How can i get rid of strep throat without antibiotics

How Do I Get Rid of a Sore Throat Quickly?

Sore throats (pharyngitis) are among the most common health ailments, especially during the winter. They are typically caused by infections like the common cold, flu and strep throat. While they can be quite painful, they often go away within a week.

Can’t make it a week? Find relief for your sore throat now with these helpful at-home remedies.

1. Gargling with Salt Water

While salt water may not provide you with immediate relief, it is still an effective remedy for killing bacteria while loosening mucus and easing pain. Simply mix half a teaspoon of salt into 8 ounces of warm water and gargle away.

2. Honey For a Sore Throat

“Honey is one of the best remedies for a sore throat due to its natural antibacterial properties that allow it to act as a wound healer, immediately offering relief for pain while working to reduce inflammation. Honey can also kill bacteria and help fight off viral infections,” explains Charlotte Smith, MD, physician at Penn Medicine Urgent Care South Philadelphia.

If you’re suffering from a bad cough in addition to your sore throat, honey may also act as an effective cough suppressant. Mix two tablespoons of honey in with a warm glass of water or tea and stir it well. Drink several times a day as needed.

It's important to note that honey should not be given to infants under the age of one. 

3. Lemon to Boost The Immune System

Similar to salt water and honey, lemons are great for sore throats because they can help break up mucus and provide pain relief. What’s more, lemons are packed with vitamin C which can help to boost the immune system and give it more power to fight off your infection. Mix one teaspoon of lemon juice into a glass of warm water and drink for quick relief.

4. Hot Sauce for Quick Pain Relief

It may sound strange to use hot sauce to relieve a fiery throat, but this condiment has actually been proven to provide relief for sore throats. Hot sauce is made from peppers that are high in capsaicin, which can be used to fight inflammation and provide pain relief. So, while it may burn at first, dropping a few drops of hot sauce into a warm glass of water to gargle may just be the right remedy to cure your sore throat.

5. Best Type of Tea for a Sore Throat

There are many different kinds of herbal teas you can try for quick sore throat relief. Clove tea and green tea both contain antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties to fight against infections while providing relief. Raspberry, chamomile, and peppermint tea are great choices for relieving pain and reducing inflammation. Chamomile tea can also serve as a natural lubricant, so if your voice is hoarse and you’re having difficulty speaking, this may be your best option. Additionally, peppermint tea can naturally numb your throat and alleviate your pain. When choosing the best tea for your sore throat, you may also want to check the caffeine content.

“When recovering from an illness, it’s important to rest. If you’re getting ready to sleep, it may be best to go with non-caffeinated tea,” recommends Dr. Smith.

6. Humidifier to Open the Sinuses

If you’ve noticed an increase in the number of sore throats you’ve had this season, then it may be time to invest in a humidifier. Dry air, especially during the harsh, cold days of winter, may be the cause of your sore throat. A humidifier will keep the air moist and open your sinuses. Add in a tablespoon or two of vapor rub or hydrogen peroxide solution to provide additional relief.

What to Avoid with a Sore Throat

While all of these remedies have been shown to ease sore throat pain, there are some items you may want to avoid.

“If you have a sore throat, I recommend avoiding any foods that may be difficult to swallow. I suggest sticking to soups and soft foods until the sore throat pain has resolved,” says Dr. Smith.

“If you’ve tried at-home remedies and they do not seem to be helping, schedule an appointment with your physician right away. You should also seek treatment from your doctor if your sore throat is accompanied by a fever, chills, difficulty swallowing, or if you are unable to drink fluids, as this could be a sign of a more serious illness.”

Exposure to too many antibiotics can lead to antibiotic resistance, a problem that causes 23,000 deaths each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Resistance is when bacterial growth can no longer be controlled or killed by an antibiotic.

