“Appendix total removal,” reads a message posted on the Nigeria-based Facebook page “Sure Truth”. It adds: “You shall not die young.”
The message claims drinking a mixture of lemon juice, snail slime and tomatoes will cure appendicitis.
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“Crush tomatoes, press lemon juice in a cup then with a wood break the pointed shell of the snail,” it reads.
“There’s a liquid that will flow, collect the liquid and make a good mixture of the tomatoes, pour lemon and snail juice that you collected from the snail, drink this mixture once and forget the problem till the end of your life; 100% tested.”
The appendix is a small, thin pouch in the lower right side of your belly (abdomen) connected to the large intestine. Appendicitis is when the appendix gets inflamed.
It usually starts with a pain in the middle of your belly. The pain then travels to the lower right side and becomes more severe.
If appendicitis is left untreated, the appendix could rupture and release bacteria into your abdominal cavity, which could lead to death.
Only surgery can remove appendix
Idowu Fadeyibi, a professor of surgery at the Lagos State University College of Medicine told Africa Check that there was no scientific basis for the mixture.
“People should be very wary of taking untested and unsafe mixtures such as this, especially when they have appendicitis,” he said.
Fadeyibi said appendicitis could be dangerous if left untreated, and drinking mixtures that had not been tested as safe and effective could lead to complications.
He said appendicitis could flare up again in some people, adding that these people would need different treatment options.
But in other people, the infection could be persistent and they may need to have their appendix removed as soon as possible. Otherwise, it might rupture, which could be deadly.
“The permanent solution to appendicitis is to have the appendix surgically removed through a procedure called an appendectomy,” he said.
A collaboration between Daily Trust and Africa Check to fight health misinformation.
