A woman has urged people to try a bizarre Amish cough remedy after using it to alleviate her two-month illness.
Amoreena Mcnally, a 36-year-old lab technologist from Michigan, US, turned to the unusual method after traditional treatments failed to quell her persistent cough that had plagued her since August.
“I have been coughing since August so I searched on TikTok ‘home remedies for cough’ and I saw this and decided to give it a try,” she explained. “I had been to the doctors twice before trying home remedies because everything the doctors were giving me was not working.”
The method involves placing raw onions on your chest and covering them with a hot plastic bag. Her video demonstrating it has been viewed more than 18million times.
Amoreena says in the clip: “I might look silly, but I’m going to trust the Amish people. If you’ve had a cough that won’t go away, try this out. Because right now, I can breathe.”
This technique, referred to as an onion poultice, has been shown to naturally ease stubborn coughs and chest congestion. While the trick initially helped Amoreena, it didn’t provide a long-term solution – though her doctors later found a mass on her thymus gland that required further medical help.
She added: “Naturally remedies can be amazing when there’s not something serious going on, so yes I would use this in the future for a chest cold. But if something’s lingering for a while you should definitely get checked out!”
The video quickly went viral, racking up thousands of likes and prompting comments from users sharing their home health tips. One user recalled: “I grew up Amish and this is how we take care of everything. The natural way.”
Another said: “I have an onion sliced in half beside my bed every night. Slice a fresh onion every couple of days and throw the old one out. Not sick in 2 years.”
An onion poultice provides relief in a number of ways. Dr Green Mom explains that onions “soothe overactive coughs by relaxing the smooth muscle in the trachea”, “clear chest congestion by thinning and loosening mucus allowing for better expectoration”, and “contain organosulfur compounds that possess potent antimicrobial properties, which help to fight chest infections”.