|
||||||||
Feed A Cold With Chicken Soup By Ziniah Beasley, TSCL Online Health Reporter When you get the sniffles, a cough, sore throat and runny nose --basically the symptoms of a cold how do you treat it? Perhaps, you have a dozen or more over-the-counter cold medications stocked up in your medicine cabinet? Or you even use some of your home remedies, like chicken soup. Well, new study supports that chicken soup can be used as a cold remedy. The American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) reports in the October issue of Chest "that chicken soup may contain a number of substances with beneficial medicinal activity including an anti-inflammatory mechanism that could ease the symptoms of upper respiratory tract infections." Although the benefits of chicken soup were reported many centuries ago, there was little evidence to support the benefits. Colds are the result of transient infections of the upper respiratory tract from a variety of viruses, which leads to cough and sputum from infection. Many symptoms related to colds are likely the result of the inflammatory response initiated by hormone-like messengers, called cytokines. Thus, researchers from the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Section of the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska have initiated a study to determine the effects of chicken soup on the inflammatory response associated with colds. What is your recipe for chicken soup? The study used a recipe called "Grandma's soup" which included chicken, onions, sweet potato, parsnips, turnips, carrots, celery stems, and parsley, with a dash of salt and pepper. Many tests were performed on the soup. For example, samples of chicken and portion of each of the vegetables were boiled for one hour. The broths then were harvested, frozen, and saved for testing. Also, commercial soups were obtained from local grocery stores and prepared as directed on the label. From these laboratory testings, the current study shows that chicken soup might have an anti-inflammatory response that can fight colds. Researchers state, "while the identity of the biologically active materials is unknown (in 'Grandma's ' chicken soup), it seems likely they are water-soluble or extractable. Pureed carrots or other vegetables are not recommended as a remedy while chicken soup is." Although the study was done in a controlled environment instead of being done clinically involving human participants, the evidence of anti inflammatory activity found in chicken soup may have "clinical relevance." So, feed a cold with some good ole' chicken soup. By the way, would you like to email us your recipe for chicken soup? Sources/Resource: American College of Chest Physicians, October 18, 2000
| ||||||||
|
|
||||||||
