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Nov, 1993

For this you need an M.D.? - Chicken soup proven effective against cold and flu

ASK A JEWISH GRANDMOTHER who discovered penicillin and she's more likely to cite Maimonides, the twelfth-century Jewish sage, than Alexander Fleming. "Soup made from an old chicken is of benefit against chronic fevers," Maimonides wrote, "and also aids the cough." Researchers treading boldly in the footsteps of centuries of Jewish grandmothers have now found scientific evidence that Maimonides was right: chicken soup (aka Jewish penicillin) apparently suppresses the inflammation that causes some of the symptoms of cold and flu. Stephen Rennard, chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, has shown that chicken soup--prepared by his wife, Barbara, according to die recipe of her Jewish grandmother--inhibits the movement of certain white blood cells called neutrophils. Neutrophils fight infection by migrating to the site of the infection and releasing enzymes that attack the invading bacteria or viruses. But those same enzymes also attack the body's own cells, causing inflammation.

Rennard placed neutrophils in the top half of a plastic container that was divided in two by a fine membrane. He put a bacterial protein that attracts neutrophils in the bottom half. Then he added lump-free chicken soup, at various stages of preparation, to the neutrophils and observed how it affected the speed at which they migrated through the tiny pores of the membrane.

Water alone didn't inhibit the neutrophils at all. But when Rennard added the first set of vegetables--onions, sweet potatoes, carrots, turnips, and parsnips--the neutrophils slowed down dramatically. The vegetable broth actually killed some of the infection-fighting cells, which is not such a good thing--but, says Rennard, that's where the chicken comes in. Apparently it counteracts the cytotoxic effect of the vegetables, because Mrs. Rennard's soup in its completed state was not

cytotoxic. "It may be that the concoction as a whole has some effects that the individual components do not," says Rennard.

Rennard is convinced that chicken soup, by inhibiting neutrophil movement, can somehow reduce inflammation, and thus the symptoms of a cold or flu, without actually reducing the body's ability to fight infection. "There's no reason traditional remedies won't work just because they're traditional," he says. Maimonides, who besides being a great philosopher was also one of the foremost physicians of his day, put it differently. "Eat, eat," he is said to have urged his patients. "It's good for you."

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