Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2022 February 21

= February 21 =

Onion in sock
Is it true that sleeping with a onion in your sock is a good remedy for the common cold? Thanks. 205.239.40.3 (talk) 11:03, 21 February 2022 (UTC)
 * No. Surprisingly, I can even cite a source to support my answer. there have not been any scientific studies that have looked at this specifically is code for "that hypothesis would violate so many rules of physics and biology that no serious researcher would devote time to testing it, no serious funding agency would give money to study it, and no serious journal would publish results about it".
 * @OP: since you asked here, presumably you thought it was possible the answer was "yes". I would encourage you to examine why you believe so. I suspect the answer is that someone told you, and possibly that someone added that they did it and it worked. Citing from Anecdotal_evidence:
 * "A common way anecdotal evidence becomes unscientific is through fallacious reasoning such as the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy, the human tendency to assume that if one event happens after another, then the first must be the cause of the second. (...) For example, here is anecdotal evidence presented as proof of a desired conclusion:"


 * "There's abundant proof that drinking water cures cancer. Just last week I read about a girl who was dying of cancer. After drinking water she was cured."


 * "Anecdotes like this do not prove anything. In any case where some factor affects the probability of an outcome, rather than uniquely determining it, selected individual cases prove nothing. (...) In medicine, anecdotal evidence is also subject to placebo effects: it is well-established that a patient's (or doctor's) expectation can genuinely change the outcome of treatment. Only double-blind randomized placebo-controlled clinical trials can confirm a hypothesis about the effectiveness of a treatment independently of expectations."


 * Synchronicity is "a person's subjective experience that coincidences between events in their mind and the outside world may be causally unrelated to each other yet have some other unknown connection." Alansplodge (talk) 14:49, 21 February 2022 (UTC)


 * See randomized controlled trial for the actual method to know if something works. Tigraan Click here for my talk page ("private" contact) 12:01, 21 February 2022 (UTC)
 * At least some scientists thought it worth their time and effort to conduct a double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial of garlic as a mosquito repellant, and a peer-reviewed journal published by a highly respected learned society thought this merited publication. I doubt there are a priori reasons to rule out the effectiveness of sulfur compounds exuded by onions as providing relief for the common cold, any more than there are reasons to rule out a role for zinc supplements. --Lambiam 18:16, 21 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Eating onion or smelling or onion vapors can very plausibly produce a biological effect. The "put it in a sock" part, less so. Tigraan Click here for my talk page ("private" contact) 13:34, 22 February 2022 (UTC)


 * Apparently, according to National Onion Association, the claim that raw onion can treat the flu is "a theory that dates back to the 1500s" and "In recent years, many articles online have claimed that this folk remedy is effective." One assumes those national onions are American ones. Maybe it's something that would be used by Novak Djokovic who, in 2020, spoke of his knowledge of "some people" using "prayer" and "gratitude" to "turn the most toxic food, or maybe most polluted water into the most healing water."?? Martinevans123 (talk) 12:24, 21 February 2022 (UTC) p.s. onions can be quite large, so presumably you'd need and extra large sock to accommodate one?


 * Between 1946 and 1989, the British Government funded the Common Cold Unit, where volunteers could have an all-expenses-paid holiday on Salisbury Plain, provided that they were willing to be infected with one of the many cold viruses, in the hope that a cure or effective treatment could be found. The unit eventually closed with the conclusion that there was none. Whether they experimented with onions-in-socks seems unlikely. Alansplodge (talk) 13:36, 21 February 2022 (UTC)


 * Could I politely point out that the Common Cold Unit was not on Salisbury Plain but on the southern edge of the City of Salisbury off Coombe Road on Harnham Down. The site has since been developed as a residential area with eponymous road names. Richard Avery (talk) 11:56, 28 February 2022 (UTC)


 * Onions are mentioned here but only as "In ancient Egypt, cold sufferers were told to treat it by reciting a magical spell, while the ancient Romans recommended wolf's liver in mulled wine. Other “treatments” have included eating mustard or milk-soaked onions, wearing nutmeg around your neck, or inhaling chlorine gas." I guess they never thought of putting their feet in the milk-soaked onions. Martinevans123 (talk) 13:50, 21 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Onions might help open up your breathing passageway, although putting them in socks doesn't seem like the best placement. --←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 15:56, 21 February 2022 (UTC)
 * If you don't put on clean socks (and wash your feet), you may smell sufficiently strongly as to make people keep their distance, which will actually lessen your chances of catching a cold, etc., from them.
 * Actually, I believe the original idea was to hang the onion-bearing sock around your neck, and it may be that this traditional belief has persisted orally from a couple or more centuries ago, when (for poor people at any rate), washing bodies and clothes was a luxury (geddit?) of cost and time that could less often be afforded. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.193.130.191 (talk) 22:32, 21 February 2022 (UTC)
 * No wonder it didn't work! Everyone knows you need to wear the onion on your belt, which was the style at the time. --47.155.96.47 (talk) 22:48, 21 February 2022 (UTC)
 * I think the question was about a possible remedy, not a prophylactic. . Martinevans123 (talk) 22:54, 21 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Whoever told you this doesn't know their onions about cures. Clarityfiend (talk) 23:00, 21 February 2022 (UTC)
 * They should get on their bike. Martinevans123 (talk) 23:05, 21 February 2022 (UTC)


 * Brings to mind the old saying: An apple a day keeps the doctor away. An onion a day keeps everybody away. --←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 23:27, 21 February 2022 (UTC)

Onions (and garlic, peppers and a few other vegetables) have significant amounts of sulfur, which makes your breath smell bad but is supposedly good for your health, or maybe bad for it. Dunno about putting them in your socks though. Back in my day, we wore them on our belts, which was the style at the time. 2602:24A:DE47:B8E0:1B43:29FD:A863:33CA (talk) 01:57, 24 February 2022 (UTC)