Does drinking hot tea (or hot drinks) help when you're sick?

Question

Livestrong (as well as my mom) claims you should drink tea when you are feeling sick. They claim hot teas provide numerous benefits from various sicknesses:

A cup of warm herbal tea can help relieve the symptoms of many illnesses, from an upset stomach to a nasty cold.

Is there any basis to these claims?

This is not quite on topic, but perhaps could be if you could narrow it down and provide some notability. What sort of "sick" (cold/flu perhaps). Who claims this (other than your mum) — Jamiec, Mar 15 '16 at 10:59
The link that has been added here makes the same (or similar) claims about other drinks (Broth, Water, Fruit juice). The assertion is drinking anything will make you feel better. The implication is that dehydration is bad, and hydration will help your body recover. Im not sure there is anything to confirm/debunk here. But that just my opinion - I suggest the community vote to reopen if they wish. — Jamiec, Mar 16 '16 at 15:26
Hot drinks can help liquify mucus, so it will provide some relief when congested. — Chris Cudmore, Mar 16 '16 at 15:38
Probably not relevant: Very hot drinks may cause cancer, but coffee does not, says WHO — Mark Rogers, Sep 01 '16 at 14:20

Daniel Kaas · Answer 1 · 2016-09-01T10:14:06.170

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What kind of tea are you are drinking is important to know. I had some influenza last week and I drank a lot of chamomile tea and it has many positive properties.

For what I know, is that chamomile tea has two primary agents: alfa-bisabolol and chamazulen and they have anti-inflammatory effect just like Garlic and ginger.

demonstrated that chamomile is anti-inflammatory, antihyperglycemic, and anticancer properties: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2995283/

More readings about Alfa-bisabolol: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisabolol

More reading about chamazulen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamazulene

edited Sep 01 '16 at 10:14

answered Aug 31 '16 at 20:56

Daniel Kaas

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Hi Daniel, welcome to Skeptics. You might wonder why someone gave you -1 (wasn't me). Skeptics has these kind of rules, it is because you are not providing any reliable sources for information (like references to scientific papers). I would appreciate if you would add them. Thanks. – Matas Vaitkevicius Aug 31 '16 at 21:20
Oh! my bad! first time answer!
Will it be a problem if the content is in another language?
– Daniel Kaas Aug 31 '16 at 21:24
As long as it is reliable no one is going to frown ;) – Matas Vaitkevicius Aug 31 '16 at 21:25
Well let's see how many -1 I get when I wake up again ;-) – Daniel Kaas Aug 31 '16 at 21:31
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Welcome to Skeptics! Your first reference doesn't demonstrate that chamomile tea has an health effects. Your second reference makes claims with no references or evidence. As skeptics, we expect a better quality of evidence that matches the claims made. Without it, this sounds like pseudo-science. – Oddthinking Sep 01 '16 at 04:44
I delete my answer until I find something better – Daniel Kaas Sep 01 '16 at 06:26
I hope this edit is better than it was before – Daniel Kaas Sep 01 '16 at 10:15
It's not a lot better, I am afraid. We've already looked at Chamomile tea and it has been found lacking much evidence. – Oddthinking Sep 01 '16 at 13:06

Does drinking hot tea (or hot drinks) help when you're sick?

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