Seasonal Allergy Medicine You Can Take When You’re Pregnant
Sore Throat Remedies That Work (and What Not To Do)
Natural remedies, including honey, salt water, and herbs, may help manage sore throat symptoms. But if it doesn't improve, you may need medical care or over-the-counter (OTC) medications.
A sore throat typically causes pain, itchiness, or irritation. The pain may get worse when you swallow, making it difficult to consume foods and liquids.
Even if a sore throat isn't serious enough for a trip to the doctor, it's still painful and may prevent you from getting a good night's sleep. At-home remedies can help soothe pain and irritation.
Generally speaking, the remedies discussed below may help ease a mild or typical sore throat. If you have a severe sore throat, particularly if it's getting worse or has lasted several days, it's a good idea to make an appointment with a doctor to discuss your symptoms.
Sore throats in infants and young children are not fun, but the good news is that they rarely signal a medical emergency on their own. Still, infants and children may require different treatments than adults.
You can try the following tips:
Several OTC treatments may help if natural remedies aren't cutting it. They include:
If you have a sore throat, exposure to certain foods or environmental factors can worsen your symptoms. While you're recovering, try to avoid the following things:
Here are some additional questions you may have regarding sore throats.
What is the cause of a sore throat?Sore throat causes can include viruses, such as those that cause colds, the flu, and COVID-19. Bacteria, specifically those that cause strep throat, can cause a sore throat too.
Allergies to substances such as pollen, mold, and pet dander are another possible cause. So are environmental irritants, such as secondhand smoke, air pollution, or chemical fumes.
Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) or a tumor in the throat can also cause a sore throat.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a viral infection is the most common cause of a sore throat.
How long does a sore throat last?The amount of time a sore throat lasts can depend on what's causing it. Many sore throats go away on their own within 1 week.
It's important to talk with a doctor if your sore throat doesn't improve after 1 week or if it worsens, despite home or OTC remedies.
How do I fight off an impending sore throat?It's not always possible to prevent an impending sore throat. However, you try resting up and limiting your exposure to things that may further irritate your throat. Also, try reducing your stress levels, as high stress can negatively affect your immune system.
Sipping on warm liquids and staying hydrated by drinking plenty of water can help too. A humidifier can also add moisture to dry air.
How do I prevent a sore throat?To prevent sore throat, you may want to avoid close contact with people with infectious illnesses such as the flu or strep throat. Washing your hands frequently may also help.
You may decide to avoid spicy or acidic foods, which can irritate the throat. Also, consider avoiding chemicals or smoke, as the fumes could cause inflammation.
Most doctors recommend calling a doctor only in cases of severe sore throat. This typically includes a sore throat with a fever or rash (or when swollen tonsils block the throat).
Trying out some of these natural remedies may help you feel better and save a trip to the doctor's office.
To feel your best, make sure you also drink lots of fluids and get plenty of rest. See a doctor if your sore throat doesn't get better or worsens, despite using home or OTC remedies.
Home Remedies For Sinus Drainage
To ease sinus discomfort, aim to drink plenty of fluids and use a humidifier to keep the air moist. You can also try nasal irrigation, chicken soup, or manuka honey — but call a doctor if your symptoms last more than 10 days.
You know the feeling. Your nose is either plugged or like a leaky faucet, and your head feels like it's in a vise. It feels better to keep your eyes closed because they're puffy and sore. And your throat feels like you swallowed nails.
Read on for six natural ways that can help drain your sinuses
Sinus problems can be uncomfortable. However, there are effective remedies, from chicken soup to compresses, that you can use to alleviate the pain and discomfort of sinus issues.
1. Water, water everywhereDrink fluids and run a humidifier or vaporizer.
Why is this important? Fluids and humidification help to thin mucus and drain your sinuses. They also lubricate your sinuses and keep your skin hydrated.
Hot beverages, like herbal tea, can be especially hydrating. Hot beverages also provide an extra benefit from the steam.
2. Nasal irrigationNasal irrigation is very effective at relieving nasal congestion and irritation.
Saline irrigation simply means gently flushing out your nasal passages with a saline solution. You can do this with special squeeze bottles, bulb syringes, or a neti pot.
A neti pot is an inexpensive apparatus that looks like Aladdin's lamp. The saline mixture is available prepackaged. You can also make your own by following these steps:
To capture the liquid, you will want to irrigate your sinuses while standing over a sink or basin. Pour, spray, or squirt a liberal amount of the solution into one nostril while tilting your head so it flows out the other nostril. Do this with each nostril. It also flushes away bacteria and irritants.
Be sure to thoroughly clean your neti pot after each use, as bacteria can build up inside. In addition, never use straight tap water as this may contain bacteria that can infect your sinuses. If you do use tap water, be sure to boil it beforehand.
3. SteamSteam helps relieve congestion by loosening mucus.
Give yourself a steam treatment using a bowl of hot water and a large towel. Add menthol, camphor, or eucalyptus oils to the water if you like.
Place the towel over your head so it falls along the sides of the bowl, trapping the steam inside. Most people do this until the steam dissipates. The steam from a hot shower can also work but is a less concentrated experience.
4. Chicken soupOne older 2000 study found that chicken soup reduces inflammation associated with sinus congestion and colds.
So what's the secret? Scientists haven't identified the active ingredient in chicken soup, but they speculate that the steam combined with the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of the soup's ingredients are what help clear the sinuses.
