Urine as a jellyfish remedy? Common medical myths patients believe

Key takeaways:

• An expert said there is not enough urea in urine to effectively treat a jellyfish sting.
• Other common medical myths include using vitamin C to prevent a cold and becoming sick from a flu vaccination.

NEW ORLEANS — At the ACP Internal Medicine Meeting, Douglas S. Paauw, MD, MACP, a professor of medicine at the University of Washington, addressed several common medical myths among patients.

He said the myths can occur for various reasons. For example, the physiology of these practices may make sense, or the myths were reported in case reports that are “not under the same scrutiny as a randomized controlled trial,” he said in his presentation.

Pauuw added that tradition — ie, the myth never having been studied and the practice always having been done that way — is another contributing factor.

Vitamin C does not prevent colds

While vitamin C has been tied to several beneficial health outcomes, like a lower risk for CVD, it does not have protective effects against the common cold like some may believe, according to Pauuw.

He explained that this myth was made popular by scientist and Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling, PhD, who published a summary on four small studies in 1971 and concluded that the supplementation lessened and prevented the cold.

However, most of these studies “were questionnaires,” Paauw noted.

This idea was ultimately disproved by several studies published in the last couple decades, including a meta-analysis of 29 trials that found no statistically significant association between vitamin C and cold prevention.

Urinating on a jellyfish sting ineffective

According to the Cleveland Clinic, about 150 million jellyfish stings occur around the globe annually. Treatment can sometimes be as simple as pain relievers, but one approach that would not succeed is urination.

“I have no idea where this came from,” Pauuw said. “Who was the first person who thought this would be a good thing to throw out there?”

According to Paauw, there is not enough urea in urine to effectively treat a sting. In fact, he cited an analysis that showed urination was a significantly worse treatment than seawater.

For effective treatments, he said “cider vinegar seemed to be the best of the lot.”

Myths about the flu vaccine

Pauuw highlighted a couple misconceptions tied to vaccinations, such as that the influenza shot will cause the patient to become sick.

Contrary to this belief, a past study also showed that there was little difference in adverse effects among those who received the vaccine vs. those who received placebo.

“I think we can say to our patients, your arm might be a little bit sore for a little bit of time, but the other [adverse reactions] are really not associated with the flu shot any more than would happen naturally without a flu shot,” Pauuw said.

He also discussed the myth that a patient with an allergy to eggs cannot receive the influenza vaccine, which is based on the belief that a vaccine grown in eggs may have egg protein and could cause anaphylaxis in patients with immunoglobin E antibodies against egg proteins.

This myth was disproven by studies showing that children with egg allergies who received the vaccine had no serious reactions.

Thus, all patients with an egg allergy of any severity “should receive inactivated influenza annually, using any age-approved brand,” Pauuw said.

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