Health Gimmick of the Month: Potatoes > Antibiotics

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Written by Tim Kalantjakos
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Surprise, surprise. Another month has passed, and the tainted wellspring of TikTok โ€œmedical knowledgeโ€ has coughed up yet another pseudoscientific gem reeking of โ€œtrust me broโ€ energy.

Thankfully, actual doctors and nurses have responded firmly in the interest of public health.

Like a crossover between the medical advice of your Italian great uncle (whatever it is, rub oil on it) and that tinfoil-hatted friend of yours who will never visit the doctor (theyโ€™re just trying to poison us, maaaan), this TikTok trend proposes a solution to strep throat that we all apparently missed: potatoes.

Yeah, forget antibiotics – says a certain woman in a certain TikTok we refuse to link – simply have your child drink the juice of a potato and their strep throat will be gone โ€œwithin hours,โ€ as it supposedly went with her 14-year-old daughterโ€™s case.

Thankfully, within just days, a smattering of concerned doctors and nurses showed up to refute this extremely lofty claim, and considering whatโ€™s at stake, with very little mincing of words.

It got doctors really mad

โ€œI normally donโ€™t yell, but this type of bad medical advice can harm a child,โ€ read the caption under the rebuttal video of pediatrician and allergist Dr. Rubin, in which he (loudly) listed the following complications that may result from improperly treated streptococcus infection:

  • Large abscesses that need to be drained
  • Ear infections
  • Sinus infections
  • Post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis (a severe kidney disease)
  • Acute rheumatic fever

This last issue was labeled soberly by Dr. Rubin as โ€œthe most dreaded of all,โ€ as it can have detrimental effects on the heart, brain, and joints that could be โ€œlife shortening.โ€

But wait… did the potato juice work?

Another medical expert, medical toxicology physician Dr. Kelly Johnson-Arbor, brought up a very important point in her comments featured in this Today article covering the dangerous trend: coincidences happen.

In other words, maybe the strep throat really did clear up soon after the potato juice, but strep is often โ€œself-limiting,โ€ Dr. Johnson-Arbor explained. This in no way means that the potato – which, by the way, does contain some antifungal compounds – actually cleared up the infection.

Thatโ€™s when it clicked for us – this is probably how most of these trends are born. Some undiscerning โ€œhome naturopathโ€ clamoring for TikTok ideas tries a natural remedy on their kids, encounters this coincidence, and wouldnโ€™t you know, they discover a simple remedy that centuries of medical research missed.

Normally, we have a laugh and shrug these off, but weโ€™re talking about our kids, people. Letโ€™s stick to antibiotics.



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