Sore Throat Remedies Debunked

It's time to face it, not all old home remedies are as useful as we would like to believe. The methods your mother made you use to "heal" your sore throat may have been pointless and really just a waste of your time. You wake up one morning with a sore throat, complain that it's itchy, scratchy, and swollen so what are you told to do? Gargle with salt water of course! The reasoning behind this was always that salt water is a cleansing solution and it could remove the bacteria causing your sore throat. The reality of the situation is that the salt water mixture hardly ever reaches the infection causing your discomfort. You were told not to swallow the salt water so all you really did was swish it around in your mouth and instead of healing your sore throat, in all actuality, all you're doing is cleansing the inside of your mouth.

If you decided to give up on salt water gargles, you may have decided to voyage out to the drug store and try some over the counter throat lozenges or sprays. The purpose of the throat lozenge is to increase salivation which causes you to swallow more and coat your sore throat with the medication in the drop. The sore throat spray acts in a very similar way, simply spraying the back of your mouth to coat and soothe your throat. Although these two methods seem to work as they relieve the pains associated with a sore throat, all they are doing is numbing the area, and more than likely, the rest of your mouth as well. Unfortunately all they are doing is providing temporary relief of the pain associated with a sore throat, not actually healing the infection.

Many sore throats are just symptoms of a common cold which will gradually heal, usually within a week or so, but there are other bacterial infections such as strep throat that are more serious and require attention from your doctor. Several home remedies may help relieve the pain and discomfort that results from an infection in your throat but you will have a hard time finding something to really heal it. There are few home remedies that will do much of anything for a sore throat caused by a bacterial infection, besides numbing the area, and your entire mouth while it's working, but an antibiotic from your physician can do the trick.