In recent weeks, a number of young users of the popular video-sharing app TikTok have been taking part in the so-called "salt challenge." And it's exactly as it sounds. Essentially, the youngsters who take part in the challenge pour large amounts of salt down their throats, with many reacting badly - some even vomiting as a result.

Take a look at this TikTok user's attempt at the salt challenge:

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While this new trend might just seem like a bit of fun - it can actually have a serious impact on your health and wellbeing, according to medical experts.

Dr. Simran Deo at UK-based online doctor Zava told the Mirror:

"As a doctor, I would strongly recommend that people do not participate in this activity. Eating too much salt is very bad for your health both immediately and in the long run.

In the short term, depending on how much you’ve ingested, eating too much salt can be poisonous. This is because it raises the sodium levels in our bodies, which can cause intense thirst, confusion, nausea, and vomiting. In extreme cases it can also lead to seizures, a coma or can even be fatal - as the high levels of sodium cause the brain to swell up against the inside of the skull."

Another TikTok takes part in the salt challenge and reacts badly:

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Dr. Deo continues:

"In the long term, eating too much salt in your day to day life impacts your blood pressure. This is because it makes your body retain too much water, and the strain of pumping the additional liquid around your body makes your heart work harder.

And as well as the strain on your heart, eating too much salt can lead to cardiovascular disease such as heart attack and stroke, high blood pressure, headaches, kidney stones, and kidney disease.

Health experts recommend limiting your salt intake to around one teaspoon a day."

"If you think someone has swallowed too much salt, encourage them to drink water," Dr. Deo adds. "Call the emergency services if they stop breathing, have a seizure or lose consciousness."

A doctor has issued a warning against a new TikTok trend that sees people put garlic up their noses to ease congestion.

In the viral videos, some of which have garnered millions of views, people put garlic cloves up their nostrils for 20 to 30 seconds and then take them out, many with a stream of mucus quickly following.

It is believed that by removing the mucus, people will be easing symptoms of congestion, but it's now been revealed that this could have dangerous consequences.

Watch the bizarre trend in action below: 

The video above was captioned: "Since tik tok [sic] took it down the first time. THIS IS NOT DANGEROUS. The garlic cleans out your sinuses."

Thankfully, people in the comments section were quick to disagree.

One wrote: "It only creates mucous in [the] nose."

Credit: TikTok

A second added: "i'm going to let everyone know that this is not safe. it is [in fact] dangerous [sic]."

Credit: TikTok

But, unfortunately, some people did watch the video and think it was a good idea.

One TikTok user wrote: "well now that my allergies decided [to] pop up i will be trying this in the morning [sic]."

Credit: TikTok

A second agreed, writing: "As someone who gets constant sinus infections, I feel like I should try this."

Credit: TikTok

Dr. Richard Wender, the chair of Family Medicine and Community Health at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, however, said that there is no evidence that garlic saves your sinuses.

"Evidence is important, and it would be wrong to say that we've done extensive research about garlic in noses," Wender told Insider. "But in general, garlic itself and the chemicals of garlic don't interact much with human tissue."

Wender said that when you put garlic up your nose, it can cause irritation to your nostrils and damage their effectiveness.

"I don't think that putting garlic up your nose one time is likely to do any harm to the mucous membranes of your nose," he said. "But if you made a habit out of it, there is at least worry that putting garlic repeatedly against the inner part of your nostril could cause inflammation, [which] can cause bleeding and thin your mucus."

So there you have it, as is the case with most viral medical solutions, please steer clear!

However, don't worry, garlic is good for you if consumed in the right way, and the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health reports that the Allium in garlic can be good for your blood pressure and the heart.

Featured Image Credit: Alamy / True Images

Influencers have been slammed for promoting a new "potentially lethal" challenge online.

Dangerous online challenges are nothing new. In 2018, we saw one of the most notorious, The Tide Pod Challenge, which encouraged people to consume detergent pods, despite doctors warning of its potentially lethal consequences.

This is the latest way people are dangerously challenging themselves online: 

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The latest ridiculous online challenge is called the Milk and Cereal Challenge, and, as the name suggests, it involves eating milk and cereal. But not in a normal way. Instead, it involves putting cereal into a person's mouth and then pouring milk into it, creating a potentially lethal choking hazard - not that it would take an expert to work that one out.

