Take two fish and call me in the morning

[Shirley_Ujest]

This just in from India:

Ananova:

**Family facing legal action over fish asthma treatment **

An Indian family is facing legal action for refusing to reveal details of an asthma ‘cure’ which involves swallowing a live fish.

The Goud family treat hundreds of thousands of asthma sufferers each year by giving them a one inch sardine smeared with a special paste.

Doctors have asked the Goud family, of Hyderabad, to disclose the formula for medical and scientific scrutiny.

But the family will not reveal the recipe which they say they got 162 years ago from a Hindu saint who said it would not work if it was ever used for profit.

“If they refuse to do so, the government should withdraw its support for the event,’” said MV Ranga Redy of the Indian Medical Association.

The Peoples Awareness Forum, a group that tries to dissuade people from following rituals, says it will take the family to court if they continue refusing to say what’s in the paste.

*The row comes as hundreds of thousands of asthma sufferers from all over India gather in Hyderabad for the cure as they do every June, on a date chosen by astrologers. *

Nearly 200 family members and volunteers are administering the sardines to the patients and 5,000 police officers have been drafted in to control the crowds.

"We will continue the distribution of the medicine until the last man gets it,’’ said Bathini Harinath Goud, one of five brothers who makes the yellow paste.

After swallowing the live fish, the patients begin a strict 45-day diet of 25 different foods, including lamb, rice, white sugar, dried mango, spinach and clarified butter.

I can hear the phone calls now:

“No, no, I said Pisces on the cusp are 10:15am. You are a Virgo, sir, you will have to wait until 11:30.”