I'm a product of this advice handed down by Grandmoms and Great-grandmoms that taught us to dab mucus membranes inside the nostrils with salt water every cold and flu season. I'd say our effective rate to not pass on a virus to family members was more than double the published rate. Mom always knows best!
Could SALT WATER fight Covid-19? Sottish scientists begin gargling trial | Daily Mail Online
June 25, 2020
Professor Aziz Sheikh, director of Edinburgh University’s Usher Institute, said: 'We are now moving to trial our salt water intervention in those with suspected or confirmed Covid-19, and hope it will prove to be a useful measure to reduce the impact and spread of the infection.
HOW COULD GARGLING SALT WATER TREAT THE CORONAVIRUS?
Researchers at Edinburgh University trialled saltwater gargling and 'nasal irrigation' in a trial on people with upper respiratory tract infections, otherwise known as coughs and colds, and found it reduced their symptoms and the length of their illness.
Their study, published in the journal
Scientific Reports last year, found 93 per cent of people said gargling reduced their symptoms, their illnesses lasted two days less, on average, and
they were 35 per cent less likely to pass it on to a family member.
Scientists hope the cheap, simple therapy could have similar benefits for people with the coronavirus, reducing the severity of their cough and preventing the illness from worsening.
Explaining how the salt could achieve this effect, the study said direct contact with salt may have a toxic effect on the viruses themselves and damage or kill them.
It may also stimulate 'innate immune mechanisms' inside cells in the airways, they suggested, effectively boosting the body's own ability to fight off infection.
Salt may also be soaked up and used by the body's cells to create a chemical called hypochlorous acid which is found in bleach and known to kill viruses, the researchers said.