However, it's not the person lying down who's supposed to eat the cereal, it's the person doing the pouring. In essence, turning their friend into a human bowl - providing, of course, that they are able to consume enough cereal and milk to allow the other person to scoop out a spoonful.

This is another explicit example of just how dangerous the challenge is: 

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The challenge, which appears to have originated on TikTok, is now making waves across various social media platforms, and on Twitter, it has been slammed for obvious reasons, with users criticizing influencers for promoting dangerous behavior their likely young and impressionable followers.

In response to the challenge, one Twitter user wrote, "Oh hell nah."

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/veronic14243510/status/1219041175019180032]]

Another remarked: "This could actually promote someone choking and dying. Nice role model."

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/miltonchapple/status/1219057014799769600]]

A third said: "Someone's gonna choke to death with that #cerealchallenge."

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/rainingbarries/status/1217290049009655808]]

A fourth wrote: "People doing the "cereal challenge" are stupid!!!! Seriously #cerealchallenge #stupidity #newgeneration"

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Personally, I think I'll stick with eating my cereal from a bowl like a normal person.

I mean you shouldn't need scientists and articles to tell you this, but you really, REALLY, should not be doing the "Tide Pod Challenge". For those of you who aren't too sure what I'm going on about, the Tide Pod Challenge is the latest craze to take the internet by storm and refers to people eating, and occasionally vaping, Tide Pods. Seriously, I am not joking. Honestly, if you thought that 2017 was weird, 2018 has started in an even weirder fashion. We may only be only one month into the year, but already people are calling for it to be cancelled in light of the latest ridiculous trend which could have potentially disastrous consequences. The American Association of Poison Control Centers says that there has been as many calls about 'intentional laundry packet exposure among 13-19 year-olds' in the first 15 days of 2018 than there was in the whole of 2016. According to the statistics from poison control centres across the country, there were 39 cases of exposure to laundry pods in 2016 and 53 in 2017. Off the back of the sheer amount of people adopting the challenge this year, I dread to think what the final figure will be for 2018. I know that most of you reading this article won't be tempted to eat a Tide Pod - as you're not idiots - but if you are, this is what will happen. Speaking to cincinatti.com, the Association of Poison Control Centers said: "The resulting health implications from misuse can be serious. Known potential effects include seizures, pulmonary edema, respiratory arrest, coma, and even death." [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/xangirI/status/947280535201619968]] While it may seem completely ridiculous for people to eat a Tide Pod, it is something that is fairly common in young children. Due to the worries of infants eating the tablets, the company that produces Tide decided to add a bitter flavour to the outer coating of the capsules back in 2015. While this tactic was used to deter kids from consuming the pods, the company didn't think that they would have to battle the will of adults as well. The product was never intended to be eaten and they contain a horrific mix of chemicals that could leave you feeling very ill and could even end up killing you. Speaking about the worrying new trend, Jana L Anderson, a paediatric emergency doctor at the Mayo Clinic, explained the full run-down of what can happen to someone when they decide to chomp on a laundry capsule. [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/The_Sass_Hole/status/946923975954886657]] Anderson says that as soon as someone begins to eat the capsule, they run the risk of irritating the membranes in their mouth, causing them to vomit. If swallowed, the detergent can then burn the oesophagus and stomach as well as causing "gastrointestinal distress." Even more worryingly, if the person inhales the detergent, it can lead to serious difficulties when trying to breathe to the point whereby a ventilator may be required. On top of that, if someone swallows enough detergent, or is a small child, then the consumption could be fatal. To put this into simple terms: do not eat Tide Pods as you might die.

