fastolfe00 t1_j2ebiwh wrote
Reply to comment by syzamix in ELI5. Why is honey and lemon a popular cure for cold like symptoms. What makes lemon more effective than say an orange or lime? by alexkid_in_realworld
>Sorry. Are you confident that lemon has no effect?
I am confident that there is no significant evidence supporting the claim that it does.
>other answers seem to say that citric acid cuts mucus.
I can find no supporting evidence for this.
Drinking water thins mucus. If you want to put some lemon in your water and that makes it more likely for you to drink water, then lemon can help you thin mucus.
>And who has any sources to back them up?
As with all requests for medical advice, talk to your doctor and don't listen to random people on social media. Even if someone can come prepared with a study that they feel proves them right, you have no idea whether that study says what they claim it does or whether the study was done correctly or whether it's an outlier when 10 other studies prove the opposite conclusion. Understanding how to read scientific studies is a skill they teach you in medical school. Talk to your doctor.
Lucius1213 t1_j2el82v wrote
Dude, it's no use. It's the same thing as you may get cold from cold weather. You won't convince them
syzamix t1_j2evlqf wrote
So, there are many studies that show that being cold makes you likely to catch cold.
There are double blind studies done with some people dipping their toes in cold water etc.
The hypothesis for reason is that the cold makes your immune system weaker temporarily especially in the nose. But that reason hasn't been proven. But the fact around feeling cold and catching cold is proven.
syzamix t1_j2ewqox wrote
Umm. Are you saying that sharing studies/literature is pointless? Because there might be others that disprove it? That's kind of a cop out...
The claim made by the other person is very clear and concise and something that can be tested easily. If the effect exists, should be seen in studies. If it doesn't, that can also be seen in studies.
Also if you think one can get this answer clearly from any doctor, then there must be literature around this available widely. After all, the doctor also learns from somewhere.
So I did some search and almost all articles from big universities are saying acid in lemon does help cut the mucus. Doctors also refer to these studies, right? So, maybe you need to comeback with some legitimate sources (including doctors) that say otherwise.
fastolfe00 t1_j2ezhdw wrote
> Are you saying that sharing studies/literature is pointless?
Depends on what your goal is. Scientific and medical studies are written for a specific target audience that is not the kind of person that would be asking an ELI5 medical question on Reddit.
If you're a research doctor wanting to discuss a specific finding so that you can understand how it relates to your area of research or whether to establish a new standard of medical care around it, by all means share and discuss. Reading medical studies requires a deep understanding of study methodology and the scientific method that most people do not possess.
This is why we fought an obnoxious culture war in the middle of the COVID pandemic where people were vomiting up links to all sorts of studies that they felt "proved" their side when it rarely did.
Medical doctors have this training and this background and if you want to understand how a study relates to how you should be treated for your illness, the best way to do that is to talk to your doctor about it.
> So I did some search and almost all articles from big universities are saying acid in lemon does help cut the mucus.
No you didn't. You did a Google search for "lemon acid cuts mucus" and found links to sites hawking homeopathic or alternative medicine, food blogs, and YouTube content producers. If you'd found a real research study on the topic you should be able to link it.
You can do a Google search for other stupid things, like "vinegar cures cancer" and find at least a few search results that seem to agree with what you're searching for. Just because you can find a random site on the internet agreeing with you doesn't mean it's a medical fact.
> So, maybe you need to comeback with some legitimate sources (including doctors) that say otherwise.
I'm saying no significant evidence exists establishing that these remedies are effective at anything. A very small number of studies have been conducted into things like honey (not really lemon), and they all say things like this one does in the end:
>> There is no strong evidence for or against the use of honey.
syzamix t1_j2f3d01 wrote
Man... I don't get why people hate google. Google is just the search engine and it matters what results you read.
If I went into Google scholar links or if I read publications from nature, science, harvard, Stanford, etc. it's not the same as saying random blog.
In your Google search, the first few are random blogs and magazines but then there are more reputed sources like PBS that talk about how John Hopkins is actually using vinegar for certain specific things in relation to cancer. So what did you prove?
Maybe you are bad at learning from Google searches. Doesn't mean everyone is. I myself have a good science education, a bachelor and masters from the best engineering university in my country and hold 2 patents. Why be so condescending? I think I am able to read summaries from scientific articles or even regular articles from reputed sources and understand them.
Plus the original comment took such a strong stance that lemon and honey have no effect on cough. This is so easy to invalidate with even one instance. No scientist would take such an extreme stance. It takes a lot of research and studies to be able to conclusively say something like this.
Are you a doctor who has extensively studied this topic? If no. How are you so confident that lemon/honey cannot help with cold/cough? This wouldn't be the first time that medicine have been reverse engineered from common traditional practices.
fastolfe00 t1_j2f4e10 wrote
Hey I'm not really interested in debating this any further. If you want to find evidence supporting your belief, you're going to find it. This doesn't mean it's real. The fact that you took my "vinegar cures cancer" search (which is just a fake claim I made up) and now believe there's merit to it because you found a search result that glances at the idea sideways is an example of the problem.
Talk to your doctor if you want medical advice, not social media.
[deleted] t1_j2fpxn1 wrote
[removed]
fastolfe00 t1_j2fw0op wrote
>initial strong claim that it doesn't do anything
I did not make this claim. I said there was no significant evidence that it does anything.
>I can actually find reputed sources (top tier universities) saying that it does.
I strongly recommend you have this conversation with your doctor.
>Unlike you, I do have a good science education and I like to learn.
Awful bold of you to assume you know anything whatsoever about my background, education, or professional experience.
>You are either just dumb
✌️
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