An apple a day: 13 old wives’ tales that are true

From drinking warm milk to help you to sleep to putting cold teabags on puffy eyes, many of us were raised with home remedies based on so-called old wives’ tales. Last week scientists from the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique in Canada provided evidence that at least one is true, reporting that, as your grandmother would have told you, cranberries may help to ward off urinary tract infections (UTIs). 

“Cranberry juice has long been regarded as a kind of folk remedy for preventing and treating urinary tract infections,” the researchers wrote in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Their study showed that components of cranberry juice appeared to help bacteria to absorb more of the antibiotic fosfomycin — commonly prescribed to treat UTIs — potentially boosting recovery.

What other remedies hold up to scientific scrutiny? We checked them out.

Drink cranberry juice to avoid urinary infections

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Scientists originally attributed the benefits of cranberry juice for UTIs to the high acidity of the juice. “More recent studies have linked its effect to compounds in the juice that can block bacteria from attaching to cells lining the urethra,” the authors of the study said. They found that compounds in cranberry juice may help to slow or prevent the development of drug-resistant bacteria that make it hard to treat UTIs with antibiotics and that “cranberry juice both potentiates antibiotic activity and suppresses the emergence of resistant mutants”.

A 2023 Cochrane review of 26 studies found evidence to “support the use of cranberry products to reduce the risk of symptomatic UTIs in women with recurrent UTIs, in children and in people susceptible to UTIs following interventions”. The NHS says taking a cranberry drink or product “to prevent UTIs from happening” may help — but it adds “there is no evidence they help to ease symptoms or treat a UTI if the infection has started”. The elderly, patients with bladder-emptying problems and pregnant women should see a doctor before trying home remedies.

Cold, damp weather makes your joints ache

The charity Arthritis UK says about 75 per cent of people with painful joints believe the weather influences their suffering. Changes in barometric pressure may affect pain, although people tend to be less active in inclement weather — and moving around helps to ease joint suffering.

Damp and windy days have the biggest adverse effect, found Professor Will Dixon, a consultant rheumatologist at the University of Manchester who surveyed 2,658 people for a study. When Dixon asked people to track their symptoms on an app then assessed local weather using the phone’s GPS, low pressure and strong wind speed were linked to higher levels of pain. Rain in itself had no effect, although Dixon said the combination of cold, damp and windy weather could provide a triple whammy for aching joints. 

Use cold tea bags for puffy eyes

Late nights or long hours at a computer can leave your eyes sore, puffy and red. Even experts at Moorfields Eye Hospital suggest using cold, wet teabags as a quick fix compress for relieving tired eyes. Simply cover each eye with a teabag, lie back and relax for ten minutes. Giles Edmonds, an optician and clinical services director at Specsavers, says that “chronic puffy or very painful eyes could be a sign of something more serious, so it is important to see a GP or optician”.

A hot tea will cool you down

Drinking hot tea to cool down is a common practice in India. We need fluid to aid the body’s natural cooling mechanism of sweating, and although hot drinks will initially raise body temperature, nerves in our digestive tract react to it by stimulating the brain to produce more sweat. When sweat evaporates, it lowers your temperature and cools you down.

Research by Ollie Jay, a professor of thermal ergonomics at the University of Sydney, has shown that icy drinks can lead to reduced sweat evaporation from the skin surface, and therefore reduce cooling compared to drinking warm fluids. However, a cup of builder’s tea won’t help much if you are uncomfortably hot. Writing in The Lancet Jay says that drink temperature “if ingested when a person has already started sweating” does not affect body temperature. Staying adequately hydrated by any means is key.

 Tight jeans can make men infertile

Ditching tight boxers or jeans for looser-fitting clothing could indeed help male fertility, with the NHS stating that “tight underwear can increase the temperature of your testicles, which may affect the quality of your sperm”. A study of 656 men by Harvard researchers showed that men who reported wearing loose boxers had a 25 per cent higher sperm concentration than men who routinely wore tight-fitting underwear. 

Cycling causes erectile dysfunction

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Too much time in the saddle has been blamed for causing microtrauma to the perineum and loading pressure that decreases blood flow to the penis, resulting in temporary genital numbness or “cyclist’s syndrome” in men. A study of 2,744 male cyclists at the University of California found “a statistically significant increase in the trend of genital numbness” among those who had been cycling for many years, who cycled a lot each week, or who went for extra long rides.

The good news is it shouldn’t last more than a few hours and doesn’t impact long term sexual health. The California team found that wearing padded shorts or adjusting the height of the saddle can help to reduce it. Phil Cavell, author of The Midlife Cyclist, says visiting a specialist shop to buy an appropriate saddle is essential. “You need one that suits your individual pelvic architecture,” Cavell says. “There’s no such thing as ‘breaking in’ a saddle — it either works for your body or it doesn’t.”

Make sure you are positioned correctly on the saddle and never set it “nose up”. “We recommend 0 to minus-2 degrees nose-down for men,” Cavell says. “And make sure you always stand up and pedal periodically to avoid continued compression.” Working on glute strength with lunges and glute bridges helps too. “Well-developed and engaged glutes will offload pressure on sensitive tissue when you cycle,” Cavell says.

A mug of warm milk will help you to sleep better

Milk contains tryptophan, which has very mild sleep-promoting properties, but there’s more to the sleep-inducing effects of milk. Scientists reported in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry that specific milk peptides, or small pieces of protein called casein tryptic hydrolysates, may help to relieve stress and enhance sleep before bedtime in a similar way to sedative medication.

The sleep consultant Dr Neil Stanley says that making warm milk or a milky drink such as Horlicks or hot chocolate part of your bedtime routine can help to prepare your mind for sleep. “If that becomes part of a relaxing ritual that helps you to unwind and calm the mind, it could help you to sleep better.”

Take vitamin C to shorten a cold

Taking high doses of vitamin C won’t prevent a cold, but a review of ten studies by researchers from the Australian National University and the University of Helsinki found that an extra dose can have “a significant benefit on the duration of severe [cold] symptoms”. Taking 1-2g of vitamin C daily seemed to shorten the amount of time participants were ill by about 10 per cent. Dr Jenna Macciochi, a senior lecturer in immunology at the University of Sussex and the author of Immune to Age, says that our immune cells require more vitamin C when we are fighting a cold. “If you start taking a vitamin C supplement at the very first sign of symptoms you can reduce the duration of a cold by up to 1.5 days,” she explains.

Ginger helps to relieve nausea

Whether it’s morning or travel sickness, adding ginger to your diet may help to relieve the queasiness. A review of 109 papers in the journal Nutrients found consistent evidence that ginger can reduce nausea and vomiting compared with a placebo. Its potent antisickness effects seem to stem from the bioactive compounds gingerols and shogaols blocking brain signals that trigger nausea. It also helps to reduce bloating in the digestive tract. The NHS says “there’s some evidence ginger may help reduce nausea and vomiting”, although the advice is to check with your pharmacist before taking ginger supplements, especially during pregnancy. Ginger tea, non-alcoholic ginger ale, crystallised ginger and ginger biscuits are recommended by the NHS for morning sickness.