E-mail with advice to prevent flu is debunked

A widely circulating e-mail by a “renowned doctor” offers advice on avoiding H1N1 flu, with tips ranging from frequent hand washing to washing viruses into the stomach with warm liquids.

Some of the tips are valid, but the e-mail is not.

“Thanks to media hype about H1N1, several people who trust me have either approached or called me for advice,” the e-mail - attributed to Dr. Vinay Goyal - begins.

Six tips follow:

-frequent hand-washing;

-resist temptations to touch any part of the face;

-gargle twice a day with warm salt water;

-clean your nostrils at least once daily with warm salt water;

-boost your natural immunity with foods rich in vitamin C;

-drink as much warm liquids as possible to wash down the viruses.

“There's no harm to it - can't hurt; might help,” Dr. Mark Valliere, chief medical officer at Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids, said of several of the tips. “But there's a lot of real basic stuff that he doesn't talk about.”

Chief among those is getting vaccinated, Valliere said, one of the proven ways to lessen the chances of getting the flu.

No one is actually sure who wrote the e-mail tips. According to myth-debunker Snopes.com, the H1N1, commonly called swine flu, pandemic prompted a spate of Internet-circulated advice for avoiding the malady.

The list of tips attributed to Goyal also has been attributed to Dr. Mehmet Oz of “The Dr. Oz Show” and a Dr. Subhash Mehta of Bangalore, India.

Snopes notes that both Oz and Goyal have disclaimed authorship.

“It's unlikely that any of these men was the actual creator of this swine flu prevention tip list, as the earliest versions carried no attribution,” Snopes notes.

“We suspect that this list wasn't written by a doctor at all, but some of the people whose in boxes it passed through added various doctors' names to it in order to lend it an air of authority and credibility.”

Still, some of the tips are standard advice recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The “Fight the Flu” campaign through the Iowa Department of Public Health reminds Iowans of the “3 C's” - cover your cough, clean your hands and contain germs by staying home when sick.

Mercy's Valliere, who hadn't seen the e-mail until The Gazette asked him to review it, agreed that hand-washing and avoiding touching the face are standard advice based on scientific evidence.

Others, such as gargling, could relieve symptoms, but won't necessarily prevent a person from getting H1N1 or seasonal flu, he said.

“It's been an old wives' tale for ever and ever,” Valliere said.

He noted that studies have never proven that vitamin C or other remedies actually work at preventing the flu.

Avoidance, also known as social distancing, is more effective, Valliere said.

“I think it's mostly common sense stuff,” he said. “Don't go hugging people who are coughing or sneezing. Hopefully it's stuff their mothers taught them.”