Cayenne Pepper for a Sore Throat

A severe sore throat hit me like a ton of bricks, all the sudden one morning--very severe, unbearable pain, and a fever came on within 12 hours. Based on a look in my throat, it could have been strep since there were streaks of white, but it's not like the strep that my kids have had, with spots of white, so I can't confirm with any certainty. I can just say that it knocked the living daylights out of me, and my throat felt like it was on fire.

I tried my usual, using homeopathy, which often stops it in it's tracks, but this one was stubborn and strong, and I wasn't able to find much of any relief, so I started looking here on Earth Clinic.

Here is what I tried before taking the plunge into the cayenne pepper. Most of these things gave some relief, but not significant or lasting. I have listed these in order of relief, with the best remedies at the top, except the cayenne which I will speak about afterward:

-onion poultice all around front and sides of the neck (slice a big onion thinly, place it on a thin cloth, warm it up to approx body temp, then bend your body forward and lift the cloth with onions up to your neck, and wrap it around. Secure with pins, or what I did was to wrap an old cashmere scarf around several times, to keep everything nice and warm.

-licorice tea (sip as needed)

-sinus rinse (which often goes down back of throat, plus I was getting a sinus infection within 1 day of the sore throat)--including salt, 1 drop of strong colloidal silver, 1 drop of grapefruit seed extract, and 3 drops of povidone iodine

-salt water gargles

Just to be thorough, I was also drinking massive amounts of fluids. Each day I drank about 2 quarts of homemade chicken broth, 2 quarts of water, and 1 quart of oatstraw and nettle infusion. I was not really eating because I felt so sick, so I used the opportunity to basically fast and get all the toxins out.

I also took enough magnesium supplementation to cause my stools to run, again, just to get those toxins out. Other supplements I was taking were: 1000 iu vitamin D (I'm very sensitive to it), lots of B-vitamins, multi-minerals, fish oil, probiotics, and about 1.5 tsp of camu camu powder for vitamin C.

I also took off work and my husband took the kids so that I could really rest.

When nothing was really bringing any lasting relief, I finally tried the cayenne pepper. I made it with 1/4 tsp to 1/4 cup water ratio. I also threw in a drop of strong colloidal silver, a drop of grapefruit seed extract, 4 drops of povidone iodine, and a couple drops of clove oil for numbing.

I rubbed Lansinoh all over my lips (the natural equivalent of vaseline), and I took a gulp-sized amount and gargled for as long as I could, and spit it out. Oh. My. God. The incredible PAIN this caused. I did not read about this anywhere here, and I actually have a pretty good tolerance for pain. My eyes were watering, and I was basically debilitated from pain for a full 2 minutes or so. BUT THEN, my throat felt better!! I had about 2 hours of reprieve before I felt that I needed to do it again!

Another interesting thing was that, during the painful part, the heat from the cayenne radiated into my ears. I felt like that was a good thing, since the throat, eustachian tubes, and sinuses are all connected.

As for the pain just after gargling, it has been gradually getting better, but not as fast as I wish.

Now for the past 24 hours, I've been repeating this every 2 hours or so (except while asleep). My fever broke during the night (after about 4 doses). I've been keeping up with the onion poultice on my neck also (replacing it twice a day), because I found that my throat got worse when I discontinued it at one point. I also continued the sinus rinses because I developed a sinus infection, and I found that it gave a slight irritation which made me sneeze a lot afterward, and that seemed to help my sinuses. I also continued to explore homeopathic remedies, and found minor relief, but nothing significant.

I'm not sure yet if this cayenne will be my final cure, but it gives me enough relief that it's bearable in the meantime, and the improvement has been slow and steady.

I tried your q-tip method for a sore throat that I woke up with this morning. Wow, I felt better in 15 minutes! The pain was worse on my left side of my throat completely disappeared. I repeated the cayenne about half an hour later.

Okay, so I rolled a dry q-tip in organic cayenne and then rolled it as far back on my tongue as I could. Ughhh... be careful, that made me gag. It didn't burn like I thought it would though. It was a weirdly pleasant sensation as the cayenne started hitting the back of my throat. The second time I did it, I wet the q-tip first with water and then rolled it in cayenne to get more cayenne on the q-tip. And this time I rolled it about 3/4 of the way back on my tongue. Awesome! Gonna do this a few more times today just to make sure.

Chilli powder worked nicely. Thanks.

I used some chilli in my juice with a dash of ACV and sipped from that regularly.

I've had a sore throat for 3 days. I've been awake since 3:00am barely being able to swallow water without pain. I read some cayenne pepper reviews on Earthclinic and tried the OJ and cayenne cure ( 1 cup OJ with pulp and 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper). I whisked it together and slowly sipped it through a straw. I am happy to report that my throat felt better within minutes without any burning from the cayenne. I will do this again in a few hours.

