11 Brilliant Health Uses of Vicks VapoRub To Make Life Easier

Vicks contains a whole host of ingredients that are said to help with chesty coughs, but the characteristic that makes it most effective for decongesting the nasal passages is its strong menthol odour. It’s thought that this odour can actually trick your brain, so you feel like you're breathing through an unclogged nose, making it easier to sleep at night or go about your day congestion-free.

If you want to try Vicks VapoRub out as a nasal decongestant, massage a small amount of the lotion above your upper lip, directly below your nostrils. You should notice the effects of the rub immediately after applying it.

If your skin commonly suffers from eczema or acne, one popular alternative use for Vicks VapoRub is to help soothe the skin, reduce inflammation, and clear up your complexion. How does this work?

Well, Vicks contains menthol, an ingredient that’s known for its antimicrobial and drying abilities. If you suffer from acne, putting a bit on the spot may help to suck the oil away from the area and dry it out overnight.

This tip might not work for everyone, but if you’re dealing with a flareup and you don’t have any other forms of medication, there’s no harm in giving Vicks VapoRub a go. Just add a coating of the lotion onto the affected area and leave for a minimum of two hours to let it get to work.

Insects are pesky things to deal with, especially in the height of summer, when we want to be able to spend late evenings in the garden without being bitten all over. If you don’t have any decent insect repellent, it’s worth locating your Vicks and taking it on your countryside adventures or outdoors with you at night.

To use Vicks VapoRub for deterring insects, dab a bit of the lotion on your arms, legs, neck, or other areas of exposed skin to keep bugs, including those nasty mosquitoes, at bay. Again, you’ll find that it’s the menthol in the rub that does the trick. It might smell invigorating to us, but bugs dislike it, and it’s generally enough to keep them away.

If you’re dealing with an ear infection, it’s usually always advisable that you get things checked out by the doctor if your symptoms don’t clear up after two or three days. Before then, though, or if your ear infection is only mild, you can relieve your symptoms and help keep the pain under control by using Vicks on the area.

All you’ll need to do is place a cotton ball dabbed with a generous amount of Vicks VapoRub in your ear for several hours. Be careful not to stuff the cotton bud right into your ear canal, which may only serve to make the infection worse.

Gently inserting it into your ear and leaving it for long enough should help reduce the irritating symptoms associated with an earache.

If you're looking to fade the appearance of stretch marks, you might be surprised to know that Vicks can help. We don’t know who was first to try out the lotion, but it soon became a viral trend on Pinterest and saw huge success.

While Vicks isn’t yet scientifically proven to be an effective way to reduce the appearance of stretch marks, you’ve got nothing to lose if you give it a shot.

To use Vicks VapoRub on your stretch marks, apply a thin layer of the lotion to the affected area daily, leaving it on for as long as you can before washing off. This method is supposed to produce visible results within a couple of weeks, so you’ll need to remember to keep at it if you want to notice a difference.

We use our feet tirelessly on a daily basis, so it’s no surprise they can quickly become affected by various conditions like athlete’s foot and cracked heels. If you don’t want to splash out on an expensive targeted foot medication, you can use Vicks VapoRub as a common home remedy to alleviate your condition. The rub contains several antimicrobial ingredients as well as petroleum jelly, all of which help to lock in moisture while killing off bacteria.

Simply take a generous amount of Vicks and smooth it all over the affected area of your foot. You might want to put a pair of soft, stretchy socks on over your feet to help keep the lotion in the right place. For best results, leave on overnight before washing or wiping off.

Vicks VapoRub is an effective natural solution for healing minor cuts and scrapes. Experts say that the thick formula creates a barrier between your cuts and the air they’re exposed to, helping them to coagulate and heal at a faster rate.

It’s worth knowing, however, that certain ingredients in the Vicks formula can do more harm than good. Watch out for pain or a burning sensation, and take the product off immediately if this occurs.

To use Vicks on a small cut or wound, apply the lotion to clean skin once or twice daily until the affected area is healed. You might want to avoid putting the lotion on completely fresh cuts, instead waiting until they’re a day or two old first.

The only other marketed benefit of Vicks is its ability to ease muscle soreness. We all experience this uncomfortable sensation from time to time, whether it’s because we’ve sustained an injury, we’re suffering from cold or flu, or we’ve simply worked hard at the gym. It’s the menthol and eucalyptus oil ingredients in Vicks that helps soothe sore muscles and increase circulation.

You can use Vicks VapoRub on any area of muscle pain by rubbing it onto the affected body part no more than four times per day. You shouldn’t heat Vicks up in the microwave, as the manufacturer is pretty clear that this is unsafe to do.

However, for best results when treating muscle soreness and pain, you can combine your Vicks with a hot compress to create a soothing combination of heat and ice.