Comments | naturalliving: Help awful sore throat.

jessicution in naturalliving

Help awful sore throat.

Jun 30, 2011 05:21

Hello, I've been a lurker here for a long time and finally have a question. I looked through all the memories and under "Cold and Flu" but couldn't find anything for a really really sore throat. I'm really nervous to go to the doctor and usually only go once an year due to my agoraphobia. But this time I'm scared I may be really sick ( Read more... )

ear/nose/throat, cold and flu, illness/disease

Comments 24

thedorkygirl June 30 2011, 13:50:06 UTC

Are you living with anyone? Keep checking your temperature - it gets high enough, you might need someone to check on you! If it comes to that, please do visit a doctor. I don't like visiting doctors either, and hate being prescribed meds when I really want to ride it out naturally, but sometimes my allergies get "caught" in my throat and cause an infection.

Try saltwater (not saline!) nose spray to help kill any infection. I hope you feel better soon.

jessicution June 30 2011, 17:23:52 UTC

I did check my temp today 97, so i'm good with that and i had salt water gargle as soon as I woke this morning and will likely do it again tomorrow morning. thank you for the tips.

thedorkygirl July 1 2011, 04:34:10 UTC

Good! I didn't want to lean away from the mission statement of the community, but my allergies got so bad that they were really causing me to get super sick.

After 2 years of "hallucinating through fevers every 6 months" and dragging myself to my general practitioner so he could scratch his head and prescribe me ever stronger antibiotics, I'm getting surgery. A very simple surgery to fix a broken nose I didn't even know was broken - but it was causing a lot of problems! So I'm just super sensitive to people with bad sinus & throat infections, cos I let mine abscess twice! They just got "caught" in my throat ugh.

:)

(The comment has been removed)

jessicution June 30 2011, 17:24:07 UTC

thank you!

cordelia_sue June 30 2011, 16:59:19 UTC

Keep an eye out for signs of strep.

In the meantime, I'm seconding slippery elm bark. Fenugreek is also helpful. It has a cumulative soothing effect, so you may not notice it as dramatically as other aids, but it'll work its magic. You just simmer fenugreek seeds in water for like 20 minutes, then gargle with the liquid. Let me know if you want more detailed instructions on the preparation.

The most powerful painkiller I've used on throat pain is essential oil of clove. It tastes awful, but works wonders (and it's cheap and lasts for ages!). I put a few drops into warm water or the tail end of a cup of tea, then gargle with that.

jessicution June 30 2011, 17:24:55 UTC

I will definitely look into these, but they sound pretty foreign to me, so i'm definitely interested.

cordelia_sue June 30 2011, 17:31:52 UTC

Well the clove oil can be purchased in most pharmacies, and most natural food stores carry it next to the essential oils. It's like $5 for a bottle.

The fenugreek seeds can usually be purchased wherever you buy bulk herbs and spices (so long as they have a good selection). Here's a page with some info. about fenugreek. To use it as a gargle, GENTLY simmer 2 cups of water with 1 tbsp. for about a half an hour. Cool until it's warm, strain, and use as a gargle. Anything you don't use right away can be kept refrigerated for several days. Use this multiple times a day, as needed. It will definitely help calm things down.

noveldevice July 1 2011, 02:36:13 UTC

Chocolate is better than anything else for coating a sore throat. Get small individual chocolates, and suck on each one like you would a throat lozenge or hard candy. Very good for throat irritation.

alienagentsab July 1 2011, 05:39:10 UTC

I want to second this, but have to warn that sugar depresses the immune system. (I read this somewhere, and I totally believe it because I can see it happen in my life and others' lives, but I should probably mention that no one else I've talked to has ever heard of this, so I can't promise that it's true.) So in the long run it will stop you healing as fast.

noveldevice July 1 2011, 05:42:14 UTC

If this is true, I suspect that for most people with an illness, the bits of their regular diet they aren't eating/drinking because they feel lousy are probably going to more than balance out several small pieces of chocolate. I doubt the net increase in sugar intake is going to be particularly huge.

Also, given that your body turns everything into sugar eventually to use anyway...?

alienagentsab July 1 2011, 22:40:18 UTC

I should have specified manufactured sugars. Fruits would not have this effect.

When I feel awful I eat less anyway, particularly with a sore throat, and I feel compelled to eat a lot of chocolate-y items. For me, that means the chocolate will have a greater effect than it would on a full stomach. But I admit, I haven't seen any actual research on this, so it's hard to say what an expected response would be.