Natural remedies for a sore throat

A sore throat is miserable and can be caused by a number of factors, including:

• Smoke
• Dryness, caused by using the furnace this time of year.
• Nasal drip
• Onset of a cold or flu, the upper respiratory type of flu.

Natural remedies

• Gargling with salt water can help a sore throat. The salt is healing.
• Using a humidifier can moisten the air and if you don’t have one, boil a pot of water on the stove. You can get near this or put your face near to the steam, just don’t get too close or you will burn your face. You can boil water throughout the day like this to add humidity to the air.
• Pineapple works great. This is a natural remedy that really works great for sore throats and a cough. Just eat pineapples. Fresh is better than canned, but you cant always get fresh so the canned works fine as well. Just 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, but you will either way. If you have a really bad sore throat and don’t feel like swallowing any food, I have also tried this. Get the pineapple and just chew on it and swallow the juice of this pineapple, you can throw away the part you don’t want to swallow.

Herbal remedies

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 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 its 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, just 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 lozenges.

What to avoid

Avoid dairy products, since they create more mucus in the body. And many times a sore throat is caused by nasal drip, and that is many times caused by dairy foods and drink.