Onions in Your Socks? Why Old-Fashioned Cold Remedies Work for Some People

When Deborah Powis gets a bad cough, she reaches for a surprising cure — chopped onions stuffed into plastic bags, slipped over her feet, and covered with socks. She sleeps that way all night, and she says it works every time. It may sound strange, but experts say some old-fashioned home remedies have real science behind them. And one big reason they work may be hidden inside your genes.

Powis, a 62-year-old school supervisor from Horncastle, Lincolnshire, in England, is a firm believer in her onion trick. 'Yes, your sheets smell in the morning, but you can wash your sheets,' she says with a laugh. Her daughter has started using the same method. 'I know it works. I don't know the science behind it, but it does stop the cough.'

Professor Alyn Morice is the head of respiratory medicine at Hull York Medical School in England. He runs one of the largest cough clinics in Europe, and he has spent years studying why people cough and what helps them stop. He says a person's genes — the instructions inside their cells that are passed down from parents — can decide whether a remedy works for them. 'Sometimes a person can have a good response to menthol and other people don't. And it often runs in families,' he explains.

One of Morice's favorite home remedies is simple and easy to make. He recommends putting a spoonful of honey in a cup, squeezing in some lemon juice, and pouring in hot water. He says this mixture coats the inside of the throat and calms the nerve endings that cause the tickling feeling that makes you cough. Scientists call this the 'demulcent effect,' and it explains why most store-bought cough syrups are thick and sticky.

Another popular remedy is menthol, the cool-smelling ingredient found in cough drops, chest rubs, and steam bowls. A candy company called Jakemans, based in Boston, England, has been making menthol lozenges for almost 120 years. During cold season, the factory produces about three million lozenges every single day. Even outside the building, the air smells strongly of menthol and aniseed.

Professor Morice says menthol is not just a placebo — it has been proven to reduce coughing in real scientific studies. You can breathe in menthol steam or suck on a lozenge, and either way it can help calm a cough. The company that makes Lemsip, a popular hot cold drink, also drew inspiration from home remedies when creating their product in the 1960s. They combined real medicine with the comforting feeling of a warm drink flavored with lemon, honey, and ginger.

So why do some remedies work for certain families but not others? Professor Morice says it comes down to genes and how the brain controls coughing. The brain normally keeps coughing 'on the brakes,' and certain remedies can trigger those brakes to reduce how much a person coughs. Children in a family often inherit the same response as their parents, which is why the same remedies tend to get passed down from generation to generation.

As for Deborah and her onions, Morice says there might be 'a germ of truth' in the remedy. The smell from the onions could change how the brain processes the urge to cough. Whether it is science, genes, or the comfort of a family tradition, these old remedies clearly matter to the people who use them — and for many, they really do seem to work.