Benefits Of Sleeping With An Onion On Your Feet At Night
As a very common food in the kitchen, onion has been used for centuries as an ingredient to make different home remedies.
Sleeping with an onion on your feet at night, when you have congestion and a productive cough, is one of the grandmother’s home remedies that most generates curiosity in people. Some have tried it and others may feel so puzzled that, even when they are curious, they have not considered doing it.
However, the remedy manages to stay current. Now, why is an onion used and not another food, how is it used? Can it provide any health benefits? Let’s look at it in more detail below.
Why an onion?
Onion is a very common food in the kitchens of all homes. Therefore, it has been used in various remedies for hundreds of years. In some, alone and in others combined with other foods or spices, such as honey, garlic and ginger.
According to experts from the Spanish Nutrition Foundation (FEN), onion is a food that – when consumed – can provide protein, potassium, vitamin C, flavonoids and various sulfur compounds. Each of these nutrients is responsible for a number of health benefits. For example, flavonoids are associated with preventing premature aging and caring for all cells in the body, while vitamin C is associated with a stronger immune system.
Onion and the relief of some discomforts
When we cut an onion into small pieces and place it close to us, it helps keep the air moist, which contributes to expectoration and relief of symptoms. According to Dr. Manuel Viso, it is proven that this food is bactericidal and can also help to thin the mucus. Therefore, as long as we tolerate the smell, we can place a plate of freshly minced onion in the room.
Of course, the onion alone will not cure the infection. It should always be used as a complementary method to obtain relief, never as a treatment as such.
Additionally, Dr. Viso recalls that, instead of directly resorting to a cough suppressant, it is best to seek methods that help to thin and expel mucus, such as fumes. In this way, it helps to clear the airways and relief is obtained.
In addition to following the doctor’s instructions, when you have a productive cough, the best thing to do is eat a balanced diet, consume plenty of water and maintain some humidity in the environment where you are, in order to expel everything that has accumulated in the respiratory tract.
Why put onion on your feet?
In the popular sphere, it is considered that, for the onion to have a greater effect, you have to put freshly cut onion slices in your socks and lie down to sleep with them. It is not scientifically proven that this can increase benefits. However, there are those who are encouraged to try it because they believe that the remedy could be useful to obtain relief.
On the other hand, although it has been affirmed that placing onion slices on the feet could alleviate other discomforts, such as tingling (derived from circulation problems), there is no evidence to confirm such benefits.
Additionally, according to some currents of alternative medicine (such as reflexology), placing onion on the feet could contribute to the relief of symptoms because there are the ‘meridian connection centers’, which correspond to the acupuncture points.
It is considered that, as these centers contain a significant electrical charge, if they are stimulated, discomfort in various areas of the body can be alleviated. Therefore, if we place pieces of onion on the soles of the feet, we would get the bactericidal properties of the onion to come into contact with the meridians and thus provide us with relief.
Instructions for sleeping with an onion on your feet
- Take a small onion and cut it into slices.
- Insert the slices into your socks before sleeping, between the arch of the sole of the foot, since that is where the meridians are supposed to be.
- The next morning, remove and discard the onion rings.
Note : no clarifications have been established about the type of onion to be used. Therefore, it is not relevant whether we choose a purple or white.
Is sleeping with an onion a surefire remedy?
Just because onion has antibacterial properties does not mean that it is an effective remedy when used in any way. And when it comes to sleeping with onions in your socks, once again, we clarify that there is no scientific evidence that this works as popular beliefs indicate.
Therefore, it is not possible to claim that sleeping with an onion is a foolproof remedy. At the moment, it is only possible to say that in some cases it could contribute to the relief of certain issues.
If you want to get relief in case of congestion and expectorant cough, follow the recommendations of your doctor and maintain good lifestyle habits. In any case, the onion should be a complement.
