Irish TikTok sensation Lauren Whelan has gone viral yet again after attempting the weird hack of stuffing garlic cloves up your nose which is said to help clear out your sinuses.
The 22-year-old Carlow woman shared a clip of her trying out the trend with over 773,800 followers on her TikTok page.
Apparently the trick, which has been called both disgusting yet satisfying, is good for clearing out sinuses that may be blocked due to seasonal hay fever.
“This is why I’m doing this,” she said in the video, with a garlic clove in each nostril, “I’ve really bad allergies.”
“I can feel the garlic at the back of my throat,” she said before retching.
After waiting 30 minutes for the cloves to do their job, Lauren got the desired result - a downpour of gunk from her nose.
So far, her video has 2.6 million views and thousands of comments.
However, doctors in the UK have recently warned against trying out the weird hack.
Dr Neil Bhattacharyya, an ear, nose, and throat doctor has said the hack could have unpleasant consequences, including contact dermatitis.
The doctor said: “If you do this enough, the body will start to react to the oils and chemicals in the garlic and cause contact dermatitis in the nose.”
It might feel like it's working at clearing out stubborn sinuses, the reaction you're experiencing is just your body reacting to the strong-smelling compound.
"Some garlic cloves are really strong, and if you get enough leaching of the chemicals and oils into your nose, it will definitely irritate it,” he explained.
Instead, Bhattacharyya suggests using an "over the counter nasal steroid spray.”
