Asthma patients getting fish for treatment

Bathini Fish Medicine Camp, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India.

Bathini Fish Medicine (also known as Bathini Mrugasira Fish) is stuffed inside the mouth of live murrel fish (Channa species also classified as Ophiocephalus) of 2 in. to 2.5 in. (5 cm to 6 cm) in size. Then fish with medicine is slipped into the mouth of the asthmatic patient.(The fish is slippery, so there is no problem in swallowing it) This live fish moves, wagging its tail and fins, through the throat and negotiates the phlegm congestion, providing cure to asthma, it is claimed. The advice is to continue taking the treatment together with a strict diet over 45 days during each of three consecutive years. The claim is that this will give a complete cure from asthma.

Bathini Fish Medicine is served and administered on a specific day called "Mrigishira Karthi", which is fixed each year by astrologers and normally coincides with the arrival of monsoon rains, the first or second week of June. Bathini Fish Medicine is given on Mrigishira Karti Nakshatra. Three doses of the extra medicine is also provided to patients, which is to be taken on three successive kartis: Arudra Karthi, Punnavasu Karthi and Pushymi Karti, these days being spaced each fifteen days, making a total of 45 days. After taking Bathini Fish Medicine the patient has to be under strict diet control for 45 days.

Source: Wikipedia

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