Old Wives' Tales OWT 002

You can cure a nose bleed by dropping a cold key down the back

Is this just an Old Wives Tale or is there any medical reasoning behind it?   Snopes doesn't have anything (June 2005) but Google turned up some links.

Checking out some of the links I found anecdotal evidence that showed that many people believed this to be true. However one can never be sure of the validity or provenance of much that appears on the web, (this site included), so I just give a few of the links and let you decide for yourself.

What should I do? - Nose Bleed, which was at www.whatshouldido.com/nose.shtml, used to give good advice on what to do, but now www.whatshouldido.com seems to have nothing useful.

Health Central, People's Pharmacy - Nosebleed Remedy Yields Amazing Results. This seems to be reasonable evidence that many people believe in the remedy or are aware of it. However it is not evidence that it works. There may be some instances where the remedy is used and the nose bleed stops, but that doesn't prove a connection. It might be that the nose bleed would have stopped naturally anyway, with out the remedy. Proper controlled tests and skilled use of statistics are needed to get any evidence.

CNN.com | Medical Myths. Ah maybe there is something here. If this page, or rather the opinion of Dr. Susan Nelson, is correct, then perhaps an involuntary tipping back of the head when a cold key goes down the back is what is at work.

So there we have it. You pays your money and takes your choice. I don't believe it myself and would rather try one of the other remedies.