Woman 'ate eight live frogs' after being told it would fix her back pain

The 82-year-old, who is referred to only by her surname Zhang, said she heard through folklore that eating live frogs could help treat the pains she was suffering due to a herniated disc, according to local media reports.

In September, she asked her family to help her catch the frogs without telling them why.

She ate three of the creatures which were all smaller than the palm of a hand, in one go. She consumed the remaining five the following day.

The pensioner quickly started experiencing abdominal pain and was taken to hospital – where she revealed to medics what she had done.

Her son said that after her mother had a “sharp pain that made her unable to walk” after she ate “eight live frogs”.

Medical tests revealed she had developed a parasite infection and a damaged digestive system.

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“Swallowing frogs has damaged the patient’s digestive system and resulted in some parasites being present in her body, including sparganum,” one of the doctors said.

She was treated and eventually discharged after two weeks.

In 2021, a man in eastern China developed parasitic infection after eating five live frogs because he was told they would make him stronger.

The 53-year-old farmer was told the folklore by fellow villagers they could give him more strength to work the fields.

He reportedly wanted to improve his fitness after breaking his collarbone and a shoulder blade.

“I caught five frogs in total and they were all quite small, about a thumb’s length each,” he told local media.

But he soon started feeling weak and developed a persistent fever and was taken to three hospitals to find determine the cause of his symptoms, never thinking to tell doctors that it may have been because he swallowed the live animals.

Eating live frogs is a remedy in folk medicinal practice that is widely adopted various parts of China.

Other unscientific remedies often trend on social media.

A six-month-old baby girl in China’s Zhejiang province was diagnosed with lead poisoning as her mother soaked her hand in lead acetate liquid to treat her eczema after seeing videos about it online.

The dangerous remedy permeated the baby’s skin, according to doctors.