New trend involving sour cream to treat sunburns is causing concern among medics

Leave it to the Internet to come up with some very questionable DIY health hacks that should probably never go viral...

Don't try this at home

The latest self-made discovery comes courtesy of TikTok user meghanlon who claimed in a video she shared on the social media platform (which has now amassed over 3.8 million views) that sour cream is the best remedy against sunburns.

In the video, she explains how she applies chilled sour cream on her bright pink limbs, leaving it on for an hour before rinsing it off and ridding herself of pain and tenderness caused by sunburn.

Of course, the video has now gone viral with many users corroborating the benefits of sour cream on sunburns but some medical experts believe the practice should best be left in the past.

In particular, Stephanie Taylor, Health and Wellbeing Expert at StressNoMore, explains how the hack is counter-productive more than anything else:

Using sour cream as an alternative to traditional aftersun products is not a wise solution when looking to treat sunburn.

Sour cream can cool the taste buds after you eat something spicy, however sunburn isn't the same and will only remain cool for a period of time when outside the fridge.

With increased bloodflow causing skin to heat up to high temperatures, when placing chilled sour cream on warm skin, the cooling effect will wear off relatively quickly.

Effective alternatives

Instead, the doctor suggests that people should opt for treatments that are made specifically to alleviate sunburn symptoms:

While sour cream does contain lactic acid, which can naturally remove dead skin to promote new skin cell generation, other products work as better, prolonged relief methods for soothing your skin and will be less odorous and sticky.

And adds:

If you have bad sunburn, ingredients such as aloe vera, coconut oil and soy-based moisturisers have been clinically proven to be much more effective in moisturising the skin, prevent peeling and have natural cooling effects.