When your nose is stuffed up and you can’t breathe, you’ll try just about anything to get relief. And that’s why a hack that claims shoving raw garlic cloves up your nose can unclog stuffiness is going viral on TikTok. Fans of the practice are posting videos of them giving the trend a try and there are over 94.9-million clips with the hashtag#GarlicInNoseon TikTok. But here’s the thing, not only does it NOT work, it can actually be dangerous.
The trend has folks plugging up their nostrils with raw garlic cloves for around 10 to 15 minutes and when they take it out, a massive amount of mucus gushes from their nose, so they swear the garlic can “unclog the sinuses.” But that’s not what’s really happening, according to Dr. Erich Voight, an ear, nose, and throat specialist, who calls the idea “terrible.” He explains that the body is actually trying to get rid of the garlic, so it’s creating more mucus to flush it out and the new mucus is adding to the stuff that already caused the congestion.
So what comes out “isn’t the mucus that was trapped in there due to disease or virus,” Voight says. “It’s the production of mucus meant to get the garlic out.” And in addition to creating excess snot, jamming garlic up your nose can also lead to health issues like chemical burns, bleeding, and severe sinus infections. “Garlic is a very powerful substance that has chemicals which can cause allergic reactions and damage to the skin,” Voight explains, adding that if a small piece of garlic gets stuck up there without the person knowing, “it could lead to a very bad nasal or sinus infection which could call for extraction through surgery.”
- And it’s not just garlic, he says it’s not a good idea to put any food items up your nose and he recommends sticking with saltwater spray or inhaling steam to unclog congestion.
Source:New York Post