May 8, 2025 — With Mother’s Day approaching, we asked five top doctors for maternal health tips that showed just how smart their moms really were.
“Gargle This, It’ll Help”
“Growing up, I was prone to frequent episodes of sinusitis, congestion, and cold,” says Jamal Rana, MD, a cardiologist with Kaiser Permanente in Northern California. “My mom would add a teaspoon of salt in hot water and make me gargle twice a day.” Rana still makes this DIY gargle solution, which always seems to help.
Why Mom was right: Research suggests that gargling or rinsing your nose with saline can clear phlegm and dislodge or inhibit viruses. A study in the Journal of Global Health said people infected with COVID-19 who gargled and rinsed their noses with a saline solution four times per day for 14 days had lower hospitalization rates than a control group of people sick with COVID-19.
“You’re Getting the Shot”
Seven-year-old Walter Orenstein was scared of needles. It was 1955 and “I didn’t know what polio was and had no idea what the benefits were,” he says. “So I was not happy when my mother said I had to get a shot.” Now Orenstein, professor emeritus in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Emory University School of Medicine, appreciates what his mother, who had a science background, told him: “Better you should cry than I should cry.” He begrudgingly got the shot and decades later became a leader in infectious disease research.
Why Mom was right: Shots save lives by reducing risk to you and the people around you. Research published in The Lancet suggests that since 1974, vaccination has prevented 154 million deaths worldwide. As of 2024, a child younger than 10 is 40% more likely to survive to their next birthday than they would have been if our collective history of vaccination hadn’t existed. Measles vaccination has made the biggest difference, the researchers say.
“Don’t Order the Nuggets”
“As kids, we were always chasing the sugar and the processed foods, especially in my generation,” says Benjamin Click, MD, assistant professor of medicine in gastroenterology at the University of Colorado. (He was born in 1985.) His mom made healthy meals and steered him toward fresh fruits and vegetables, but he wasn’t interested. “I just wish I’d listened a little bit sooner and maybe cut out some years of McDonald’s in my past,” he says.
Click loved chicken nuggets as a kid, and they became his go-to as a teen, when he’d grab some after lacrosse games or late at night. Cheap, fast, and tasty, sure — but his triglycerides count hit like a scolding. Today, he eats better — and with kids of his own, he appreciates his mom’s message. “It's very fascinating to watch the science support what my mom’s been saying for many, many years,” he says.
Why Mom was right: Fried foods like chicken nuggets are usually high in calories and low in beneficial nutrients like fiber. They can also contain toxic byproducts like acrylamide that form during frying. The journal Heart published a study that said people who ate the most fried foods were 37% more likely to have heart failure, 28% more likely to have major cardiovascular events, and 22% more likely to have coronary heart disease than people who ate the least fried food.
“Do Not Give Up”
As a child, Steven P. Cohen, MD, was teased for being short. His mom steered him toward martial arts classes and supported him through years of intense, focused study. “I became a black belt and then started to compete nationally and get ranked,” Cohen says. “But it’s hard when you’re a kid and everybody’s going out, and you’re going to class.” Both his mother and father encouraged him to stick with it. He built resilience that he credits for his health and success today. He’s now the Edmond I. Eger Professor of Anesthesiology and division chief of pain medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
Why Mom was right: It comes down to realizing long-term success requires short short-term struggles. Knowing that helps you develop effective habits for good health and reducing pain. Habits like getting enough sleep, eating well, exercising, and controlling weight. “Getting up early before work and exercising or exercising after work is not easy,” he says. “It's not easy to stop smoking or to lose weight, but these things absolutely work.” For chronic pain, these lifestyle changes might even work as well or better than more controversial treatments like surgery, injections, medications, and alternative care, he says.
“Eat All the Vegetables. Fruit, Too”
When Diana Londono, MD, a urologist at Emanate Health in Glendora, California, was growing up, every meal was a learning opportunity with a different colorful vegetable. “Our diet was very varied, and it was always kind of like a class in nutrition,” she says. “My mom would explain the benefits of each food.” Those carrots? Vitamin A to helps your eyes. Those beets and Brussels sprouts can help you poop because they’ve got fiber. Back then, Londono would roll her eyes. Now, she’s thankful that her well-rounded diet has helped her stay healthy. She’s passing the same lessons to her kids. They eat the same meals she does, enjoying a spectrum of nutritious foods.
Why Mom was right: Eating produce is important, of course — a recent study in the journal Public Health showed that eating fruits and vegetables two or more times per day reduced early death risk by 20% and 17%, respectively, compared to eating them less than three times per week. Mixing it up is also helpful. Research suggests that eating a diverse range of fruits and vegetables makes you more likely to hit the recommended targets for vitamins, minerals, and fiber intake. A varied diet of fruits and vegetables is also linked with benefits such as a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes and some cancers and lower stress levels. In children, vegetable diversity might reduce inflammation, an early marker of long-term health.