you have a fever.

If you are in a lake or pool without chemicals to kill germs, you could be shedding viruses that might live long enough to infect someone else in the same water. Don't swim with others when you are sick with any infectious disease.

Being out in public if you are still sick risks giving it to other people whether they are in the water with you or not. Stay home.

So, the bottom line is you can but you should not.

I phoned the swine flu help hotline yesterday but all I heard was CRACKLING, I guess too many people were HOGGING the line!

The best treatment for swine flu is oinkment!

Is Swine Flu the past tense of When pigs fly?

See the related questions below for more swine flu humor.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the approval of six vaccines on July 18, 2011. These approved trivalent vaccines for the seasonal flu will all contain vaccine for the H1N1/09 "Swine Flu" and two other viruses suggested by CDC for this season (see more below). These approved vaccines are:

1. Afluria (CSL Limited)

2. Fluarix (Glaxo Smith Kline Biologicals)

3. FluLaval (ID Biomedical Corporation)

4. FluMist (MedImmune Vaccines, Inc.)

5. Fluvirin (Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics Limited)

6. Fluzone, Fluzone High-Dose, Fluzone Intradermal (Sanofi Pasteur, Inc.)

The Fluzone Intradermal made fy Sanofi Pasteur, Inc. is a new inactivated formulation for administration in the layers of the skin (intradermal injection) instead of the intramuscular (IM) injection. Fluzone Intradermal administration uses a microinjection system with a very fine needle. Approved for those aged 18 through 64. It is marketed under the brand names Intanza and IDflu.

The CDC-approved trivalent vaccines for this flu season will protect against the following three virus strains:

1. A/California/7/09 (H1N1)-like virus (Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza virus)

2. A/Perth/16/2009/ (H3N2)-like virus [A/Victoria/210/2009 X-187]

3. B/Brisbane/60/2008-like virus

In Europe:

Re: Pandemrix made by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) July 21, 2011 according to Reuters:

LONDON (Reuters Health) Jul 21 2011 - European regulators have recommended restricting the use of GlaxoSmithKline's pandemic flu vaccine Pandemrix because of a potential risk of narcolepsy in children or adolescents.

The European Medicines Agency said on Thursday that Pandemrix should only be used in people under 20 years in the absence of seasonal trivalent influenza vaccines, following its link to very rare cases of narcolepsy in young people.

Overall, the vaccine's benefit-risk balance remains positive, the watchdog added.

More than 31 million doses of Pandemrix have been given to people in 47 countries, and GSK said it had been notified of 335 cases of narcolepsy in those vaccinated as of July 6. Two-thirds of the narcolepsy cases were in Finland and Sweden.

Britain's biggest drugmaker said in a statement it had committed to conduct further research into any potential association between Pandemrix and narcolepsy.

Pandemrix was widely used during the 2009-10 outbreak of H1N1 swine flu, although it was not administered in the United States.

Several other drugmakers, including Novartis , Sanofi , CSL and Baxter also made vaccines against H1N1 flu during the pandemic, which was declared over in August last year.

Finnish and Swedish researchers were the first to raise concerns over a possible narcolepsy link to Pandemrix last August after noting cases in children recently given the GSK shot.

One research team earlier this year suggested children given Pandemrix were nine times more likely to suffer from the condition.

Researchers at Finland's National Institute for Health and Welfare said the increase they found in narcolepsy was "most likely" a joint effect of Pandemrix and some other factor or factors.

For the prior flu seasons:

There were four manufacturers' products approved by The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the 2009 A-H1N1 Influenza. The drug companies are: CSL, Novartis, Sanofi Pasteur, and MedImmune.GlaxoSmithKline has not yet had approval for their vaccine in the US but it was approved in Europe.

CSL, Novartis and Sanofi Pasteur have produced the vaccines for injection that are made with inactivated viruses, and MedImmune has produced the nasal spray. None of the vaccines approved in the US by FDA contain adjuvants [A substance added to a vaccine to improve the immune response so that less vaccine is needed.]

Note of Interest:

The U.S. is in "very active discussions" about donating some of its supply to countries that need it. CSL plans to donate vaccine to developing nations in Asia and the South Pacific. They are working on this with the World Health Organization to start by providing as many as 100,000 doses. According to the WHO, an initial distribution of the more than 300 million doses, which were donated by other countries to over 90 countries in need, will begin sometime in November.

Vaccine for H1N1/09 is being made for the US by Melbourne-based CSL Ltd., Sanofi-Aventis SA, based in Paris (aka Sanofi-Pasteur), London-based AstraZeneca Plc (MedImmune subsidiary), and Novartis AG based in Basel, Switzerland. GlaxoSmithKline Plc also is in the process of review by the FDA for their vaccine but it is not approved yet. They have gotten approval for one version of vaccine from the European EMEA, however, and is producing it for use in Europe.

Glaxo initially concentrated on development of its vaccine that contained an adjuvant, which is the version approved by the EMEA. Adjuvants are ingredients used in vaccines to boost the effectiveness. The Department of Health and Human Services in the US had decided to only use vaccines without adjuvants. Glaxo is also now doing clinical tests on vaccines without adjuvants for review by the FDA at a later date.

Besides Glaxo's vaccine, EMEA has also approved manufacture of vaccine for European use by Novartis which also contains an adjuvant.

Other countries have contracted with additional manufacturers.