Chicken Soup, Rx for the Cold

Grandma always did say chicken soup was good for what ails you.

There's no cure for the common cold, but medical experts support what generations of grandmas have told us - that old-fashioned chicken soup, often called Jewish penicillin, has medicinal benefits.

Chicken soup was first prescribed as a cold and asthma remedy by 12th century physician Moses Maimonides. Modern proof that chicken soup provides cold relief came from a study published in 1978. The study found that the real value of this homemade remedy is its steam. Sipping hot chicken soup cleared up congestion better than plain hot or cold water.

There is a "stew" of other chicken soup theories. One researcher says chicken soup contains drug-like agents similar to those in modern cold medicines. For example, an amino acid released from chicken during cooking chemically resembles the drug acetylcysteine, prescribed for bronchitis and other respiratory problems. Spices like garlic and pepper that are often added to chicken soup may work just like modern cough medicines, thinning mucus and making breathing easier.

Another theory is that chicken soup acts as an anti-inflammatory. The soup keeps a check on inflammatory white blood cells (neutrophils). Cold symptoms like coughs and congestion are often caused by inflammation caused when neutrophils migrate to the bronchial tubes and accumulate there.

In a lab, this researcher tested chicken soup made from the recipe of his wife's Lithuanian grandmother. He showed that neutrophils showed less of a tendency to congregate - but were no less able to fight germs - after he added samples of the soup to the neutrophils in a test tube. Diluted 200 times, the soup still showed that effect. Since this study, he has tested commercial chicken soups and found they worked just as well (but didn't taste as good) as his grandmother's version.

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External Sources Mount Sinai Medical Center, Miami UCLA School of Medicine University of Nebraska Medical Center

This article was reviewed and updated June 2007.

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