Salty water, honey remedy for cold, sore throat!

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Salty water, honey remedy for cold, sore throat!

Written by Sade Oguntola Thursday, 05 July 2012

alt Since ancient times, home remedies have been used to treat a wide variety of illnesses. Now, with the high cost of hospital bills and prescription medications, more people are turning to alternative ways to treat many ailments, including cold, cough and sore throat.

Colds, coughs, and sore throats are common ailments which can be quite miserable. Although expensive over-the-counter remedies often have little effect on the symptoms which accompany these conditions, many natural remedies can usually provide relief.

Gargling with salty water is one of the oldest home remedies for colds and flu. This has been used for centuries as the first line of treatment for infections that come with colder weather. In a study published in The American Journal of Preventive Medicine in 2005, researchers recruited 400 volunteers and asked half of them to gargle three times a day during colds and flu season.

The gargling group got 40 per cent fewer cases of colds and flu, and even when they did, they reported easier breathing and faster recovery than those who did not gargle. Although the participants in this study gargle with a few drops of tincture of iodine rather than salt water, the idea that salt water might be a superior gargle has been confirmed by organisations such as the Mayo Clinic.

Mayo Clinic recommendation that between one and two teaspoons of table salt should be dissolved in 240 ml of warm water to give fast, temporary relief of sore throat caused by everyday upper respiratory infections.

Adding a squeeze of lemon juice to salt water and using this to gargle may also be helpful. The lemon juice contains a small amount of vitamin C. It also contains a larger amount of quercetin, a plant antioxidant that prevents the release of histamine when allergies accompany colds.

Another household remedy that can be very helpful in overcoming sore throat is mango barks. Mango bark helps to soothe a sore throat as well as other similar illnesses. You need to extract the fluid of the bark which is then ground, and applied to the throat. Ground bark can also be used to gargle by stirring 10 ml of the mixture into 125 ml of water.

In addition, garlic is also known to relieve sore throat as it is a natural antiseptic. It can be eaten as well as consumed in a tea. A United Kingdom study found that a daily garlic supplement containing allicin, a purified component of garlic considered to be the major biologically active agent produced by the plant, reduced the risk of catching a cold by more than half.

A total of 146 volunteers took part in the experiment. Half took one capsule of Allimax, an allicin-containing garlic supplement, each day, while the remaining volunteers were given a placebo.

Over a 90-day period during the winter when most colds occur, just 24 colds were recorded among those taking the supplement, compared to 65 among those taking the placebo.

The study also found that those taking the supplement who did catch a cold were more likely to make a speedier recovery than those taking the placebo and the chances of re-infection following a cold were significantly reduced.

What is more, bitter kola is often used to treat the symptoms of colds in many communities, including Cameroun.

It is particularly very effective for coughs, bronchitis, nasal congestions and to coagulate phlegm. It is also effective in alleviating sore throat. Cameroonian researchers reported in the 2002 edition of the East African Medical Journal that ginger and bitter kola extracts could be better options to some of the antibiotics commonly used for respiratory tract infections.

In the study, the researchers collected throat swabs from 333 individuals with runny nostrils, cough and/or catarrh in three localities on Cameroun. The extracts of bitter kola and ginger were then tested on Straphylococcus aureus, streptococcus pyogenes, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae.

Diseases like pneumonia, meningitis, sinusitis and chronic bronchitis have been associated with straphylococcus aureus, streptococcus pyogenes, Streptococcus pneumoniae and \haemophilus influenzae. Cough and colds most times mirror the onset of respiratory illness.

They found that the extract exhibited antibacterial activity against these respiratory tract pathogens, indicating that extracts of ginger root and bitter kola may contain compounds with therapeutic activity.

Meanwhile, ginger and bitter kolas have been used in Cameroun for such clinical conditions as bronchitis, partial impotence, cough, laryngitis etc by the local population.

Sometimes, sore throat is a sign that the immune system is weak. Taking vitamin C can help to boost the immune system. It can be done either by taking a vitamin C supplement or by supplementing the body by drinking fresh orange juice daily.

But with colds and flu, a good home remedy is honey. Honey contains naturally occurring antibacterial agents that can also help to ward off other infections that so often follow colds. It can also help children fight coughs.

Clinical testing has found that honey is just as useful as the common cough syrup ingredient, dextromethorphan, in reducing the frequency of night-time coughs, although the coughs that still occur are just as deep and productive, removing phlegm from the bronchial passages.

A study reported in the July 2010 edition of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine that honey is even better than diphenhydramine (Benadryl) in ensuring that children sleep soundly and also better than commercially available cough syrups. Honey is eaten, not gargled. As little as one teaspoon is enough for a beneficial effect.

Parents have used several brands of vapour rub for over a hundred years to ease cough and cold congestion. Despite the pungent odour, this old standby remains popular as a night-time cold treatment. It helps to decongest the nose and ensure smooth passage of the mucus produced.

Vapour rubs, containing menthol, camphor and eucalyptus oils, have been used for over a century. Meanwhile, researchers while evaluating its effectiveness for cold and cough looked at 138 children aged between two and 11.

Parents assessed their child’s symptoms the night before enrolment in the study. Each child was then randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups - the first used a well known vapour rub, the second used a petroleum jelly placebo and the third group received no treatment.

The findings of the study reported in the journal, Paediatrics, suggested that vapour rub, an old, commonly used remedy is effective at providing symptomatic relief from night-time cold symptoms with the added benefit of improving sleep for children with colds and their parents.

Moreover, guava leaf can also be used to relieve cold. Researchers in an animal study reported in the 1999 edition of the Journal of Ethnopharmacology that water extract of the plant decreased the frequency of cough but was less potent than dextromethorphan.

The researcher, which found that guava leave extracts inhibited the growth of staphylococcus aureus and beta-streptococcus group A, wrote: “These results suggest that guava leaf extract is recommended as a cough remedy.”

Bulbs of red onion, commonly called yabasi in Igbo or alubosa in Yoruba, according to a study can serve as a stimulant and expectorant. Generally antimicrobial, it’s juice is mixed with honey in the treatment of asthma, cough, cold convulsion and hypotension.

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