TikTokers are putting potatoes in their socks. The reason has doctors weighing in
An age-old remedy for colds now viral on TikTok only involves one ingredient: a potato.
Slip a sliver into your sock at night and rumor has it the slice will show up black in the morning, people on TikTok say, absorbing all the sickness from your body and leaving you healthy.
Doctors, however, aren’t buying it.
“There isn’t much evidence to show that potatoes are effective at drawing out toxins or will help you get over a cold faster,” Dr. Karla Robinson told WFMY and added that there is no scientific evidence backing up the potato claims.
A well-known doctor on TikTok, Tommy Martin, also weighed in on a mom’s video showing her using the remedy on her child.
Martin said he was glad the mom felt the trick worked for her daughter, but warned parents of the secondhand dangers of at-home remedies.
“No judgment to this momma, so thankful your kiddo is doing better,” he wrote in his TikTok. “Although thankful this worked for you but for others, this does not substitute seeing a doctor if your child is ill. Stay safe this respiratory season.”
Even without scientific backup, anecdotal evidence of the “health hack” has saturated TikTok and has parents swearing by its effect.
“I’d say it helped reduce my symptoms and I didn’t have a fever after… so I think it helped. Is it a cure? No,” one potato-tester said on TikTok. “There is no science to back that potatoes in your socks can really cure you. But it must have (some) effect as many people have been saying good things about it.”
The remedy could date back to the Middle Ages during the bubonic plague and may go even further back and have roots in ancient Chinese medicine, WFMY reported.
“I don’t think it will harm you, but it probably won’t add many benefits,” Robinson told WFMY.
People who catch a cold or virus should seek medical attention if they experience any of these symptoms, according to the Mayo Clinic:
- Symptoms that worsen or fail to improve
- Fever greater than 101.3 degrees Fahrenheit lasting more than three days
- Fever returning after a fever-free period
- Shortness of breath
- Wheezing
- Severe sore throat, headache or sinus pain
Children should see a doctor if they experience any of the following symptoms, according to the Mayo Clinic:
- Fever of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit in newborns up to 12 weeks
- Rising fever or fever lasting more than two days in a child of any age
- Severe symptoms, such as headache, throat pain or cough
- Difficulty breathing or wheezing
- Ear pain
- Extreme fussiness
- Unusual drowsiness
- Lack of appetite
This story was originally published January 10, 2023 at 12:48 PM with the headline "TikTokers are putting potatoes in their socks. The reason has doctors weighing in."
