10 Top Home Remedies for a Sore Throat

I read a lot of feedback about the benefits of cayenne pepper for sore throat on this website and I'm happy to say I tried gargle couple of times a day with black pepper instead, and for my surprise it works as well. It took me about one day for sore throat and 3 for tonsils, no need for antibiotics or other medication.

THANK YOU!!! Im 13 and in gymnastics! And whenever I got to do a flip my throat kills me! :( but then I looked up sore throat remedies and I got mouthwash! I tried it and voila!! I can swallow! Thank you so much for this remedie!!

I have tonsillitis with tonsil exulates (could be strep, but the pain isn't severe enough, though I have been taking wild oregano oil internally that would have been fighting the infection).

My throat was really hurting to swallow, and I had mucus sitting at the back of my throat that I couldn't get rid of (I don't have a cold, cough and bad allergies right now). It made my mouth taste awful. I read that applying iodine to your wrists and also gargling with a diluted solution can help. I did it last night, and not only did I wake up with my throat much less sore, but the feeling of mucus at the back is nearly entirely gone as well as the bad taste. I used Nascent Iodine, but I believe Lugol's can be used as well.

Oregano is a good option for sore throats. However, it's important to dilute it with something other than water, like honey or coconut oil. This way, there is less chance of throat irritation. (Oregano oil is strong! )
Option #2- Tamari soy sauce worked well as a gargle as an alternative to ACV or pickle juice.

Go into any good store an buy some tonic water (the yellow label) and make sure it says with quinine at the bottom. Drink this and when you throat feels painful and it will ease the pain instantly. Drink whenever pain returns.

One note on this, you can avoid all that by just chewing fresh well washed and skinned carrots til they give you all the juice, then eating the pulp is up to you, I say why not but in this case you could always put half in the compost pile.

Barely been able to eat for 2 days. Swallowing is torture, I wince everytime. I mixed 1tsp cayenne, 1tsp salt, 1tsp lemon in a cup of water. Gargled for a couple of minutes, then I spit out the concoction but swallowed what was left in my mouth. Took a couple of minutes but it feels literally 100% better. Thanx ya'll

I still continued the treatment for a couple of hours. Yeah I can eat!!!!

The simple cure that worked for me is as follows:- Just break up a Vitamin C tablet into smaller pieces and put one small piece on the tongue. Slowly suck it like a sweet. You will feel relief. Repeat that periodically when necessary. After a few times, your throat would not be painful anymore.

Actually worked, really well. I can swallow now! So weird

I had a sore throat for just over 3 weeks. It wasn't strep but it sure was annoying.... Just wasn't going away and getting worse. I went to the doctor and she said I can't prescribe anything because it's not strep (thank goodness cause I HATE antibiotics). Now what? I'm sick and tired of this pain!

I came across a post that mentioned trying Manuka honey gargle. Here's what I did. I heated up 1/2 cup water (just warm) and stirred in a teaspoon of good quality Manuka Honey along with 1 drop of oregano oil(mix it up). I gargled several times a day for 3 days and lo and behold my Sore throat was finally gone! Miracle! I love this site and I love these remedies. Reminds me of the good old natural cures my mom from Spain used to use on us as kids.

Thank you for your hep. I am a singer battling a sore throat and this really helped!

I tried it and it worked for about five seconds.

When I gargled the mouthwash it didn't really work, but then after I drank a verry little of it my throught started to feel better instantly.

They put glycerine on pacifiers in the hospital to get newborns to take them.

I tried the Cayenne, sea salt with warm water and it worked. I had a real sore throat and when I first saw Cayenne I thought wow. Won't that burn? It did not burn at all and my throat was not sore at all about a minute after gargling it. I am glad I came across this website.

I recently began to have a sore throat and drank three drops of oregano oil in a oz of water three times of day for four days and sore throat went away without me even getting sicker.

Oh my god. Just had a bit of peanut butter and it instantly worked! I'll be keeping this jar by my side today~ Haha

Better But With Side Effects

I was a little hesitant to try this trick because I had never heard of it before. I gave it a try, hoping it would work. After one gargle, it relieved the pain. However, it felt like my throat was on fire (the same sensation you feel when you pour alcohol on a open cut) As for swallowing it, I suggest spitting out the amount you gargled and pouring a little bit into the cup. It will make it easier to swallow just a little bit.

I tried this with some mouthwash at my house and it worked almost instantly! XD

For a nice way to relieve pain of a sore throught, just have a nice bowl of warm lentil soup! Have some potatoes, lentils(duh), a tiny bit of onions, and voila! You have a tasty soup that helps you! I know this doesn't involve cayenne but it's very helpful too( I've tried cayenne it works! )

I had horrible pain seemingly in the thyroid and hoarse voice today and the last few days. Hard to breathe and swallow. I used one of Ted's suggestions. I put 5 drops of hydrogen peroxide (3%) in a bottle of water 16.5 oz. (approx. 1/2 liter) and a little bit of borax (1/8 tsp. ) I feel 100% better now. Drink this slowly over 1/2 of the day.

