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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?

ESultanik
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Matas Vaitkevicius
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    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
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    Hot drinks can help liquify mucus, so it will provide some relief when congested. – Chris Cudmore Mar 16 '16 at 15:38
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    _"relieve the symptoms"_ != cure. – vartec Mar 17 '16 at 02:25
  • Probably not relevant: [*Very hot drinks may cause cancer, but coffee does not, says WHO*](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jun/15/hot-drinks-may-cause-cancer-but-coffee-does-not-says-who) – Mark Rogers Sep 01 '16 at 14:20

1 Answers1

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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

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!](http://meta.skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/1505/welcome-to-new-users) 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](http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/3/does-chamomile-help-you-to-relax) and it has been found lacking much evidence. – Oddthinking Sep 01 '16 at 13:06