Cocoa Krispies won't save you from H1N1
November 4, 2009
Comments on this story
(52)
Nicole Baute
LIVING REPORTER
As H1N1 hysteria grows, some people are trying everything from onions to homeopathy to fend off the vicious bug.
"I'm hearing a lot of people talking about H1N1 and there's a lot of fear out there, that's for sure," says Heather Boon, a professor at the University of Toronto who studies natural health products.
A host of H1N1 prevention techniques and products are circulating on Internet websites and email chains. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been vigilant, sending cease-and-desist letters to companies marketing "fraudulent products" in relation to H1N1, including gels, inhalers, masks, body wash and "air system products."
Dr. Allison McGeer, director of infection control at Mount Sinai Hospital, says she thinks a lot of people are "out to make money out of swine flu."
Novalis Integra Center for Healing and Transformation, an Ottawa-based company, was offering "free swine flu natural immunization" on its website until it was tracked down by the FDA. Co-founder Joyce Friesen says the immunization product is a powder you put under your tongue – an "energetic imprint" of the H1N1 virus created with a "homeopathic resonance system."
Novalis, which received warning letters from the FDA and the Competition Bureau of Canada, is no longer marketing the product on its website.
"It's really unfortunate because homeopathy works and it's a safe and inexpensive alternative and it wouldn't cost the government billions of dollars," Friesen says.
When it comes to homeopathy, McGeer says there are two kinds of people: those who honestly believe their medicine will help, and scammers.
"There's any number of homeopathic remedies and vitamins and herbs ... and a whole list of things that people are trying," she says. But the only things proven to fight H1N1, she says, are vaccination and washing your hands.
HOMEOPATHY
Customers have been asking at the Big Carrot's Wholistic
Dispensary on the Danforth for help in preventing H1N1, says its
herbalist, who goes by the name Francis Ashwagandha, who suggests a
variety of immune-enhancing products.
Nadia Bakir, a
naturopathic doctor and professor at the Canadian College of
Naturopathic Medicine, says the best homeopathic treatment for H1N1 is
an individualized one that takes the "chronic state" of the person into
account.
When that isn't possible, she recommends homeopathic remedies like Influenzinum, made from three flu viruses.
Influenzinum sells for $6.99 at the Big Carrot and $13.99 at nearby Ottway Herbalist.
Boon
says Influenzinum has not been tested with a randomized controlled
trial, but that does not necessarily mean it doesn't work for the flu.
Health Canada says it has not licensed any homeopathic medicine for sale, which claims it can fight any flu strain.
FACE MASKS
There are four masks on the FDA's fraudulent H1N1 products list. Nexera Medical's "Nexera SpectraShield N99" is one of them.
"We're
not very happy with the FDA for putting us on this list," says François
Mckinnon, Nexera's senior representative for Canada and France, who
says the mask is widely sold in Canada.
Mount Sinai's Allison
McGeer says wearing a mask does reduce the amount of influenza virus
spread into the environment, but there is no data to prove it stops
people from getting sick. But despite the lack of data, she says masks
might help.
VITAMINS
What about vitamins, long thought to fight off illnesses?
Mount
Sinai's Allison McGeer says "there is no evidence that vitamin C, any
doses of vitamin C, protects you from infections like influenza."
She
says the hypothesis that high doses of vitamin D might offer some
prevention against flu complications is interesting, but it has not yet
been proven.
In the U.S., Kellogg's was recently criticized for
marketing its Cocoa Krispies cereal with a banner reading "Now helps
support your child's IMMUNITY" and highlighting nutrients such as
vitamins A, B, C and E.
Kellogg's told USA Today the product was not meant to capitalize on the H1N1 situation.
Today, Kellogg says it will pull health claims from its Rice Krispies cereal box due to the public’s growing concern about swine flu, the Associated Press reports. The food company began adding antioxidants to the cereal last year and noted on the cereal box that these antioxidants help support the immune system. But Kellogg said Wednesday it will phase the message out of its packages over the next few months, given the public attention on swine flu. It will not alter the ingredients in the cereal.
SALINE SOLUTION
Some people are getting emails suggesting gargling with salt water
or mouthwash, or using saline nasal spray to keep the "portals of
entry" clear of the H1N1 virus. At the Big Carrot, a herbalist reaches
for the NETI pot, a nasal cleansing pot that sells for $21.99, and
suggests filling it with warm water and adding olive leaf, or
andrographis and ginger.
But Mount Sinai's Allison McGeer says the only thing that will help prevent H1N1, besides the vaccine, is hand washing.
"Being
well hydrated reduces the severity of cough, but gargling? Nothing,"
McGeer says. "They gargled arsenic in 1918. That didn't work either."
ONIONS
Parishioners from Toronto's Dewi Sant Welsh United Church are placing onions in bowls around their houses.
Their
church newsletter circulated a story about a farmer who did this during
the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1919, using the onions to absorb the
virus and keep his family healthy.
Church volunteer Nina Morris hasn't put out her onions yet, but plans to.
"I've
heard both ways – you can use it peeled or unpeeled – but I think
unpeeled would be a little bit onerous," says the 62-year-old.
Mount Sinai's Allison McGeer has only one thing to say about using onions: "Nonsense."
Toronto Star