# Tell Me About Smelling Salts **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 15, 2022, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-smelling-salts/962893 "2022-04-15T20:30:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-smelling-salts/962893/61 "2022-04-20T15:31:08Z")
The appeal of eating raw fish took time to become widespread, as per _The Breakfast Club_. My father was an early adopter of any ethnic food. I renember going to an earlier sushi restaurant. Most people there, myself included, needed the waitress to guide us through what we were eating and how to eat it. (To this day, I am surprised most do not know the fat ends if the chopsticks are for serving food). An eldetly couple looked at their meal. The old man yelled out - “Great! They’re giving us guacamole! I love this stuff!” and naively proceeded to eat a huge mouthful of horseradish. I found it very amusing. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-smelling-salts/962893/62 "2022-04-20T19:06:54Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I induced a giggling fit in a young woman and a waitress when offered a cup of green tea ice cream and replied facetiously “No thanks, last time they got it mixed up with the wasabi”. Just to continue the hijack, I ate at a restaurant that offered among other things a “scoop of ice cream” on the dessert menu. When I asked the waitress what flavors they had she named off several, finishing with pistachio. “Oh, I love pistachio ice cream. I’ll take that!” In due time I got this green sphere in a dish and it looked a bit odd. I took a cautious sample and it was lime sherbet. I shrugged and ate it anyway but when the waitress came with the check I pointed to the remains and told her it was sherbet, not pistachio ice cream. “Huh! I’ve been pushing that as pistachio all week and you’re the first to tell me.” ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2022, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-smelling-salts/962893/63 "2022-04-21T22:47:06Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > They have had been used for medical purposes in the past and medicine is not simply limited to procedures that are ‘medically necessary’, a term of art used by and determined by doctors. I saw some just today - at an orthopedist’s office, taped to the side of one of the cabinets. A little googling confirmed that this was exactly what the thing was (I’ve seen them before). I assume the concern is that at an ortho’s office, people are often in pain bad enough that a loss of consciousness is not unusual - and this is something that can be grabbed quickly to help revive them. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2022, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-smelling-salts/962893/64 "2022-04-21T23:01:47Z")
You ever been in a store that just sells hot sauce? They have a thousand bottles, each with a garish label - Horatio’s Habanero Heat! It’s like that on the weightlifting website on a smaller scale. A dozen bottles with Ammonia LiquidEnergy Maelstrom! Or similar. Really breeds medical confidence. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2022, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-smelling-salts/962893/65 "2022-04-22T01:51:15Z")
This sounds like a case of “How much does this guy want a tattoo? THAT MUCH.” ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2022, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-smelling-salts/962893/66 "2022-04-22T03:28:21Z")
I wonder if it’s legal to tattoo an unconscious person. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2022, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-smelling-salts/962893/67 "2022-04-22T10:55:33Z")
Fifty states, fifty sets of laws regarding tattoo shops. I’ve seen a couple of people who tapped out during the first minute or two. They paid the shop minimum and went home with a dot or short line. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2022, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-smelling-salts/962893/68 "2022-04-22T11:51:28Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > > [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > > > I don’t dispute that it can wake someone who is unconscious. As I’ve said repeatedly, I dispute that it’s medically recommended or necessary, and I dispute the gym-rat folklore that it provides any meaningful autonomic stimulation or “boost” or “focus” like a shot of Red Bull.⁢ > > I have never heard of folklore that says smelling salts are medically necessary. Red Bull is full of caffeine and other junk you ingest, so any energy boost associated with it is not at all related to how smelling salts work. I agree the idea that an adrenaline rush that provides enhanced strength from the use is off base but I’m pretty sure anything that affects the body like smelling salts do will provide some additional adrenaline. And as I mentioned that will help an athlete get focused, which is why they use it. > > So once again, smelling salts are not ‘bullshit’ or ‘bunk’. They do exactly what is described here and there is no folklore involved. They have had been used for medical purposes in the past and medicine is not simply limited to procedures that are ‘medically necessary’, a term of art used by and determined by doctors.⁢ It sounds like they’re saying the same thing you are. They say that the item does actually wake people up, but that the idea that they help with athletic performance is bunk, and they have no medical use. You say they the item does actually wake people up, but the idea that they help with athletic performance is off base, and they have no medical use. Those seem like the same statements to me. The only difference is the word “bunk.” ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2022, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-smelling-salts/962893/69 "2022-04-22T12:26:28Z")
Throughout the thread the medical use of smelling salts has been presented. And I have specifically shown that the use of smelling salts will cause an adrenaline surge. How athletes interpret that is irrelevant. It is not ‘bunk;’ or ‘bullshit’ as claimed. Smelling salts do exactly what even the deniers say it does. Some advertising may be “bunk”, some people’s incorrect concept of what smelling salts are may be “bunk”, but smelling salts are not. If you judge things on how anyone might advertise them then everything is “bunk”, and it’s not. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2022, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-smelling-salts/962893/70 "2022-04-22T15:26:48Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > First entry in Table 2 for the effect on the brain states the result is ‘Heightened awareness’. > > Adrenaline, focus. It is highly speculative whether athletes are snorting enough smelling salts to cause enough pain to create any measurable boost in focus. There’s a reason they were historically used on unconscious people, because conscious people will recoil from it before it actually causes pain or injury. Again, just because a _theory_ of performance exists doesn’t mean this is actually what is going on. Here’s an [article](https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2018/10/27/nfl-cowboys-dak-prescott-swears-smelling-alts-do-many-others/1779243002/) that delves into fact and myth around how athletes use them, and why. A highlight: > [@](#): > > "In the medical community it is not something that is used,” said neurologist Erin Manning of Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. “It’s more like folklore medicine.” It just overwhelmingly looks like athletes misinterpreted smelling salts to be some sort of stimulant and others are retroactively coming up with an explanation that it must be related to adrenaline and pain. But it’s not, it’s just gym-rat cargo-cult silliness that athletes are famous for. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2022, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-smelling-salts/962893/71 "2022-04-22T19:35:25Z")
Have you ever smelled those things. I guarantee you will get an adrenaline rush sufficient to improve your focus when you are exhausted. We have also seen that smelling salts are used by medical providers. People’s misinterpretation of the facts or believe in gym lore doesn’t make smelling salts ‘bunk’. It makes those bad ideas ‘bunk’. Using your standard Covid vaccines are ‘bunk’ because some people believe the folklore about them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-smelling-salts/962893.md?page=3)