If on any of these days you have had a blockage of the nasal sinuses (cavity inside a bone or tissue, especially the bones of the face or skull connected to the nasal cavities) and you have encountered a trend in TikTok that claims that the placement of garlic will 'unblock blocked noses, you may have been tempted.

Accumulating millions of clicks, numerous videos on TikTok went viral. People put cloves of garlic in the nostrils and after 20-30 minutes, there was leakage of mucus. The question arises: Does garlic remove mucus (slippery fluid produced by the membranes that line the nose).

"When you are stuck, you have a lot of mucus in your nose. People notice that they can barely breathe or feel discomfort from the mucus in the back of the throat or in the front of the nose. Garlic itself does not help unlock the nose. By blocking the sinuses ’ability to dry out, through the placement of garlic, you are simply creating a mucus reserve. "Once the barrier is removed, in this case the garlic cloves, it will come out." - Katie Phillips, Associate Professor of Otolaryngology at the College of Medicine at the University of Cincinnati, told Health.

Putting garlic in the nose has risks: It can get stuck and damage the nasal cavity or pose a risk of suffocation if it gets into the throat or airways and / or causes irritation of the nasal mucosa.

Thus, stay away from this trend.