Apple Cider Vinegar for Strep Throat

| Modified on Dec 24, 2023

Apple cider vinegar is an effective remedy for strep throat. When you are using apple cider vinegar as a home treatment, use raw and organic apple cider vinegar.

How to Use Apple Cider Vinegar for Strep Throat

Gargle

Mix together 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar with 4 tablespoons of warm water. Use this mixture to gargle every few hours. Spit the mixture out after you gargle. Do not swallow it.

Vinegar Tea

Add 1 Tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to a mug of hot tea - green tea, black tea, or herbal tea. Add raw sugar or better yet, raw honey to sweeten.

Alternately, you can make a strong and tasty apple cider vinegar tea.

  • 2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
  • 2 Tablespoon raw honey
  • 6 ounces hot water
  • Mix together and drink
  • If you add some powdered cloves to this tea, you will have medicinal benefit of the cloves as well as the pain killing properties of cloves.

Have you tried apple cider vinegar for strep throat? Let us know how this natural remedy worked for you!




19 User Reviews


Posted by Ronda (Aho) on 01/23/2022
★★★★★

My husband is so sick with strep so I started researching remedies and this seems to be doing the trick:

2 tablespoons A.C.V, 2 tablespoons raw honey, 8 oz warm water drink while warm is making the throat pain better and he's able to cough up mucus and phlegm.

also gargling with 1/4 cup A.C.V and water and swallowing 3 times a day. So grateful for the Homeopathic way instead of medications.


Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Eva (Tr, South Carolina) on 07/19/2017
★★★★★

I had sore throat which got progressively worse over three days. (Not positive if strep but looked like it from previous times I had had it). Glands swollen and lots of mucus in my throat.

I read on Earthclinic to gargle and swallow Apple Cider Vinegar & water mix. 1:3 ratio.

I use ACV for many ailments and it never fails me and this time is no different.

After three days of throat agony I swallowed then gargled the ACV mixture. I spit out a bunch of phlegm & went to bed. In the morning my throat
Was 90% better! It's a miracle really. Almost an instant cure! It burns on a sore throat but worth it!


Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Sam (Long Island, Ny) on 03/20/2016
★★★★★

Apple Cider Vinegar has worked for my strep throat as well. I discovered after a few days of gargling that that wasn't enough and I had to sip and swallow the vinegar for it to really get the strep out of the entire esophagus. I liked sipping it straight, then I added a little water and that was good too. Be careful of the acidic vinegar on your teeth, you might want to use a straw to avoid affecting your tooth enamel. I've also been taking Colloidal Silver, a teaspoon every hour. I read a prominent MD's website who says she prescribes this for her patients instead of conventional antibiotics, so that sold me on it. Good luck, hang in there, sip the vinegar!

Replied by Michele
(Asheville, Nc)
03/21/2016

For those of you who have beat strep throat without antibiotics, I wonder if you were concerned about the link with rheumatic fever. I have strep throat and do not want to take antibiotics, as has been prescribed by my MD. She says she is not quick to prescribe antibiotics but always does so with Strep because of its link to the autoimmune response that causes rheumatic fever. I have started a regimen of garlic, cayenne and honey as well as apple cider gargling.


Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Becky (Lake In The Hills, Il) on 10/15/2015
★★★★★

I have been a suffer of strep throat for years. My doctor said a couple years back that I was a carrier for it. Every time I would get sick with a cold it would turn into strep throat. I had it so many times I know exactly what it feels like when it starts out. After going to the doctor multiple times and them telling me exactly what I already knew and spending a bunch of money on the appointments and meds. Which I'm allergic to penicillin so I couldn't just get a shot and walk out.

Last year yet again I get a cold and it turns into strep. So instead of doing the same song and dance I went on to your website and found the cure for it. So now every time I get strep I take a tablespoon of the ACV and put it in a cup of hot tea and drink it. Works every time. Thank you so much for ur website. I am no longer suffering!


Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by M. (Burlington, Vt) on 01/24/2015
★★★★★

Did this. and it worked! I gargled one part ACV to 3 parts HOT water from a coffee mug every two hours. It was nasty, but by the end of the day my strep was fading!

Replied by Ed
(Houston)
08/16/2015
★★★★★

Similar story, I wasn't too careful with the measurements, but consistently gargling with Apple Cider Vinegar diluted in more than twice its amount in water helped the strep throat from advancing and eventually helped me defeat it.

Replied by Ric
(Boyne City, Mi)
08/18/2015
★★★★★

Ed, You might try gargling and swallowing the ACV full-strength in small amounts at a time (1 tsp.) for more intense and quicker relief. It's the acid in the vinegar that kills the infection. Lemon juice will work too but it's tough on dental work and harder to swallow. I used balsamic vinegar(very tasty) because I had some already and ACV is super stuff too. Swallowing of course takes the fight to the entire affected area and both vinegars are beneficial ingested internally, probably the ACV more so.

Replied by Susan
(Texas)
09/22/2015
★★★★★

New to my city (and state), new job--which allows me to have medical insurance--after I've been employed with them for 30 days (I've been there for 2). Thinking I'm in the beginning stages of strep and feeling like complete crap. Needless to say, needed an alternative to the doc since I can't afford to go right now. Grabbed the recommended ACV and did my thing. Entirely gross to gargle with (I can't make myself drink it). However...within a minute or two after doing so, I could swallow with zero pain. Going to do it again in the morning. Also, taking Emergen-C powder packets 3x's a day.


Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Beezers (Batavia, NY) on 12/30/2012
★★★★★

I'm a 43 year old male contruction worker who within a couple of days contracted Strep Throat. Rather then spend 3 hours in the ER and several antibiotics, my wife got online and found a remedy for treating Strep with ACV and water. Within 12 hours the sore throat went away. It is amazing to me that something so simple has now made me a believer.


Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Lindsay (Chicago, Il, Usa) on 07/30/2010
★★★★★

I used to get strep throat often and would have to get a prescription or a shot of penicillin from my doctor. It reached a point one year where the strep throat kept coming back and I was tested for and diagnosed with it three times in two months. I read about gargling with apple cider vinegar diluted in a glass of warm water and decided to try it rather than go straight back to the doctor again when I got sick for the third time. It worked. Now whenever my throat starts to hurt at all, I pour about 1/4 cup of ACV (just the cheap stuff from the grocery store) into a 16 oz glass and fill it the rest of the way with hot water just cool enough drink. I gargle and spit it out until the entire glassful is gone. The throat pain is dulled after just one use, and after gargling twice a day for a few days, all symptoms are gone. I have been using this remedy for the last 12 years and haven't needed to go to the doctor for strep throat since.

Replied by Bonita
(San Antonio, TX)
03/13/2015

Please don't buy the "cheap" stuff as ACV in order to be medicinally beneficial should be raw, unfiltered and with the mother. It should be not be clear or pasteurized.


Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Earl (Tl, Fl) on 08/30/2009
★★★★★

ACV cured my strep throat within 30 mins. Started sipping and no joke, 30 minutes later I felt back to almost 100%. Plan on sipping ACV for the next few days to knockout the remaining strep. Great stuff! GO GATORS!


Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Terradenise (Houston, TX) on 06/10/2009
★★★★★

Apple Cidar Vinegar is a wonder drug for strep throat. I started taking it the second day after I got strep...when little white bumps started appearing on my throat and tonsils. I took two teaspoons 3 times a day for two days and the strep completely went away! I now recommend it to everyone.


Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by momof2innewmexico (Farmington, NM) on 04/25/2009

So my throat is KILLING me. I couldn't eat this morning until a DOUBLE dose of ibuprofen kicked in, that's how bad it hurt!! Looked in the mirror - classic case of strep throat. I read about other users doing either green tea or ACV and honey in hot water. I combined the two, made a cup of hot green tea, then added 3 tsp of ACV and 3 tsp of honey (I might have even added a few more tsp of honey, I like my tea sweet!) I am gargling a mouthful for as long as I can, then swallowing it. My pain level was seriously at a 9 or 10, I could hardly swallow, and after only 1/3 of this cup of tea, I can feel it working. Swallowing still hurts, but I'd say it's more like a level 7 or so. I'll post again once I know how this works in 24 hours, but I plan on gargling/drinking with this concoction at least 3 or 4 times tomorrow too!! I'm so amazed that it's already working!!


Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Joyce (Joelton, Tn) on 11/09/2007 495 posts
★★★★★

ACV used half & half with honey makes a very good cough syrup which will also cure strep. When my 3 youngest children got chickenpox at the same time, the older and younger to the 3 were faring much better than the middle one who kept running a fever. The next morning he had classic scarlet fever rash in groin to explain why. Yep, ACV / honey mixture to the rescue - I gave all 3 a tsp. every two hours or so. Next morning the ones rash in groin was decreased, and the other 2 never got it. I kept them on it for a couple more days.

After hospitals discovered they were spreading pseudomonas aurugenosis (?) via the oxygen equipment, they removed this "hospital scourge infection" by soaking the equipment in 1 part vinegar - 7 parts water, so who knows what else it will cure.


Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Sara (Port Byron, IL) on 02/11/2007
★★★★★

Apple cider vinegar/hot tea. I was looking through this site a lil bit ago and seen the info about the cayenne pepper in water. Well i don't have cayenne pepper, but i am drinking hot tea with apple cider vinegar in it. It feels good and the coating of mucous in the back of throat isn't as bad. I went to doctor today and i have strep throat. Bags on tonsils and so very swollen and painful for couple of days. Took first dose of antibiotics 14 hours ago..second dose an hour ago. says might not see results until 24 hours. I really hope so, I'm consumed by this lol. I'm sure some of you know. but if hurts tomorrow i'm going to go get cayenne pepper.


Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Leslie (Seattle) on 06/01/2006
★★★★★

I tried this a few weeks back when I felt a horrible sore throat coming. I knew it would soon turn into strep as I have had it before plenty of times and when I get it, I get it bad! So I was worried since my baby was only a few weeks old at the time and I did not want to take any medications since I breast feed exclusively and did not want to have to stop and give formula because of antibiotics. I have never given any of my children formula and never plan to, so I wanted to find a natural cure to avoid having to do that. I tried the ACV method, gargling a few teaspoons w/ water a few times a day and it worked! It taste horrible, but who cares when it's natural and so much better for you (and in this case, my baby too!) I told everyone I know and my husband a few weeks ago did the same thing and warded off a sore throat this way too. I'm hooked and so glad I tried it!


Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Lori (Canada) on 04/24/2006
★★★★★

My daughter was diagnosed with strep. Came across your site. She gargled with ACV and water. She got significant relief, but the next day it was back. Gargled again, and made a weak tea from ACV, water and honey. She drank about half, but then said it hurt her stomach. She has been keeping up the gargling, and we also painted her wrists and throat with iodine. Does anybody know how often and / or how long you can do this iodine painting? She is 16 years old. Thanks - we sure appreciate this site.


Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Lisa (USA) on 03/17/2006
★★★★★

My boyfriend came down with a bad sore throat. After seeing a doctor, he found out that it was strep throat. I know strep throat is contagious! A few days later, I came down with a sore throat. Not only was it sore, but I started to see blisters develop! I became very concerned. I wanted to avoid taking any antibiotics for a number of reasons, so I happen to come across your website and saw your apple cider vinegar cures. I'm a believer in home remedies, and I didn't hesitate to try it. As soon as I started sipping on ACV, my throat started to burn, and I continued sipping it throughout the day. When I came home from work that day, I noticed that my blisters were almost gone, and my sore throat was gone! I will definitely keep ACV on hand and share this remedy with family and friends!



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