I'm battling colds nowadays. My throat started to sore last Thursday, went to the doctor last Friday, had my medicine last Saturday. In those three days I gurgled saline solution, rubbed my chest with Vicks and went to bed early. I think I've already contained the colds. My throat still itches, but I didn't cough much as I thought I will.

Confession: I'm a Vicks addict. Nightly, I rub a little just under my nostrils; sometimes in my forehead and temple. Honestly, it leaves me comfortably asleep.

I know that...(mainly based from hearsays):

- it aids tooth ache (You're supposed to put Vicks in a cotton and press the cotton on the aching tooth. I haven't tried it though).
- it sooths tick bites and deters mosquito bites.
- it sooths migraine (I say, circular motion on the temple does the trick).

It also brings back lots of memories of my childhood in Anao.

And then I read...

- that putting it under your nose is unhealthy.
- that massaging your feet with Vicks will cure colds (and, quite funny, some say will cure even toe fungi).

Imagine then my surprise when, after googling about it, I found that none of what I know and believe (about Vicks) are true, except that it brings a mild comfort to an aching head after you massage it with Vick's; and that it brings relief to colds if you rub it in your chest.  (Better yet if it's with haplos ng pagmamahal, as that Vicks commercial says).

Everyday health site stated that Vicks contain camphor which, in huge amount -- whether under the nose and most especially in your gum -- may harm the body. Too, Urban Legends and Snopes unclogged the claim about Vicks curing colds and toe fungi as untrue.

Regardless, I owe Vicks a lot.  It's one of the few things that easily brings me back to when I was young being cared by my mom during bouts of flu and colds.  Vicks' menthol-y smell conjurs up positive childhood memories for me.  But, for the record, I haven't tried it as cure for foot fungi.  (Besides, I don't have a foot fungi!).

Here's my ode to Vicks.



Sourced Hamlet character sketch from yorickhamlet.wordpress.com.