Sore Throat
What is a sore throat?
Have you ever felt pains in your throat when trying to swallow something? That may be a sore throat. It denotes pains, irritation, or itchiness of the throat. This pain gets worse as you try to swallow any food or liquid, causing you some level of discomfort. Apart from pains in the throat, other symptoms of sore throat may include hoarseness, snowy spots on the tonsils, dry throat, and inflamed glands. Sore throat is developed as a result of cold, strep throat, or tonsillitis.
What causes sore throats?
Sore throats can be caused by any one of the following:
- Bacterial infection: There are some bacterial infections which can lead to the development of sore throats, some of them are strep throat, diphtheria and whooping cough.
- Viral infection: Cold or flu are viral infections that can trigger a sore throat. Other such viral infections are mononucleosis, measles, chicken pox, among others.
- Environmental factor: There are some certain environmental conditions or behaviour that can easily trigger sore throat like yelling too much, dry air, cigarette smoke and allergies.
- Gastro oesophageal reflux disease (GERD): This is a health problem that arises when stomach acid flows back into the oesophagus; and it has sore throat as one of its symptoms.
- There are other diseases or health conditions that can cause sore throat. HIV and cancer are two such diseases.
Symptoms of a sore throat
Sore throat sure comes with some pains, itchiness and irritation in the throat; but there are other symptoms of sore throat. Runny nose, mild body aches, coughing, sneezing, fever, mild headaches, white spots on the tonsils, hoarse voice, inflamed glands, and dry throat.
Natural remedies for sore throat
There is really no need to panic if you have a sore throat because you can easily help yourself without seeing a doctor. Gargling is one great way of treating sore throat. It can be done using various natural remedies.
Salt and water: This is an age long mild antiseptic which can help clear your throat of phlegm and reduce swellings. Put half a tea spoon of salt in a glass of warm water and stir thoroughly so the salt can dissolve. Then gargle the solution. Do this at least three times a day.
Raw/Pure Honey and hot water: Pure honey has anti-bacterial properties and speeds up healing process. So it is just perfect for sore throat. A tea spoon of honey in a glass of hot water will do just fine. You can gargle the solution or take it as tea with some herbs. Be sure that it is not sweetened honey, as that can actually lead to more creating more mucus.
Ginger: It is great in flushing out toxins from one's body, boosts blood circulation and has some anti-inflammatory properties which are good for killing bacteria. To make a ginger tea, grate some ginger roots into water, boil, and sieve the grated ginger root away. What is left is the tea. You can sweeten with honey and drink as tea.
There are a host of gargling solutions that can be used as natural remedies to sore throat, such as:
- Lemon and water
- Sage and water
- Hot sauce and water
- Turmeric
- Clove tea
- Tomato juice
- Green tea
- Apple cedar vinegar and salt
- Raspberry tea
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Sunburn - Cancer - Mouth Ulcers - Open Wounds - Asthma - Hair Loss - Constipation - Skin Infections - Laryngitis - Sore Throat