A follow up: after only a couple of days of gargling with mouthwash (Equate anticavity) only a few times a day, the sore throat is gone and hasn't come back for two days now. Just sayin'...

Acknowledging the fact that it could be bacterial or viral, I needed to try something quick last night and checked out the many suggestions on this site. Not having many of the ingredients to some "cures, " I tried the warm salt water two different times to no avail. I then tried gargling (do NOT swallow! ) Equate (Walmart) "anticavity mouthwash" (active ingredient: sodium fluoride.0221%) before going to bed. Woke up with no pain at all, feeling much better. Used same twice today with very slight soreness persisting when swallowing but much better than it's been. If it gets worse or doesn't go away, will see a doctor this week.

I thought that glycerine is bad to suck!

Simply take a small packet of BC Powder and pour the powder on your tonque. Take about 1/4 glass of either water or tea into your mouth and swish this around until the powder is diluted. Now! Gargle as long as you can getting the mixture around the areas of your throat that is hurting.... then swallow.

In about 3 minutes you will feel the pain lessening... In about 15 minutes it will feel even better.... If the sore throat returns in a few hours repeat the same..... after the second or third time it usually will not come back....

You can think of me later.... go get the powder....

Hand therapy is a form of tissue massage in the areas where the muscles in the neck may become hard due to the soarnness in the throat. If you find the sensitive areas in the neck and massage it softly, pressing gently on the tender muscles, it can help to ease the pain. This also helps reduce tooth ache and many problems - doubtful to be the cure, but sometimes it can be enough to ease the pain in the throat as well in order for the healing process to continue. Just take your time and massage slowly with your hand and fingers to find those little knots or stiffness in the neck. Try it a few times and wait a day in between self treatments.

Yea, Hand therapy really worked. Now Pain reduced from 100% to 55%.

I make a cayenne Tea. First boil a cup of water. Add 1 TABLESPOON of cayenne and let it steep for 1/2 hour.

Now, boil another cup of water and add 1 TABLESPOON (2 if you are tolerant) of the steeped cayenne to that.

I keep the full strength in the fridge and dilute as above then drink it and/or gargle with it liberally whenever I have a cold, sore throat, or even the chills! Also great for healthy gums!

Hi Francisca, Well your hubby is missing out on a treat! They are full of lots of nutrients and again especially in the skin. Very interesting that they helped your digestion. It will be good when you can eat your own.

Hi Maria and sorry about the confusion with the fruits... Here kakis are the soft and persimmons the manipulated ones. In Portugal where I come from we call them diospiros, a scientific name for this fruit. I think that most people are not familiar with them! My husband who is Welsh had never heard of them at all and he doesn't wish to try them. Too bad because it is sure that we are going to have them growing in our garden and I tell you, I noticed such a difference in my digestion when I started eating them regularly.... I knew them from my youth as my grandfather had a tree on his farm. Sharon fruit again is the same fruit but means the ones you eat while hard! Many people are put off this fruit because they don't understand that the tannin is a natural part of the unripe fruit! Maybe that was the reason you now have the modern version without any tannin at all! No idea they grew in Australia as here they are picked at the beginning of the winter and eaten around Christmas!

Hi Francisca, Yes I have had the persimmons that are very soft when ripe and yes they are yum. I had never heard the name kakis and had to do an internet search to see which fruit you were talking about as they are all called persimmons here. They are the only ones that are grown locally. Hard to get as they are not grown commercially where I live and there are not many old gardens that have them now. They are not a common fruit here in Oz and some have not even tried them.

Yes Francisca! Where I live we have both but, like you said, once you taste a REAL ripe kaki, you can never eat the other ones. We try to take full advantage of their very short season, then dream about their heavenly taste till next year!!!

Maria, as far as I understand the persimmons are actually genetically manipulated kakis. I think that because people hated the tannin when the kakis aren't very ripe they decided to create something that can be eaten while not very ripe. The original kakis can only be eaten when very ripe and soft and if you have eaten those you won't eat the persimmon again! I have done a lot of research because we will be moving to our new home in the countryside soon and we are working with a local gardener who is doing our garden so I wanted to be able to tell him which fruit trees we want exactly!

Sharon fruit and persimmon seem to be the same fruit. I kept a few persimmons in my warm living room for a few weeks and they never got soft like the real kakis! I tend to distrust all these new manipulated fruit, call me old..... So the gardener now knows which kind of kakis we want! You love the persimmon but have you ever tried the real kakis? Interestingly enough since we arrived here they had a lot of kakis for sale, ready to eat, very soft and I started eating them all day. Since then my digestion was very good. I seemed to be hungry all day something that never happens to me. They are now gone...... The season is short!

Hi Francisca, My understanding of kakis (persimmon) is that the non astringent type, the one you eat crisp, is native to Japan and China, which I love I might add. I know with apples we should be eating the smaller old fashioned ones as the skin to the sweet flesh ratio is best, that is more nutrients via the skin and less sugar with less flesh.

