Wear onions in your socks overnight to fight off a cold? Medical myths, busted

● But pharmacists say some old tales can work because of ‘placebo effect’

Wearing socks with onions in them overnight to help a cold and rubbing butter onto a burnareamongthemostcommon health myths believed by people, according to a survey of the nation’s favourite old wives’ tale cures.

The report also found that people believed that a “hair of the dog” would help a hangover, while the site also said that urinating on a jellyfish sting would have little benefit.

The most commonly tried home remedy was gargling with salt water to relieve a sore throat, which had been attempted by 56 per cent of people and is accepted by health professionals to have some benefits.

However, the next most popular self-medication was “sweating out a cold”, which medical experts at Pharmacyonline.co.uk, which carried out the research, said would not work, adding that it might make you more comfortable to stay warm, but would not speed the healing process.

Arguably the strangest home remedy – that of sleeping in a pair of socks filled with onions to stave off a cold, which has been done by 8 per cent of people, half of whom believe it is effective – has been dismissed by the pharmacy website as having “no evidence” that is has any benefits.

Some 7 per cent of men have