I started feeling a sore throat coming on Friday. Saturday morning I had it pretty bad. I remembered EARTHCLINIC so I looked up a cure and started the Cayenne pepper treatment that morning. I frequently gargled throughout the day with a little bit form a glass half full with water and about 1/4 teaspoon Cayenne. Sometimes I would swallow just a tiny bit. I found that gargling was more effective if I used my voice box at the same time. This treatment was accompanied by prayer for healing Saturday afternoon. I'm not sure which was more effective, but by Saturday night my sore throat was completely healed. I kept up the gargling Sunday just to make sure. Cayenne pepper is my new friend!

I had a mild sore throat for a week and it was not going away. I mixed 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper and 1 cup of hot water and gargled every 2 hours and after 2 days it is completely gone. Also I do not feel weak anymore, since I think I may have had an infection when my throat was sore. I found the key thing to be is consistency, don't just do it once or twice because you immediately feel better. It can take time to completely remove whatever is bothering your throat.

I had a severe sore throat last night so this morning I came on Earth clinic searching around for a home remedies...I saw where where quite a number of people say to use cayanne pepper to gargle..so I decided to try a 1 green tea bag in 8 ounces of hot water with 1 tsp of honeyand 1 tsp of cayenne pepper so basically a drink at Cayanne pepper and green tea ..so I let it cool down and sip on it ...and I have never seen anything work so fast ...within five minutes my sore throat pain went from a 10 to a 2 on the first cup.. I will be having another cup later.. I give it 5 yeas

Cayenne works! My local co-op has some really hot stuff, with a much higher scoville rating than regular cayenne. At first I gargled by drinking out of a glass however my mouth was on fire! I then thought of this trick: Get a drinking straw and suck up some of the cayenne water, then use your finger to plug the end you drink from, creating a vacuum. The water stays in the straw and you can tilt your head back and bypass your tongue! It worked great and the cayenne has already helped my throat after 15 minutes. I used a little water at a time and swallowed afterward.

Had sore throat from cold. Gargled with the cayenne and instantly felt relief. It took about 3 days for the sore throat to completely go away. I gargled 3-4 times per day.

This is a true account on my part: I had been battling a particularly bad case of strep throat with antibiotics and motrin 'round the clock. I had read that cayenne can help strep, but I was skeptical so I didn't even try it.

After a week of continuing to feel miserable, I forced myself out of bed to go with my family out to eat at a restaurant, and for some reason, the vegetable soup sounded like the only thing I wanted. I had never eaten at this restaurant before, so little did I know that the soup was SPICY! I usually don't eat spicy things, but I forced myself to eat the soup...then something magical happened. With each painful bite, I could actually feel my strength returning. As I continued to eat the warm broth, my aches and pains subsided, and I felt better and better...way better than I had in a week! Why was this soup making me feel so good, I wondered? Then I remembered the suggestion to use cayenne pepper...and I wondered if the chef used it to spice up the soup. He insisted that he didn't, instead he used a hot sauce...a lot of it, lol. I asked if I could read what was on the bottle, so he ran to the back and grabbed it for me to read. When I looked at it, low and behold, the first ingredient was...cayenne pepper.

I was sold. This wasn't a case of the placebo effect, as all I wanted to do was eat. I didn't think that this soup would cure me when I ordered it, but in the end, it helped so much that I ended up naming it, the Magic Feel-Better Soup. Ha ha...I wonder if they changed the name after I called it that, but I haven't been back to check.

I had had a chronic sore throat for about a month.. I had tried to kick it with fermented garlic ( which used to help quite a bit) and probiotics, and oregano, but had eventually gone to a conventional route and taken some antibiotics, which helped for a while. However, the sore throat crept back and I didn't want to do another round of antibiotics, so I tried gargling with cayenne ( a tsp) in a cup of warm water with salt- yes, it burned but a day and a half of this, gargling about three times total, has cured me of the sore throat.. Just want to say, thanks, Earth clinic people- you have save me another trip to the doctor!

I had had a chronic sore throat for about a month.. I had tried to kick it with fermented garlic ( which used to help quite a bit) and probiotics, and oregano, but had eventually gone to a conventional route and taken some antibiotics, which helped for a while. However, the sore throat crept back and I didn't want to do another round of antibiotics, so I tried gargling with cayenne ( a tsp) in a cup of warm water with salt- yes, it burned but a day and a half of this, gargling about three times total, has cured me of the sore throat.. Just want to say, thanks, Earth clinic people- you have save me another trip to the doctor!

1 tsp of cayenne with 8 ounce glass of water and my sore throat was gone overnight. What a relief to find this site, I'm so grateful!

I have used cayenne for sore throats for many years and I recently found a natural over the counter throat spray made with hot peppers and horseradish. It's great stuff. One spray and my sore throat is gone.

I use cayenne pepper when I first notice a sore throat coming on. I put a little tap on a wet q tip and paint my throat with it, being careful not to get any on my tongue. So far this worked every time.