This strep throat remedy sounds crazy, but the author actually used it to cure (diagnosed!) strep throat while pregnant and wanting to avoid antibiotics. It worked incredibly well!!
When I was pregnant with my daughter, I got strep throat.
It was awful. If you’ve ever had strep, you know the horrid knives-in-your-throat feeling I’m referring to. Ugh. I shudder just to think about it again.
I do my best to avoid antibiotics quite stringently. Being pregnant, that desire was especially strong. However, strep is a bacterial infection. Many people believe that bacterial infections will only respond to pharmaceutical antibiotics. From personal experience, I’m gonna have to disagree. Here’s how it went down…
It was a holiday weekend. In Tiny Town. The doctor saw me late Friday afternoon and took a swab to send to the lab for testing. He gave me a prescription just in case, though, because I wouldn’t be able to get the results until Tuesday, when they opened again.
I went home without filling the prescription. I told myself I would get it if I was feeling desperate, but I’d try googling for ideas first. I found tons of sore throat remedy ideas online. Most involved things like lemon and honey, etc.
One of the suggestions involved a crazy ingredient: cayenne pepper. I decided to make my own concoction, and give it a whirl. I developed this recipe that day, and have tweaked and perfected it in the couple of sore throats I’ve had since that time.
So, does it work?
Well, I gargled every 15 minutes for about 2 hours that evening. There was noticeable improvement after the first couple of times. I could swallow without tears coming to my eyes. Then, I felt about 75% healed by the next morning, and I felt no more pain at all 24 hours later. By the end of the weekend, I was back to normal, and just taking it a bit easy to allow my body to catch up.
The throat swab came back from the lab on Tuesday. It was a confirmed case of strep throat. And I healed it using the craziest cayenne pepper concoction ever! Natural remedies for the win!
(By the way, if you have a more minor sore throat – i.e. not strep – I’d advise trying gargling with good ol’ salt and water. Sometimes that does the trick just fine!)
Ingredients
- 1 cup Strongly brewed lemon herbal tea Other types of herbal teas may work too
- 1 tablespoon Apple cider vinegar I use Bragg's raw apple cider
- 1 tablespoon Raw honey
- ¼ teaspoon Cayenne pepper Add more if you can - as much as you can stand
Instructions
- Brew tea, then mix everything else in. Stir well.
- Gargle with small sips of the tea. Get it as far back in your throat as you can and keep gargling as long as you can stand it. Spit it out, and repeat every 15-30 minutes for several hours. You should feel the burn of the cayenne (within reason!).
Nutrition
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor or medical professional, and this post should not be taken as medical advice. Please do your own research. Material on this blog is provided for informational purposes only. It is general information that may not apply to you as an individual, and is not a substitute for your own doctor’s medical care or advice.
Anthony Petredis
Hi, my son was suffering from strep. We would put him on antibiotics, but the disease would come back. After two doses of antibiotics and return of the disease, I gave him a gargle of salt, apple cider vinegar, and honey.
We had him gargle and swish starting after breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The second day his fever went away. And after the 5 days, he is currently fever free and no issues.
Next time, we will also try the pepper. I know that strep bacteria produce a microfilm that protects it. Hence, its return after stopping the antibiotics. You need something with a strong ph and simultaneously strips the microfilm away to get to it.
Dani
I am allergic to most antibiotics and have been suffering with strep for a week. Nothing was helping. I did this every 15 minutes for two hours yesterday and today, and I swear, the strep is going away! I’ll have to go in for a swab to make sure, but this is the only thing that has worked for me with strep EVER! Thank you so much!!
Kate Manson
So happy to have come across this recipe as I’m 12 weeks pregnant and looking to avoid antibiotics ! Just brewed it up all ! Keep ya posted !
Sam
I’ve tried a lot of natural remedy combos out there, but this one was the most successful for me! It’s potent but it gets the job done, which I was so grateful for (did I mention my tonsils are huge?!). It is a wonderful addition to supporting my body, along with rest + hydration + nutrient-dense diet. Thank you for sharing!
Shauna
Oh boy, thank you so so much for posting this! I’m going to the health store now to get it all!
Sparrow
Thank you for sharing, it Gave me immediate relief. Highly recommend if you have strep & don’t want to take antibiotics. I did add a bag of ginger and turmeric tea and a squeeze of lemon to it. Had no issues with staining my sink, just rinsed it immediately after spitting it out. It really is that simple.
selena
simply take three tea bags /per cup/brewed/let cool till SURE no risk of injury and gargle w/it–and yeah your sink will get stained,it’s not blood so be prepared for both–it certainly does work fine.
regarding garlic ? dice it fine,put it in a small glass jar- enough lemon juice to cover it and then some–simply take a teaspoon 3-4 times a day followed by a glass of water–a natural antibiotic,cuts through phlegm etc and of course you will expectorate/cough more–that’s what u want– to get rid of it along w/killing the cause-WORKS.
Jenn
I figured it couldn’t hurt. Gargled and ugh it was terrible, and I must have put a lot of pepper in because my mouth was hot. But about 5 min later my sore throat felt so much better, like 50%, I’ve gargled 4x and already feel better. Wow thank you! I have been unable to sleep for 3 nights because my throat has hurt so bad and this is game changer
Sara
I made ginger tea and steeped it for 10 minutes. Then added raw honey and hot sauce as I had no pepper on hand. I am hoping this works or I’m going to have to open up the hotter ones and I do NOT look forward to that. I will take cayenne burn to throat and ear knives any day.
Linda Voogt
VOILA! I hate using antibiotics, but I succumbed in mid-December. I was out of state, suddenly became violently ill with bronchitis and sinusitis, bedridden and found myself at the mercy of using a prescription. It worked mostly. I reached about 90% energy level, still coughing. Then it hit me again. I went ahead with a second round of antibiotics (5 days). About half-way though that one, I discovered that I had acquired a new infection….strep throat! I haven’t had that in 47 years (since my tonsils were taken out). I knew then that I absolutely had to find a natural way out of this dilemma. That kind of search is difficult when not feeling well. By this time I had been very sick for 7 weeks. I was so glad to have found this recipe within a few minutes of internet searching. I started using it immediately, every 15 minutes the first day, every 30 minutes the second and third days. I ALSO ADDED A CLOVE OF RAW GARLIC EACH HOUR–chew and swallow with water. YES! The fourth day I actually felt normal again! Infections all gone. I added colloidal silver to the gargle mix on the 3rd day, and I added ionic zinc to a mixture of Emergen-C (twice daily). I also added 6x/day probiotics (80billion strains), 6 capsules of zinc and 6 of zinc. Flooding my body with all naturals. And the last added precaution is that I ordered homeopathic pellets (lac caninum) for strepthroat, which I am still taking. Thank you so much!