5. Warm and cold compressesRotating warm and cold compresses on your sinuses should also help.
You can repeat this process two to six times each day.
6. Manuka honeyHoney may be a good alternative when a bacterial infection is causing your sinus congestion.
Some research suggests that honey has antibacterial properties. Manuka honey, in particular, has many therapeutic uses.
Try adding manuka honey to a cup of warm herbal tea.
Your sinus trouble can be caused by a number of things, including sinusitis and rhinitis.
Sinusitis is an infection that causes inflammation and swelling of your sinuses. It is most commonly caused by a viral infection but can also be caused by a bacterial or fungal infection, as well as by an environmental allergy.
If you have allergic rhinitis, your immune system triggers the release of histamines that irritate your nasal membranes. This leads to congestion and sneezing. Allergic rhinitis can lead to sinusitis.
Chronic sinusitis is an inflammatory condition that normally lasts more than three months. Nasal polyps, which are noncancerous growths, can accompany chronic sinusitis.
What is the best position to drain your sinuses?Keeping your head elevated, especially when lying down, can help drain your sinuses naturally with gravity.
What is the best drink for sinus drainage?Other than plain water, you can try warm water with honey, tea, broth, or juice.
How do I clear my sinuses immediately?Since sinusitis is most commonly an infection, you'll probably need to either wait for the virus to clear your system or take antibiotics for a bacterial infection. Your allergy medicines can help with chronic sinusitis, but see your doctor to make sure you're on the best treatment course. That said, you can get some temporary, immediate relief by rinsing your sinuses with saline with a saline spray or a neti pot.
According to the AAO-HNS, around 30 million Americans have at least one bout of sinusitis each year. But these easy home remedies can help relieve your symptoms and ease your breathing.
'Proof' That Homeopathy Doesn't Work
by PAT HAGAN, Evening Standard
Homeopathy is more popular than ever. But now an extraordinary scientific experiment claims to prove what cynics have said all along - that homeopathy simply does not work.
The unprecedented test is set to ignite fierce debate over whether millions of people are wasting their money on a medicine that's all in the mind.
James Randi, the American magician and escape artist, feels so strongly that people are being conned by homeopathy that he has offered $1 million to whoever can prove that the therapy works.
Randi, an arch-sceptic, devotes his life to investigating and demystifying pseudoscientific claims - including spoon-bending and spiritualism - and has been involved in the homeopathy debate for many years.
He says, "I am just interested in discovering the truth."
His challenge, untested for many years, has finally been taken up by BBC2's Horizon documentary makers.
In a series of experiments carried out by some of the country's leading medical experts and scrutinised by officials from the Royal Society, they set out to test one of the founding principles of homeopathy.
Homeopaths believe that like should be treated with like. So, for example, to treat a cold they use a remedy based on onions, because onions produce the streaming eyes and nose typical of a cold.
But the controversial part of the theory is the principle that the more you dilute a remedy with water, the more effective it becomes.
A single drop of the remedy is diluted so many times that it is the equivalent concentration of much less than one drop of the original remedy in all of the oceans on Earth.
This is where the conflict with mainstream science really resides. Homeopaths insist their remedies have healing powers; scientists say there's not a single molecule of the original chemical in the solutions homeopaths use.
One popular theory for why homeopathy sometimes appears to work is the so-called placebo effect. In conventional drug trials as many as 40 per cent of patients who are given a placebo improve because they believe that the medicine they are taking will make them better, even if it is just a sugar-coated pill.
Homeopaths insist that their treatments have been used with great success on children and babies - who are too young to have developed a placebo response.
Another aspect of the treatmentis that patients often get a lengthy, detailed consultation, in sharp contrast to the rushed seven minutes you usually get with a GP. Sceptics believe this relieves patients' stress and makes them feel better.
But there is a huge amount of anecdotal evidence that says it does work. Louise Hamilton a 29-year-old human resources officer from Clapham, has endometriosis. She has endured 15 years of crippling pain and has had three operations and hormone treatment to alleviate her suffering without success. Eventually the pain got so bad she could not walk.
She says, "All I could do was lie on my left side - I could only work for three hours a day."
For the past 18 months she has had homeopathic treatment and is now free of pain. "I'm convinced it works. I suffered for 15 years and now I feel so good I've not had to see my homeopath since last May."
Professor Madeleine Ennis, an expert in pharmacology at Queen's University Belfast, became embroiled in the homeopathy debate after she performed a laboratory test where histamine - a natural hormone - was diluted to homeopathic levels and the solution added to a blood cell to see if it "activated" the corpuscle in the way histamine normally would.
The results were mystifying. The diluted solution could not have had a single molecule of histamine in it, yet it still had an effect on the cells. Professor Ennis repeated the test and got the same result.
She stands by her method, but cannot explain why it worked. The Horizon scientists repeated Professor Ennis's experiments under strictly controlled conditions. For homeopaths, it was a crushing defeat.
The experiment revealed that homeopathy has no physiological effect on the body. James Randi got to keep his $1 million and the hundreds of thousands of people who rely on homeopathic remedies will be left wondering if it's they who are out of pocket.
The Society of Homeopaths, which boasts around 2,000 members, insists the Horizon experiment is not the end of the story.
"Our results come from treating human beings and animals," says the society's director of politics Melanie Oxley.
"There have even been experiments involving plant cells which showed an effect. We need to invest more in homeopathy research because we do see an effect on living systems."
Homeopathy: The Test is on BBC2 on 28 November at 9pm.
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