Reality TV star Brandi Glanville revealed last week that following a DIY health hack that she found online sent her to the hospital.
Glanville, 53, was the star of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and has appeared in both the British and American versions of Celebrity Big Brother.
The Hollywood star shared on her podcast, Brandi Glanville Unfiltered, that she used the homemade remedy for a cold she'd caught from her youngest son, Jack.
Highlights
- Brandi Glanville had to visit urgent care after she put a clove of garlic inside her ear to cure her blocked sinus.
- Experts have dismissed garlic as a potential remedy for nasal, ear, or sinus congestion, and warned against following online hacks.
- Glanville has been recovering from a prolonged battle with facial disfiguration after going years without knowing what was causing it.
“As a pharmacist, let me tell you that a lot of people lack common sense when it comes to TikTok remedies,” a person wrote on the internet.
Brandi Glanville got a clove of garlic stuck in her ear on Easter
Image credits: Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images
On the April 9 episode of the podcast, Glanville told her co-host James Maas that over Easter weekend, she caught a cold from Jack and decided to insert a clove of garlic into her ear canal to cure her sinus blockage.
“It was Easter, and I had a piece of garlic stuck in my ear,” she revealed on the podcast. “It really went down further, and I had to go to urgent care the next day and get it taken out.”
Image credits: Brandi Glanville Unfiltered
She added that she could not “do anything” on Easter due to her predicament.
“I was just trying to clear up my sinuses. It’s online. Don’t listen to people online, or TikTok, or Instagram, or Twitter, or Facebook,” Glanville warned.
Image credits: brandiglanville/Instagram
She further revealed that her oldest son, Mason, told her that putting a clove of garlic into his nostrils helped him with a cold. She tried the same, but it caused her discomfort, so she put it inside her ear.
“It was burning too much, so I moved it to my ear,” Glanville said. “It was like burning my skin because I’d just lasered it.”
Experts have warned against using online medical remedies, including using garlic for a cold
Over the years, doctors have repeatedly said that following health hacks found online without consulting a professional physician might not only be ineffective, but could cause further complications.
Dr. Madeleine Herman, physician president at the Sinus Center & ENT Specialists of Houston, told the New York Post that putting a garlic clove into the ear is “absolutely not” a legitimate way to cure a cold or blocked sinuses.
Image credits: mnimage/Adobe Stock (Not the actual photo)
“Foreign bodies in the ear canal can cause infections or worse,” she explained. “They could lead to eardrum perforations or even damage to the bones that allow you to hear.”
“There’s a reason ENTs tell you not to put anything in the ear canal, including Q-tips.”
Image credits: squishiesophie/TikTok
In addition to getting stuck inside and causing damage, garlic could also cause chemical burns if it comes into contact with delicate skin, such as the inner ear canal or the nostrils, Dr. Herman added.
Dr. Andrew Spector, an otolaryngologist with the Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinics in Manchester, NH, said that “it absolutely makes zero sense that putting something in your ear would help sinus or nasal congestion, let alone ear congestion.”
“Even if somebody had an opening in their eardrum (which they should not naturally have), garlic would not get from the ear canal through the Eustachian tube into the back of the nose and up to the sinuses. In other words, it literally cannot reach the nose or sinuses.”
Brandi Glanville previously suffered from a long-lasting facial infection
Image credits: brandiglanville/Instagram
Glanville battled with a prolonged disfiguration of her face, which adversely impacted her self-esteem, professional opportunities, and financial stability for years. It even made her consider ending her life.
For a while, Glanville was under the impression that it was caused by a parasite. She spent over $130,000 and visited 21 doctors, and even used hair-removal cream on her face as a remedy, but things did not improve for a long time.
Image credits: BrandiGlanville/X
On February 18, 2026, she revealed that she finally had a confirmed diagnosis for her condition.
Glanville told TMZ outside of her doctor’s office in Beverly Hills that her facial disfiguration was caused by ruptured breast implants, which leaked silicone inside her body and clogged her lymph nodes, leading to an infection.
She got the implants 20 years ago and did not follow the general instruction of having them removed or at least checked after a decade.
“If it ain't broke, don't fix it,” she said about her decision, but admitted that she paid a hefty price for it.
The Daily Enquirer reported that she got the implants removed on February 3.
"She's too old for TikTok shenanigans." The internet reacted to Brandi Glanville using garlic for a cold
