A sore throat is miserable and sometimes it feels as if it will never go away. Eating and drinking can be painful and over-the-counter remedies might not work. Here are a few natural remedies to get rid of that sore throat and help you feel better soon.
The Causes of a Sore Throat
A sore throat is miserable and can be caused by a number of factors, including:
- Smoking and both outdoor and indoor air pollution
- Dry weather or indoor dryness from the furnance
- Nasal Drip
- The onset of a cold or flu
- Allergies
- Being dehydrated
Natural remedies for a Sore Throat
- Gargling with salt water can help a sore throat since salt is healing.
- Using a humidifier will moisten the air and if you don’t have one, boil a pot of water on the stove. A humidifier can also help keep the flu away. One of the highest rated humidifiers is the Honeywell Designer Series Cool Mist.
- Turn on the shower to produce steam and sit in the bathroom and breath in the steam.
- Pineapple works great. This is a natural remedy that really works great for sore throats and a cough. Just eat pineapples. Fresh is better, but you can't always get fresh so canned pineapple works fine. Cut up the fresh pineapple and eat it.
Do this on and off during the day and it does get rid of sore throats. With the canned, you might have to eat more than fresh to get results. If you have a sore throat to the point it is hard to swallow any food, you can chew on the pineapple and swallow the juice and spit out the fruit.
Herbal remedies for a Sore Throat
First of all, you should ask a doctor before taking herbs if they will interact or interfere with any other medicines you might be taking, whether prescription or over the counter.
Ask a doctor before taking this if you’re pregnant or have an autoimmune disease like rheumatoid arthritis.
Most if not all of these herbs in a bottle have instructions on them as to how much to take, follow those instructions.
- Echinacea: has been used for thousands of years by Native Americans. At the first sign of a cold, take some Echinacea. You can make the tea yourself or buy it, or you can get capsules. Studies have shown that Echinacea will enhance the immune system. You can also buy the Echinacea oil yourself. Normally these herbal oils come in a small bottle with a dropper to measure amounts. A dropper is used because you don’t need much and it's not recommended that you use very much of the oil of herbs.
To soothe the pain, the Echinacea has to make contact with the throat, mix 2 drops of the oil into a small amount of water. Gargle and swallow, it will act as a pain reliever and at the same time fighting the virus in you that might be causing the sore throat. - Myrrh can also be used, it is like Echinacea in some ways that it is also an analgesic that will ease the pain of sore throats, I have also used this for toothaches before. Mix this with water according to the instructions on the bottle and gargle with this. Don’t swallow though.
- Grapefruit seed extract. You can buy this in bottles as well and mix it with water and use it as a gargle. Don’t swallow it.
- Cayenne and other spices. Something with curry or cayenne in it has worked for me as well. Sometimes when you have a sore throat, mucus is associated with this and your sore throat is coated. Some type of soup or food that has either cayenne or curry in it can “clean” the throat of this and help it to heal.
- Zinc: When you feel the onset of a cold, you can increase your zinc intake. You can buy zinc supplements and eat foods that are high in zinc.
Foods to Avoid
Avoid dairy products since they create more mucus in the body. And many times a sore throat is caused by nasal drip, which is caused by dairy products including milk, ice cream, and cheese products.
About the Author
Sam Montana is a certified Food Over Medicine instructor from the Wellness Forum Health Center and certified in optimal nutrition from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Copyright © 06 December 2008-2019 Sam Montana
About the Author
Sam Montana is a certified Food Over Medicine instructor from the Wellness Forum Health Center and certified in optimal nutrition from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Copyright © 06 December 2008-2019 Sam Montana
