Vicks Vaporub is a mentholated ointment that can help individuals to suppress coughs or muscles and joints pain. Usually, Vicks is applied to the chest, but some people claim that rubbing it on the feet works as well.
Applying Vicks on the feet may help you suppress coughs because the feet soles contain a lot of sensory nerves. This way, the sensory nerves are stimulated and that sends a message to the spinal cord, then straight up to the brain to suppress the cough. This, however, is just a hypothesis that is not backed up by any scientific study at all. The true reason behind this is not yet discovered even though there are many people claiming that this method works.
The hypothesis claims that massaging Vicks on the foot can indeed work wonders. The hypothesis claims that massaging around the ball of the foot, then ascending from heels to toes can work wonders against colds and coughs.
This method is similar to reflexology that targets specific pressure points in the feet to fix symptoms affecting other parts in the body. This method claims that massaging the pads underneath the toes and the area right under the foot’s ball can suppress coughs successfully. If you want to learn more about reflexology in general and how is it used to treat coughs in specific, make sure to watch the following YOUTUBE video.
You should that even though there are many people claiming that rubbing Vick on the feet can suppress coughs, there are many others that debunked all of the previous claims. This debate was not taken into consideration by normal people only, but doctors stepped out to say what they think about this. Dr. Satya D. Narisety said that the method is not as effective as people claim because the menthol scent in Vicks pushes the brain to think that nasal and upper airways are open, so the closer the rubbed area to the nose the better, and the chest area is more ideal than the feet because it is closer to the nose. This explains why the recommended rubbed area is the chest because it is closer to the nose and it sits on a safe distance.
