As we all know by now, college is the ultimate haven for getting sick. There is no getting around it and there is certainly no easy, quick remedy for getting better. Although, we’ve all heard it before “chicken soup is good for the soul” (and the common cold). With many other ways to prevent getting sick such as washing your hands, good hygiene and trying to avoid germs; chicken soup is proven to be just as good of a remedy as these.
Often times, symptoms from colds are related to your body’s inflammatory immune response to working to fight against the developing virus. Researchers from the University of Nebraska conducted recent studies to determine chicken soup’s effect on the immune cells. Dr. Stephen Rennard of the Medical Center in Omaha took volunteers and fed them his wife’s homemade chicken noodle soup recipe. Then, he took blood samples from the volunteers, which showed the movement of “neutrophil chemotaxis”, a white blood cell commonly known for fighting off infections. The specific ingredient responsible for these neutrophils is unknown, but it is said that the combination of vegetables and chicken work well together.
In another study, Mount Sinai researchers claimed that there is more to chicken soup that just a placebo effect. Researchers looked into how chicken soup effects airways and mucus in the nose. A group of 15 selected volunteers drank hot water, cold water or chicken soup broth and then were examined on how the liquids affected their airflow and mucus flow. It was found that the warm liquids increased flow, but chicken soup showed an improvement over the hot water.
Although results show that chicken soup can be beneficial, no results are final. There is almost always a possibility that the results could be due to chance. Also, we must take into account that humans could be prone to thinking that chicken soup is better because that is simply what they’ve been told all their life. Our parents tell us, who heard it from their parents, and so on. It is a psychological factor that could alter people’s opinion on its true effects. Being that it is a comfort food to some, this could make them biased or unbiased to the fact that it works.
Whether or not chicken soup is the newest medical remedy for treating an illness, there is no doubt that it is nutritious and delicious on any occasion!
Sources:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=117888
I, along with every other freshman on campus have gotten hit with the “freshman plague” and I can say from experience that it is a rough time. While looking up ways to get better, of course I read about chicken noodle soup, but I also read about some other things to help. Yogurt was another food I read about that could help with the plague. Yogurt a bacterium called Lactobacillus reuteri that has been found to block the replication of viruses that invade your body when you get sick. Citrus fruits are also very good while sick because they are rich in vitamin C which has been shown to reduce cold symptoms by 23%. So clearly chicken noodle soup is not the only food that can help fight off a bad cold, but it is the one that we know best and have been trained to put our trust into.
http://www.rodalenews.com/cold-flu-remedies