Cayenne Pepper, Garlic And Honey To Soothe A Sore Throat Naturally
After an enjoyable but taxing week of martial arts training combined with severe lack of sleep, I returned home from Vancouver Island with a mild fever and sore throat.
The fever resolved itself within two days but the sore throat persisted and became worse until the point I felt like little tiny knives were stabbing me from the inside.
Resolving Strep Throat With Antibiotics
This sore throat reminded me of the time I had strep throat over a decade ago. At the time, I thought it was just a bad sore throat and it didn’t occur to me that it might not disappear on its own. I suffered through it for over a week without doing anything, and when I dragged myself to the clinic, the doctor prescribed me antibiotics.
The problem was gone within days.
Shortage Of Available Doctors
Back when I was diagnosed with strep throat, getting an appointment with a doctor in Canada was no problem. I was even living out of my home province at the time and didn’t have a dedicated family doctor.
But drop-in clinics were abundant and getting a timely appointment was relatively easy to do.
Nowadays here in Western Canada, we have a shortage of family doctors and drop-in clinic are few are far between.
I searched online for an available drop-in doctor and when it looked like I wouldn’t be able to get an appointment within the week, I started to look up how to soothe a sore throat naturally.
Natural Remedies To A Point
I believe in taking preventative measures and not sitting on your laurels when it comes to your own health. This means being sensitive to the state of your own health, recognizing when something is wrong, and when possible, curing ailments at home with herbs, food and supplements.
That said, I also recognize that certain health issues may not be solved at home and more importantly, may need timely medical intervention. If I break a bone skiing, I’m not about to research herbal remedies to set my bone.
I am also not willing to take health advice from just any old Joe on the internet. Just because something is natural, it doesn’t mean it can’t do harm. Poison ivy, giant hogweed, poison oak. Tonnes of plants are toxic and even for non-toxic plants, taking them in the wrong context or taking too much can be harmful.
A Solution Under The Circumstances
What do you do when you can’t get an appointment with a doctor and your problem doesn’t warrant a trip to the emergency room or even an urgent care clinic?
Online doctors usually have more availability. This is a good solution when you know what you want. For example, a routine blood test to check iron levels or a refill of a prescription drug.
When you need an actual diagnosis that requires a face-to-face inspection such as looking down your throat, what good is an online doctor?
Regarding healthcare, we’re in the wild, wild west here in Canada. I wasn’t getting an appointment with a doctor any time soon so I started to look online for effective home remedies.
I expected to find garlic, ginger and honey remedies in abundance, which I did. But I’d already tried that several times within the week and it helped to alleviate the pain but only temporarily. The remedy that stood out, after more searching, was cayenne pepper.
It seemed counterintuitive that a red hot pepper would soothe the sore throat pain I was experiencing, since the pain itself felt kind of hot and burning. But I found several accounts of regular people soothing their severely sore throats using cayenne pepper, so I decided to give it a try.
A Simple Recipe To Soothe A Sore Throat Naturally
Below is the recipe I found in multiple sources including naturopathic websites and blog and video anecdotes from regular people. I have also included a video below that walks through the steps in detail.
Ingredients
- Ground 2-3 cloves of garlic
- 1 teaspoon, cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon, honey
Directions
Mix it together and take a small portion-say ½ teaspoon for your first time-and swallow it, coating your entire throat. Leave it there for a minute, then wash it down with water. Repeat 3 or 4 times in a day.
This almost immediately eliminated the discomfort of swallowing and the next day, my sore throat was completely gone.
Note: If you suspect you have strep throat, I recommend you get it checked out by a doctor. But if you’re in my situation and getting an appointment with a doctor might take a week or even longer, you gotta do what you gotta do.
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If you’re interested in getting more information about natural food cures, check out this book by Jenni Rempel, “Forget The Pharmacy – Grow Your Own Medicine: The Homesteader’s Ultimate Self-Sufficient Guide to Grow Herbs“.
