Bird Flu Sparks Home Remedies In Germany

Apparently Germans believe that cabbage products like sauerkraut can help them from getting the bird flu. Among the other remedies out there is drinking half your body weight in alkaline water.

(Herald Tribune)"Take any sort of product, irresponsibly claim it works and you are a millionaire, that is for sure," Edzard Ernst, a professor of complementary medicine at the University of Exeter, said by telephone. "Some of the cures are so ridiculous and dangerous."

Among those in the latter category of alleged remedies is drinking half one's body weight in so-called alkaline water.

"This would almost certainly kill you," Ernst said, because it would lead to water poisoning or hyponatremia, a low sodium concentration in the blood.

Ernst reviewed scientific literature on purported bird flu remedies on the Internet, and found none would be effective in treating or preventing disease in humans. Most sites were "commercial in nature," he said.

So what have we learned? Before you gorge yourself with sauerkraut or poison yourself with alkaline water, do your research. If these worked, don't you think that Indonesia would be buying up all the sauerkraut in the world?