Leprosy with Chicken and Squash - Myth or Fact?

 During the olden days, they say that chicken and squash causes leprosy when mixed in a single recipe. I am not sure if we are the only place who once, believed this kind of chronicle, that if you mix squash and chicken together in one recipe, it will cause leprosy. One day, I was hanging out with my friend in his barbecue house and we talked about a small restaurant near his business. He told me to be careful if by any chance I will eat in that restaurant because that restaurant does not care about its customers. I asked why. He added "Because they have a squash recipe and they mixed chicken in It." my curiosity pushed me to do a little research about the so-called "chicken and squash leprosy."

It is difficult to be unwanted; however it is worse if you become unwanted because of leprosy. If you are familiar with the Bible, you can see that during that time the only cure to this disease is miracle. Lepers in biblical times are lonely people because other people will stay away from them because their disease is communicable and they have no cure to leprosy during that time but miracle.

Can chicken and squash cause leprosy? This question started my train of thoughts that pushed me to do a research about this. I tried to search for a dish containing squash and chicken in eateries around my place and I did not find any. I tried to ask why they do not have a type of dish contains chicken and squash, they said it is not good to mix in one dish because they can cause leprosy. Now, I questioned myself “why would they think like that?” if it is not true why they would think about it.

 "Is it true that mixing chicken and squash in a recipe causes leprosy?"

Closer Look at Leprosy

Leprosy is a kind of infection that damages the skin, and this is basically caused by bacteria called Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis according to Wikipedia. Leprosy is also known as Hansen’s disease – named after a great Norwegian physician Gerard Henrik Hansen who identified the bacteria that causes leprosy in the year 1873.

Mycobacterium leprae

Hansen’s disease is basically starts in our peripheral nerves that is located just outside the spine and brain that serves as a channel to connect our central nervous system to our organs and different parts of our body, relaying the impulses to and fro. Peripheral nerves are very vulnerable to damages because there is nothing that protects it, like bones or any other tissue. There is a big chance that you will experience this disease genetically.

Mycobacterium leprae and lepromatosis attacks our vulnerable peripheral nerves and causes skin lesions that look like a rotting of our skin slowly, and progressively. If left untreated, skin lesions and basic infections may worsen and lead our fingers and toes to dissolve; making it look like it is consumed by some sort of parasites.

Though leprosy is a dangerous disease, our technology has found a way to kill the bacteria that manifests in our peripheral nerves and cure us from leprosy. You can reduce the risk to get this disease is to be careful of the water you drink and bath; eat healthy foods, diet plays a great role when it comes to our immune system, anything that compromises our immune system increase our chance to have this disease; and keep your bedding, and any clothing that may contact your skin clean. These are the basic actions you can do to avoid this kind of disease.

Summary:

According to our closer look at leprosy, there is none that points squash and chicken causes leprosy. Therefore, it is just a tale from the past that leprosy is caused by eating a food containing chicken and squash. We all know that during our ancestor’s time, they still did not find out what really caused leprosy, and maybe a coincidence happened that a man who is already infected leprosy ate a chicken-squash kind of viand, and days or months past, the condition worsens because it was not treated in the first place, and not because of chicken and squash. In fact, there is a bigger chance you will get the bacteria that causes leprosy from an armadillo than from the dish. The idea was just brought down to us from our past ancestors without any supporting fact surrounding the idea.

Posted by Unknown at 8:00 PM

Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook

Labels: chicken and squash disease, leprosy, mycobacterium leprae, what causes leprosy

• Share This Article

• Facebook

• Twitter

• Google+

• Stumble

• Digg