“People should hope that their doctor does not prescribe an antibiotic,” says Aaron Glatt, MD, the chairman of medicine at South Nassau Communities Hospital in Hewlett, New York, and a spokesperson for the Infectious Disease Society of America. “They also shouldn’t expect a prescription every time they visit their doctor.”

Glatt says that people need to change the way they think about doctor visits. They should go to a doctor for a diagnosis and a recommendation on how to treat an illness, not to always walk away with a prescription in hand.

It’s also important to remember that antibiotics can have side effects, and patients may even have allergic reactions to them. Antibiotics can also be expensive, especially if you do not have insurance and have to pay with cash, says Dr. Glatt.

“It has to be the right person, the right time, and the right drug,” said Glatt.

“There’s a lot of overdiagnosis for strep throat that leads to overtreatment,” says Stanford Shulman, MD, one of the authors of the 2012 guidelines for strep throat diagnosis and treatment by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).

Dr. Shulman, a doctor at the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital and a professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, says there’s some confusion over the diagnosis of group A strep throat. Often, a large number of people who are carriers of the bacteria don’t need to be treated. And a sore throat doesn't automatically mean you have a strep infection.

A patient may come in with a sore throat along with cold symptoms, such as a cough, runny nose, pink eye, or a raspy or strained voice. With those symptoms, it’s more likely he or she has a viral infection, for which an antibiotic would be useless.

How to Know When Antibiotics Are Necessary

Strep throat is common in children because it’s easily spread through a sneeze, cough, or sharing food, among other ways. Watch out for these symptoms:

• A fever
• Sore throat that causes pain when swallowing
• Swollen tonsils with pus
• Absence of cough
• Swollen lymph nodes

Some children may feel nauseated, have a headache or a stomachache, or vomit. A number of children with these symptoms may have scarlet fever, a fever accompanied by a rash.

Doctors have to be selective about testing for strep throat, says Shulman. Strep throat is not diagnosed just by symptoms: There are two tests used to confirm it. The doctor or medical professional takes a throat swab, called a rapid strep test, or a throat culture. If the test comes back positive for the bacteria, then the doctor will usually prescribe an antibiotic.

But strep throat is a self-limited disease that will go away on its own, says Shulman. Antibiotics are not prescribed to treat strep itself, but to prevent serious complications, such as rheumatic fever. Also, after the initial 24 hours of taking antibiotics, people can go back to work or school because they’re not considered contagious anymore, though their symptoms may take a little longer to subside.

“Patients should actually ask if they really need to take an antibiotic,” says Waldetoft. “Over here [in Sweden] we are very concerned with antibiotic resistance and try to use narrow spectrum antibiotics whenever we can.”

Narrow spectrum antibiotics, which the authors of the review recommend for treating certain cases of strep throat, are limited in the number of bacteria targeted and will not affect as many of the normal bacteria in the body. The IDSA guidelines recommend narrow spectrum antibiotics such as penicillin. Penicillin is the treatment of choice, and strep bacteria hasn’t been found to be resistant to it. (Waldetoft shared that his research did find that penicillin isn’t effective in urinary tract infections because of bacterial resistance.) Amoxicillin is considered to be a broader spectrum antibiotic, so it will kill more bacteria than penicillin.

Right now, total elimination of antibiotics for treatment of strep throat is not an option, because there are no real replacements. But it is well worth considering alternatives, because there are other consequences of antibiotic overuse for people down the line, says Waldetoft.

In the meantime, we wait for government agencies and pharmaceutical companies to develop alternative therapeutics. The World Health Organization (WHO) has a number of programs that address antibiotic resistance. By 2023, it aims to develop new treatments through the enhancement of existing antibiotics and development of new antibiotic drugs.

If someone feels ill he or she should definitely consult a doctor. The important thing is not to expect or demand an antibiotic every time you get a sniffle — and never, ever, try to self-medicate with antibiotics.

“Antibiotics are wonderful when they are needed,” says Shulman. “We don't want to overuse them.”

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