# Take two fish and call me in the morning

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-two-fish-and-call-me-in-the-morning/180768>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [June 10, 2003, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-two-fish-and-call-me-in-the-morning/180768 "2003-06-10T02:33:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-two-fish-and-call-me-in-the-morning/180768/1 "2003-06-10T02:33:43Z")

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[This](http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_788954.html) 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.”