So you have a sore throat that is just killing you, but you don't really want to come and
see me.
I don't blame you, Nobody loves going to the doctor.
So to help with that, In this video I'm going to teach YOU, how to treat that sore throat
quickly and easily at home.
Welcome to Family Med, your medical home for practical and accurate information to help
your family make healthy decisions.
If you are new here, let me introduce myself.
I'm Doctor Erik Richardson, my passion is helping you cut through all the health information
clutter on the internet and giving you the knowledge you need to live a healthier life.
Today we are going to address a topic that is one of the most common reasons that I see
people in the office.
It's a sore throat and it affects everybody.
In fact, there are millions of visits in the United States each year for this very reason,
and in all reality most of those visits are unnecessary.
To learn about when it is most important to go to the doctor for your sore throat make
sure you click right here where I teach you when you should go to the doctor and when
its ok to say home.
For the purpose of this video though we are going to assume that you don't have any concerning
causes of your sore throat and that it is safe for you to treat it at home.
It's important to remember that the majority of sore throats are caused by a virus that
we just don't have a cure for.
So going to the doctor to get an antibiotic is not only useless, it also puts all of us
in danger of making bacteria resistant to the medications we have to treat them.
So when we talk about approaches to treating a sore throat there are 3 general categories
that we are going to focus on.
This is going to be Oral medications, Topical treatments and what we call Environmental
treatments.
The great thing about these three areas is that when we use several of them at the same
time they can do well in controlling your symptoms.
So what kind of oral medications are helpful?
Well, the most common ones that I recommend trying at home are ibuprofen and acetaminophen
or Tylenol.
These tend to be the most effective in helping control sore throat pain.
I have found that following the manufacturers dosing instructions and using them throughout
the course of your illness can really help.
Verify with your doctor on whether this is safe for you but to my patients I've found
that alternating the appropriate dose of Tylenol and ibuprofen every 3 hours can really provide
a lot of relief.
This probably provides the best and most lasting relief however it can take up to an hour to
start to get some relief.
That is where the topical therapies help and should be the next thing you can try.
There are a lot of different topical therapies that can help quite a bit, they tend to be
quicker acting but they don't tend to last as long that's why using it with some oral
medications can get you some better control of your pain.
These are going to be your throat lozenges or sprays.
When you are looking for a lozenge the most common active ingredients are menthol, dyclonine,
benzocaine, or hexylresorcinol.
They all act as local anesthetics to numb your throat.
When looking for sprays, the most common ingredients that are out there are phenol or benzocaine.
These also provide a way to temporarily numb the throat.
These can be most helpful when you need some relief right away such as right before eating
or drinking.
Let me pass on a caution though.
There is a rare reaction that can happen from medicines that have benzocaine.
It can cause a rare but a serious and even sometimes fatal reaction called methemoglobinemia.
This is a condition where the medicine prevents oxygen from being utilized properly in the
blood.
Since we are just using this to treat sore throat symptoms, I typically recommend avoiding
the benzocaine products.
So these are the main medications that are available over the counter that you can use
to help control the pain related to a sore throat.
But you don't have to just rely on medications to help you get some relief.
There are plenty of things you can do naturally that can provide some relief.
For example: I recommend that you get plenty of Rest.
Get lots of sleep and avoid talking.
Remember to drink lots of fluids.
This will keep your throat moist and prevent you from becoming dehydrated.
Focus on warm or cool foods and drink.Eating broth or drinking warm water with honey or
eating cold treats such as a popsicle can be quite soothing.
Gargle with saltwater.
Take 1/2 teaspoon of salt in a cup of warm water and gargle for 20-30 seconds.
The salt helps shrink the swelling in the throat and can provide some relief.
Get a cool mist humidifier.
Dry air can cause a lot of irritation and keeping it nice and humid will help.
Make sure though, that the humidifier blows cool air and clean it on a regular basis.
And Finally avoid irritants like cigarette smoke that can make it worse.
Employing all of these ideas that we talked about today can make a big difference in helping
you get through this miserable illness.
As with any condition though its important to understand that if these symptoms are going
on for several days and not improving or getting worse, or your treatments are not helping
then go in and get seen by your doctor to make sure that there isn't something more
significant going on.
If you haven't seen it already make sure you click here to learn about when you should
go seek care for your sore throat and how to know if it is more likely to be strep.
If you have a cold with your sore throat Click here to learn about ways that you can treat
your cold symptoms at home.
So until next time this is FamilyMed with Dr Richardson.
And remember don't forget to take care of your body because it's the only one you have.