Lou, I agree with you as far as pineapples goes, at least the real ones! In Europe now you see mostly the ultra-sweet ones which I believe are manipulated to produce always the sweetest pineapples. I try to stay away from those. Actually many fruit we eat now seems to be manipulated to contain more sugar, maybe to cover up the fact that they don't taste like anything anymore! I love kakis and till a little while ago I could find the traditional ones you eat very ripe, which are lovely but now I only find sharon fruit and those too are manipulated. They took away the tannin and they look just like they are made of plastic. I tried them a little while ago and it was almost like eating an apple just it wasn't an apple, very weird and they never seem to ripen.

Even pears nowadays are awfully sweet, too bad because we need the vitamins but not the sugar. When we go and live in our new house we will be growing quite a bit of fruit ourselves! The problem is that you have to stay away from the modern manipulated kinds!

I had an aunt who was part Indian and she always heated pineapple juice for whatever ailed us when we were little. Pineapple/pineapple juice contains catalase (which is an important enzyme). It is good for stomach problems and it works in neutralizing H202 in your liver (people with vitiligo have a high level of H202 in their liver). So eat more pineapple!!! I am beginning to think that is what is in pseudocatalase cream.

I found this a little hot on the tip of my tongue. I used some yogurt just to put on the tip (not swallow) after and my tongue felt better right away! My throat felt better soon after too thanks to the cayenne pepper.

@ Caroline from Alexandria, VA: Actually on the Anti-Inflammation Diets given by Natural Paths they remove all citrus (except lemon/juice: for flavoring food) from the diet; because it's known for causing inflammation through out the body.

Notadoctor- if you're pregnant or breastfeeding you can't use many over the counters.

Orange Peel Extract is the answer. It is all natural not a prescribed pill... D-Lymonene is what I use take it once in the morning and works like a charm! First few times you will burp up oranges but that means it's working. Good Luck

Honey alone DIDN'T work for me. It did absolutely nothing. I tried salt, honey and ACV and those only worked temporarily. The cayenne with a little bit of honey is doing the best job. I'm going to add ACV and gargle for a while.

I've had this sore throat for 3 days now, so I know it won't be cured immediately, but it's doing a great job of making me feel a little better, and not just temporarily.

I visited earthclinic.com for the first time yesterday looking for more info about oil pulling-I have major gum issues. I tried e.v. Olive oil this morning b/c I read that sesame & sunflower can leave you with a sore throat and I didn't want to aggravate the one I already had. So I did a tablespoon of EVOO & swished for 10 minutes... and, remarkably, my sore throat was gone! Incredible! I hope it helps my gums too.

The orange juice worked great! I used a straw, and drank about 1/3 cup mixed well with about 1/8 tsp of cayenne. I put the straw onto the middle of my tongue, and bypassed the tip. I barely had even a hot aftertaste. Within 5 minutes, my nose started running, and 10 minutes later, I can swallow w/o pain! Thanks so much!

Thank You Kaylee from Philadelphia! I have been looking for this mixture. My great -aunt gave this to me once when I was a kid and it worked fabulous, so much so I remember it to this day-I just couldn't remember the correct proportions. I am now 47- this works great!

What I do, is I take a cup of boiling hot water let it cool a little, but while it is cooling I take a little slice of lemon and squeeze some juice out of it. Then stir in raw honey, after my tea is to my "darkness" of choosing I sit outside on cool fall nights and drink my tea slowly. And you **might** be thinking "But doesn't the cold make your cold worse?" Actually it helps me because I absolutely see no help in being stuck in the air that has been polluted by my sickness.

Im trying this vaporrub... See if it works. Yesterday I had a bad headache. Hope it works. God blessing :)

after 2 days of sore throat, I tried a Jack Daniels, honey and Lemon juice gargle, but it didn't really work well for me (probably because I couldn't stand it long enough to gargle) then tried mouthwash about an hour later and that didn't help at all. After coming to this site I tried hotsauce and lemon juice I meant to gargle but swallowed accidently. For about 30 seconds I was in the most god awful pain ever, then I hacked up a chunk of phlegm the size of a quarter that looked like it had a tiny bit of blood it it. I was worried, but I coughed up a smaller bit that didn't have any, and hadn't seen blood since, so I think it was just from violent coughing.

Long story short, this is one of those things that hurts like hell when you first take it, but after that initial "Oh god someone kill me" reaction you start to feel much better very fast.

I've been building my own house for several years and have been "burning the candle on both ends" for too long. I'm on the edge of exhaustion much of the time and have become susceptable to sore throats. I learned that if I keep a keen sense on how my throat is feeling, I can stop a developing sore throat by taking a 50mg zinc tablet, chew it a bit to break it up (or you crush it between two spoons), take a sip of water and gargle it well to coat the entire throat and swallow it. Kills the virus in the throat every time. The only time it doesn't work on the first dose is when I don't pay attention to the discomfort and wait a day or two. Then it takes two or three applications (over a day) for a day or two to kill the virus in the throat. The longer you wait to apply the zinc after first feeling the throat getting sore, the more doses it will take. This works folks! I RARELY ever have an oncoming sore throat develop into anything worse anymore. The zinc kills the virus it in its tracks. Absolute truth.