Instead of heading to the store for some VapoRub, influencers are putting onions on their chests to get rid of stubborn coughs.
In a TikTok earlier this month, Amoreena McNally, a radiologic technologist, said she had been dealing with a dry, painful cough since late August and felt like there was something in her chest “that needs to come out.”
The mother said she tried traditional medicine – taking inhalers and a doctor-prescribed pill to clear her up – but nothing worked.
So she decided to try a home flu remedy recommended by an Amish social media creator, who recommended placing slices of raw onions on her chest and covering them with a Ziplock bag full of hot water.
For the first time in three months, McNally said she “felt something coming on,” adding, “I may look weird, but I’m going to trust the Amish people.”
But just as quickly as she found relief, her symptoms returned. Once the vegetables were off her chest, her cough was back.
She’s not alone. McNally’s video, which has 1.1 million likes, is being flooded with comments from users who claim that placing an onion wedge in their sock or on their chest can help “draw toxins out of the body” and get over a cold faster to come.
But doctors, like New Jersey-based family physician Dr. Jen Caudle, said there is no science behind these claims.
On her TikTok, Dr. Caudle said, “Onions aren’t going to do that, okay? Just by putting onion in your socks, sleeping with it and so on, it’s not necessarily going to draw out toxins or make you less sick or things like that. Remember, we have our organs to get rid of toxins.”
Amoreena McNally said using the onions on her chest gave her some temporary relief from a three-month cough. However, she said the symptoms returned after use and is going back to her doctor
Rachel Sheppick, an influencer and mother from Arizona, shared a video of herself placing a slice of red onion in her sock in 2022. She said this can “help us stay healthy and detox” during cold and flu season. Replying to a commenter, Sheppick said: ‘I know it seems strange, but it totally works’
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This is just the latest in a series of home remedies for common bugs that have become popular online.
In recent years, influencers have recommended putting potatoes in your socks while you sleep, eating raw garlic and drinking ice water with onion slices in it to get over an illness.
Proponents of onions claim that the vegetable has natural properties that attract and kill bacteria. Experts say this is not true.
Dr. Thomas Moore, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Kansas, previously told DailyMail.com that even if these remedies make people feel better, it may be because the virus was already running its course.
‘All these coughs and colds last about five days, for the typical respiratory virus. It may persist, but generally it goes away within five days,” he said.
“So when something improves, people attribute it to whatever drug they choose and start swearing by it.”
So far, there are no scientific studies that support this claim.
The National Onion Association issued a statement saying: ‘Cold and flu viruses are spread by contact, not by floating in the air where the onion can supposedly attract or destroy them.’
The NOA traced the claim that onions can cure diseases as far back as the 16th century, when people claimed that placing the bulbs in the room could prevent people from getting the bubonic plague.
According to figures, about 34 million Americans get the flu every year and millions more get a cold or an upper respiratory illness Johns Hopkins Medicine.
For centuries, people have claimed that the natural properties of onions are able to capture germs from the air and kill them, thus removing diseases from the home and helping a person get sicker. according to Snopes.
On McNally’s video: a user named Shauna shared the same sentiment: ‘onions absorb germs. I put onion slices on the children’s bedside tables when they were sick.’
It seems that people also believe that skin-to-skin contact can draw diseases or unspecified “toxins” from their bodies.
For many people who get sick from one of these viruses, there are no specific treatments. As a result, doctors often send people home with instructions for rest, hydration, and over-the-counter pain relievers, expecting the disease to resolve on its own in most healthy people.
This leads many people to turn to their own treatments.
Of the numerous DIY cold and flu treatments Dr. Moore has seen, including onion water and applying pressure to the forehead, he said, “Does it work? Probably not. But it is supportive care that makes people feel better and like they are doing something.
‘In terms of scientific data, there are no convincing scientific papers that say these remedies work, but if it makes you feel better, that’s what these remedies are about.’
Still, Dr. Caudale and Dr. Moore recommend seeing the doctor first before relying on items you may already have in your pantry.
Said Dr. Caudale on her TikTok: ‘Go to your doctor as there are many things we can do, natural remedies and medications to help you get over the problems.’
For McNally, the onion remedy itself wasn’t so cut and dry.
Although she felt relief while using it, she shared continued videos that her symptoms returned, and at the insistence of her followers she planned to go to the doctor for an X-ray, fearing pneumonia.
‘After I made that video last night and all the reactions, I called (the doctor) back. And now I’m going to get a chest x-ray, just because I’m scared right now.”