Now that I'm older and much more interested in finding alternative solutions to ingesting tons of pharmaceuticals, I'm willing to give just about anything that goes outside the body a try, within reason, of course. A while back I stumbled onto some advice for treating a cough that I thought was a little crazy.
Vicks VapoRub. On your feet.
Seems strange, right? Well, when my kids brought home a lovely little cold from school a few weeks ago, I started to get desperate. Like most Lymies, what is minor for them (about 3 days of stuffy noses and congestion) is a major setback for me. I'm now into my 3rd week with this cold, and it varies from minor nuisance to fevers and coughing that keep me awake. Even the standard OTC meds weren't doing much to help the cough, and we all know how important sleep is (you can find my post on sleep here). If it's disrupted when you're already under the weather, you don't have much chance of getting better.
One night while I was getting ready to cough my head off (all the coughing was actually causing migraines!) before going to bed, I suddenly remembered that crazy advice about the VapoRub. So I did it. I put VapoRub on my feet and then put on socks.
You know what? I coughed a whole lot less than I had the previous night.
I'm not saying this is any kind of miracle, but it certainly helped. I still have that nasty little cold, and I'm still coughing. But at least the VapoRub is helping me sleep better while I try to get over the rest of it. I'm guessing it has something to do with being absorbed through the feet. I don't really know. I'm not even going to question it. If it works, it works!
And just for the record, I did put it on my chest like the directions say. It was definitely more effective on my feet.