Just when you think that humanity couldn't get any dumber, they step up their game with a new viral challenge. While it's unclear how much this one will catch on, the recent fiasco with the 'Tide Pod Challenge' has shown us that hospitalisation sometimes isn't enough to keep people away from seeking out likes, upvotes, views and retweets. There has been a long line of challenges designed to cause discomfort (or worse) to whoever's trying it out. There was 'the Gallon Challenge', where you have to drink a gallon of milk in one sitting, and there was the horrific 'Condom Challenge', wherein people were snorting condoms in one nostril and pulling them out of the other. One of the best known examples was 'The Cinnamon Challenge', which required people to swallow a spoonful of cinnamon. It sounds fairly innocent compared to the others, but as drunk 17-year-old me can attest, it is the absolute worst and will ruin your evening. But while coughing and having a dry mouth are irritating, it's nothing compared to the people who were ingesting laundry detergent in the Tide Pod Challenge. [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/tide/status/951940660499755008]] The idea behind the challenge is that you put a detergent pod in your mouth, bite down on the cleaning product and release the powdered detergent and liquid soap. No one is swallowing it, but getting it on your tongue is bad enough, given the reactions from many of the videos. It seemed to have originated from a College Humor video from last year, although there were a plethora of jokes and memes going around Twitter where users joked about being tempted to eat Tide Pods because they looked like candy. But, to the dismay of many, the joke entered into the real world in a major way. [[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/Bd0DKxNnaU5/]] Last year poison control centers received reports of over 10,000 exposures to the detergent by children, accordng to American Assciation of Poison Control Centers. Things came to a head when one medical case made the rounds, which told of a boy who was rushed to hospital and nearly died from his attempt to film a reaction video. Rather than step down at this point, it seems as if the internet is doubling down instead. One video was posted to Reddit, and has now made its way to YouTube too. In the clip, one ballsy (stupid) man holds his forearm onto a hot coil for a few seconds. It's pretty horrific as it is, but by naming it the 'Hot Coil Challenge', there may be even more down the line. [[youtubewidget||https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpBAcIYdrlc]] The top comment on the Reddit post was "Well, that was f*cking stupid", while the YouTube video provided even more criticism. "We are not a species meant to survive," one wrote, while another added: "I love this! We're branding all the idiots, make them easily identifiable".

While some teenagers are challenging politicians on gun control, other teenagers are doing ridiculous online 'challenges' in a bid for attention. It seemed like these trends hit peak stupidity with the 'Tide Pod Challenge,' in which people bit squishy detergent packets and spat out the soapy goo. But now there's a new disgusting craze: the 'Condom Challenge.' Participants snort a latex condom through their nostril, so that it slides down the back of their throat, and then they remove the contraceptive from their mouth. (And then, I assume, their parents feel great shame.)

In news that will not surprise you, doctors do not recommend snorting unwrapped condoms. Since the gross trend came surging back in popularity, health experts have weighed in, explaining why you should you pass on this dare. (Besides the fact that it's so dumb.) Obviously, there's a serious choking risk. If the condom gets stuck en route from your nostril to your mouth, it could block your airways, so that you are unable to breathe. Also, the rubber is coated with lubricant, which could cause irritation and even set off an allergic reaction. It is not a thing you should snort.

 

Bruce Y. Lee, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, wrote an article about the challenge for Forbes Magazine. "Even if you manage to successfully pull the condom out through your mouth," writes Lee, " inhaling a condom up your nose would be very uncomfortable and potentially quite painful. Would it really be worth all that just to get more likes and views?" He has a point. The worst case scenario is that you hurt yourself, and the best case scenario is that you become famous for doing something stupid.

Lee goes on to cite a case report from the Journal of Medical Case Reports, in which a 26-year-old woman accidentally swallowed a condom while performing oral sex. Typically if you swallow a condom, it will just pass through your system. But in this young lady's case, a fragment of the condom became lodged in her appendix, and she subsequently developed appendicitis. Considering how great the risks are, deliberately snorting or swallowing a condom hardly seems worth it.

The challenge's appeal clearly lies in the danger and the shock value. But just because you can do it doesn't mean you should. Physician Dr. Joe Kosterich told Metro, "Although [inhaling a condom] is highly unlikely to be fatal it could trigger a coughing fit in some. The nasal linings could get irritated but this would be annoying rather than serious." He adds that if something goes horribly wrong , your trip to the E.R. will be pretty embarrassing. In fact, everything about this craze is pretty embarrassing.

So, teenagers, if you're not going to listen to your parents, hopefully you listen to these health experts. This challenge has no winners.