Flu Fighter

A CBS 2 News Special Assignment

Special Assignment: Flu Fighter aired Wednesday, December 18, 1997 at 11 p.m.

We've all experienced the symptoms: a nose running like a faucet and a pounding headache. It makes it virtually impossible to get any work done. Just ask CBS 2 News accountant Kathy Fong.

"I've got a sore throat, I've been coughing and I've got a runny nose," Fong told CBS 2 News. "It's the flu that everybody around here gets. They come in here coughing."

Nearly everyone gets the flu at one time or another. No one is immune, even actresses like Jane Seymour, who plays Dr. Quinn on the CBS program "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman."

"I traditionally start out with a sore throat on the left side," Seymour told CBS 2 News. "It's very specific."

As a television actress, Seymour can't get sick or show that she feels lousy on the set, especially considering they work 15-hour days. How does she pull it off when she feels a little under the weather? It's not something from the Dr. Quinn medicine kit, but rather something from her personal homeopathic stash.

"Every once in a while someone will say, 'Oh, I'm too sick to work,'" said Seymour. "So we'll pop another pill for them and they get better."

Seymour is a strong believer in homeopathic remedies, reported Leavitt.

"Give it a try the next time you have a cold or a flu," Seymour told Leavitt. "You know antibiotics aren't going to work, because they only treat bacteria. So you have nothing to lose."

It was Seymour's sister, Annie Gould, who propelled her into the world of natural remedies. Gould is a doctor of homeopathy.

"It whispers to the body, 'Hey, you know what to do really'," Gould told CBS 2 News. "The body heals itself, and the homeopathic remedies trigger that process."

That's the whole concept behind homeopathy, said Leavitt. Researchers aren't exactly sure how it works, but it's based on the law of similars.

For example, when you cut a red onion your eyes water and your nose runs. If you have a cold with a runny nose and watery eyes, you would take a homeopathic remedy containing a minute dose of red onion to help your body heal itself.

CBS 2 News' accounting department was recruited to put the theory to the test. Employees who took turns trading the flu now decided to take turns trying out a popular homeopathic remedy called oscillococcinum, said Leavitt. CBS 2 News received mixed findings from their unscientific experiment.

"I took it and I felt fine," accountant Rosa Brunell said.

While Brunell says it worked for her, another worker had very different results.

"I took the wonder drug," said Joan Merritt, another accountant. "Unfortunately, it didn't work for me. I was home sick the next couple of days, but it was worth a try."

Merritt gave up, instead opting for the old standby: chicken soup. Co-worker Kathy Fong remains a try believer. She's tried it before, and just tried it again.

"It's only been about half an hour," said Fong. "But I know it's going to work. That's why I took it."

But should you be skeptical?

"I think there's two answers to that," UCLA Family Medicine Dr. Susan Stangl told CBS 2 News. "One is that they don't seem to hurt anything and, in some cases, I believe that they do work. There is some evidence that they do."

Stangl said it probably comes down to how healthy the person taking it is and his state of mind.

"Any drug study that's done will generally show up to a 50-percent placebo effect, even from just a sugar pill," said Stangl. "So if you think it's going to help, it will."

Jane Seymour takes it a step beyond that.

"I know it works. I think you have to try it and have it work on you for you to suddenly go, 'I don't believe it.'"

Many doctors won't recommend homeopathic remedies. Dr. Stangl told CBS 2 News that's because these remedies haven't gone through the same rigorous testing as products in the U.S.

Regardless, it's a hot seller. Sales on oscillococcinum have more than doubled in the past few years, said Leavitt.

It's available in many homeopathic and natural-remedy stores, where is is also recognizable by the simpler nickname "oscillo."