Here’s a waste of perfectly good garlic – and a potential health hazard.
An eyebrow-raising TikTok trend involving users putting garlic cloves up their nostrils in an attempt to clear their sinuses can go wrong on many levels, doctors say.
TikTokers are touting garlic as a remedy to clear sinuses, but doctors say putting cloves up your nostrils could cause irritation.
(TikTok/@rozalinekatherine)
Videos showing the “hack” for clearing up a stuffy nose have garnered thousands of views and show young people putting a clove of peeled garlic in each nostril. Many of the videos result in TikTok-ers showing runny noses after the cringe-worthy stunt. However, it doesn’t mean the edible bulb is a cure-all.
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“If you do this enough, the body will start to react to the oils and chemicals in the garlic and cause contact dermatitis in the nose,” Neil Bhattacharyya, M.D., an ear, nose, and throat doctor at Mass Eye and Ear told The Independent.
“Some garlic cloves are really strong, and if you get enough leaching of the chemicals and oils into your nose, it will definitely irritate it,” Bhattacharyya explained.
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What’s worse, people run the risk of getting the cloves stuck up their nostrils, potentially resulting in a trip to Urgent Care. For these reasons, a number of doctors advise sticking with saline nasal spray to help with nasal congestion.
