Why You Should Think Twice About Following TikTok's Garlic Nose Trend

The internet is full of advice. Need a recent example? Well, many TikTok users have now started vouching for easy hacks to get rid of nasal congestion. One such trick involves shoving garlic up their noses. According to Insider, these viral clips have one thing in common: Adventurous TikTok users let the cloves stay in their noses for half an hour or so. Many of them insist that when they finally remove the cloves, plenty of mucus gets out, too. The result? A life free of congestion. Someone even went ahead and claimed that this is pretty safe. "This is not dangerous. The garlic just clean your sinuses out," the TikTok user wrote.

This is false. Garlic should only be used for cooking purposes, according to Dr. William Li, physician, scientist, and president and medical director of the Angiogenesis Foundation. The author of "Eat to Beat Disease" debunked the myths surrounding the trend. "While there are many natural bioactives in garlic that have been shown in scientific and clinical studies to have benefits, there is zero evidence that raw garlic in the nose is beneficial in any way," Dr. Li told Mashed.

No one can deny that garlic by itself is good for health and can be useful in many ways. Dr. William Li vouched for this and said that garlic can reduce inflammation and even "enhance immune cell function." However, according to Li, when it comes to getting rid of a blocked nose, it's best to embrace the more traditional route and blow your nose in the old-fashioned way. If it gets too much, pop an antihistamine to feel better.

He even had an explanation for why some people seem to feel better after shoving garlic up their noses. "Any object in the nose can provoke nasal secretions," he told Mashed. "But online videos are full of gags and stunts, so it's hard to know if what is seen in the videos are real or set up." Take note and don't believe everything you see!

Also, it's basically unwise to put a foreign object in your nose. You could end up with a nose bleed, unwanted inflammation, or an infection. Dr. Li's parting words are worth listening to. "From a medical standpoint, it's best to keep all foreign objects out of your nose," he noted.