The instructional clip on frying lizards along with advice to “feed children to treat asthma” has reached 5 million views, sparking heated debate in the TikTok community. In the controversial clip on TikTok, the account owner demonstrated how to make the clip “trend” while frying lizards (geckos) marinated in spices. In the comments section, this individual continually emphasized feeding lizards to children to treat asthma. Moreover, this person’s TikTok channel posts various videos on cooking lizards and even films children eating lizards to treat asthma, stating: “Feed children to cure asthma, everyone.” Although the lizard frying clip was uploaded recently, it has already garnered nearly 5 million views, over 100 thousand likes, and 17 thousand comments. Many people are appalled by the account owner’s promotion of using fried lizards as an asthma remedy and worry that many viewers might believe and intend to treat children in this manner.
Netizens commented: “It’s horrifying, just seeing it makes my skin crawl, let alone having kids eat it”; “There’s no way eating lizards can cure asthma; these misleading clips should be banned”; “I think this is a trick to get views, as well as teaching people how to trend, causing these videos to gain popularity in the online community is truly dangerous; people lacking knowledge might follow suit.”
Regarding the medicinal effects of lizards for children, Dr. Nguyen Trong Dung from the National Children’s Hospital affirmed to VTC News: “There is no scientific evidence that feeding children lizards can treat asthma. Even the actual effectiveness of the remedies mentioned mostly relies on patients’ hearsay and lacks confirmed studies.”
Dr. Dung also mentioned that using lizards as a folk remedy for diseases remains at a rudimentary and unconvincing level and might lead to regrettable consequences due to insufficient advice. Hence, he advises people not to use lizards as medicine based on oral tradition.
Asthma is a common chronic respiratory disease in children, characterized by chronic inflammation of the airways. When exposed to triggering factors (such as pollen, animal dander, cigarette smoke, etc.), a patient’s airway swells, narrows, fills with mucus, causing blockages and resulting in symptoms like coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath.
Although it cannot be completely cured, adhering to the doctor’s instructions can help control the disease’s symptoms, ensuring a normal life for patients. Treatment methods often involve identifying the disease’s triggers, applying preventive measures, and monitoring breathing to ensure the patient’s medication controls the symptoms. In cases of severe asthma attacks, patients may need to use fast-acting inhalers.
In addition to medication, asthmatic individuals need to change their lifestyles and, in some cases, even their profession and place of residence to avoid allergens causing the disease. Patients should never stop taking their medication or change their prescriptions or resort to unverified treatment methods like eating fried lizards, as shown in the video above.
Despite numerous professional warnings against baseless treatment methods, many people have posted on social media with the sole purpose of gaining views, sharing bizarre “medicinal recipes” such as swallowing lizard tails or eating cockroaches, earthworms, and even advocating these practices as effective cures for various severe ailments. What’s concerning is that many uninformed viewers tend to believe these harmful contents.
