Why is it said that chicken soup helps get rid of colds/flu?

[The Cheshire Cat]

Yeah just that. I mean, is it something about he chicken? Or is there a recipe where you add garlic or something? I mean, you look at all the rubbish we put into our food these days, obviously Chinese noodles isn't going to do it.... Yeah, basically just the question in the title with a bit of info please.

[Dave B]

You are overthinking a good thing. Just go with it. Chicken soup works empirically - many observations over hundreds of years says so. Build you own models as to why it works, but the observations speak for themselves.

[DrJimLiu]

There is new evidence that chicken has anti-inflammatory properties, particularly if the skin is left in. In 2000, scientists at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha found that some components of chicken soup inhibit neutrophil (the major fraction of white blood cells) migration. Neutrophil activity can stimulate the release of mucus in the nasal cavity, which may be the cause of the coughs and stuffy nose caused by upper respiratory infections of cold viruses. Chicken soup could play a mild anti-inflammatory role that may perhaps lead to a temporary easing of the symptoms of illness. However, because of its weak efficacy, it cannot be used as the main method to cure colds.

To cure a cold or Flu quickly, you need to cleanse your nasal cavities to eliminate these cold/flu viruses and inflammatory factors in mucus. The sooner you performing an effective nasal cleansing, the fast you can recover.

A group of doctors reported a breakthrough research in June 2011 that patients with colds or Flu performed nasal cleansing using NasalCare Nasal irrigation Kit, three times a day, their symptoms reduced the next day, and recovered very fast. The average reduction of the cold duration is 4.5 days. Flu was also gone quickly. This is a safe, easy and very effective treatment.

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