Tasting garlic through your feet offers insight into Vicks for cough
Q: I saw your article about putting Vicks VapoRub on the soles of the feet to stop a nighttime cough. Then I was listening to NPR’s “Wait Wait ... Don’t Tell Me!” radio show. It is often a fun source for the latest wacky science studies.
This week’s show included a story about tasting garlic with your feet! Scientists associated with the American Chemical Society performed a cool experiment. They reported that if you put a freshly cut clove of garlic in a plastic bag, rub it on the sole of your foot and then tie the plastic bag around your foot, you will taste and smell garlic after about an hour.
Could Vicks have a similar compound that can be absorbed through the skin to calm the cough response?
A: We love this experiment. It demonstrates that garlic penetrates the skin and circulates through the bloodstream until it eventually reaches the taste buds.
There are two possible ways that menthol and the other herbal ingredients in Vicks VapoRub might be working to calm a cough. One is absorption through the skin into the bloodstream, as with the garlic. We would expect that it would take a similar amount of time to exert its effect.
Most readers report that smearing Vicks on the feet eases a cough within 10 minutes. A different mechanism might explain that. Your skin contains nerve endings that react to heat and cold. They do this through TRP channels in nerves that also are sensitive to compounds like menthol and eucalyptol, found in Vicks VapoRub. We suspect that stimulating these TRP receptors sends a message to the cough center at the base of the brain and calms the cough.
Q: My brain will not turn off at night, so I can’t get to sleep until 3 a.m. or later. I’m exhausted. What do you suggest?
A: You might consider the Indian plant Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera). According to an expert on botanical and integrative medicine, Ashwagandha is helpful for people who are “wired but tired.” It has an antianxiety effect that may help you stop ruminating.