FWD Fact Check: Steam, Hot Water and Alkaline Foods will not cure or prevent COVID-19!
An especially long Whatsapp forward finally got to me. It’s been doing its rounds since last year, and this has got to be the third or fourth time I’ve received it. I don’t want to get my website flagged, so I’m adding an image to show you what it says below. The gist of it has four major points that I want to tackle:
COVID-19 binds oxygen, thereby lowering blood oxygen: FALSE
Alkaline foods can kill the COVID Virus: FALSE
Drinking hot water will kill the virus: FALSE
Steam will kill the virus: FALSE
But then, you probably knew that already. But it is interesting to get into why these are false. So let’s go through them one by one.
COVID does not bind with oxygen
The SARS-CoV-2 virus likes most bacteria and viruses, does need oxygen to survive, but this isn’t leading to low blood oxygen. Low blood oxygen is when your lungs get inflamed and filled with fluid, leading to difficulty breathing and low blood oxygen.
COVID is not acidic, so alkaline diets can’t kill it
The coronavirus doesn't have a pH value, and I don’t think it matters either.
This is used to justify urging people to eat alkaline diets and then mentions how all these fruits and vegetables have alkaline pH values. When EVERY SINGLE ONE is wrong. I've also put the correct values next to each item, so you know how far off they are.
And then, they've got Avocados and Watercress at impossible pH values! The scale is only from 1 to 14, so how does anything have a pH of 15 or 22! The pH of household bleach is between 11 and 13, and that stuff will kill you when you consume it! Materials at both ends of the pH scale are equally corrosive, whether it’s acid or alkaline.
This message tries to put on the garb of science, and it's a clown costume instead. It's completely wrong, even with basic things (see what I did there?) that you can Google up. It's also spreading the lie that you can cure COVID-19 with food, which is completely false. Every single word in this message is wrong. If you receive it, delete it, and don't forward it to anyone.
I’ve already written about alkaline water and how your body balances its pH, so do give those articles a read if you want to know more about the topic.
Hot water and steam do nothing to stop covid!
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, moves quickly. As soon as it enters your nasal passages, eyes, or mouth, it can get through the mucus membranes and fluids and starts invading cells and replicating. Even before you know you're infected, the virus can be in your lungs and deep in other tissues, happily replicating away.
Drinking hot water or doing steam inhalation can be very soothing when you have a cold or the flu, or even covid. It soothes the membranes and can help reduce congestion in your sinuses. But they have short, superficial effects on your nasal and throat tissues. You are warm-blooded, so your body returns tissues to their healthy temperature as soon as it can. This will do little or nothing to viruses already in your system. It will temporarily slow down their replication in the cells closer to the surface of the tissues for a while. Only something as pervasive as a fever heats your internal tissues enough to slow down the replication of the virus to help your immune system fight the infection.
Adding to this, steam is extremely effective at diffusing heat into anything it touches, increasing your chances of actually scalding the tissues and membranes within your nose. Doing it once or twice when you have a cold can help soothe your inflammation, but the more you do it, especially regularly, can increase your chances of injury.
Bottom line: go ahead and have warm water or do some light steaming if you want. But don't overdo it. And be very careful when you do. It can be a soothing home remedy, but it won't prevent covid infection and definitely won’t cure it.
So there it is – another nonsensical, pseudoscience-filled Whatsapp forward debunked. Plenty more where they came from. Have you encountered any nutty ones that just don’t seem to go away? Share them with me below.
Further Reading
There is no evidence that the COVID-19 can be killed at higher temperatures. Drinking warm water and getting enough sunlight may have other health benefits. For example, sunlight is good to get Vitamin D, but too much exposure to sunlight may also lead to sunburn.
https://www.jhsph.edu/covid-19/articles/coronavirus-facts-vs-myths.html
The Logical Indian: https://thelogicalindian.com/fact-check/consumption-of-foods-with-a-ph-level-above-that-of-coronavirus-could-cure-or-prevent-infection-22184