When you wake up with a tickle in the back of your throat, you might be in for a few days of battling an illness. But depending on the cause, you can soothe your sore throat with the right management techniques.
As the seasons change and environmental factors begin to take a toll on our bodies, it’s not uncommon to experience a scratchy throat, runny nose, or cough. Often, these uncomfortable and tiring symptoms interrupt your day and make it harder to work, run errands, or even enjoy time off.
Managing a sore throat through natural remedies is possible, but seeking medical attention when necessary can effectively reduce your symptoms.
The experts at Wellnest MD offer sore throat remedies in Sandy Springs for clients who experience allergies, colds, flu, and strep throat. With advanced testing and personalized care plans, we can determine the source of your sore throat and help you control it.
Keep reading this guide for our tips on managing a sore throat and your options for feeling better.
What Causes a Sore Throat?
A sore throat (pharyngitis) begins when the tissue lining of your throat becomes inflamed. More often than not, this inflammation occurs due to a viral infection, such as the common cold or the flu.
Infections That Cause a Sore Throat
Some infections that cause a sore throat include:
- COVID-19: The coronavirus disease 2019 comes from the SARS-CoV-2 virus and causes respiratory symptoms that are similar to a cold or the flu.
- Influenza (flu): The flu is a viral infection that can affect the throat, usually accompanied by a runny nose, fever, and muscle aches.
- Tonsillitis: The inflammation and irritation of your tonsils, often from a virus.
- Group A Streptococcus: Also known as strep throat, this bacterial infection causes painful inflammation of your tonsils and lymph nodes.
Less Common Causes of a Sore Throat
While viruses and bacteria usually cause a sore throat, other less common factors can influence scratchiness and inflammation in the throat.
You might experience a sore throat due to:
- Allergies from pollen, dust, mold, or pets.
- Overuse from excessive talking or yelling.
- Dryness from sleeping with your mouth open.
- Acid reflux causes stomach acid to flow upward and might cause a burning sensation.
- Irritants, like smoke, spicy foods, or very hot liquids.
Why The Cause Matters for Treatment
A sore throat can happen for many reasons, so figuring out whether you need a few days of rest or if you need treatment for an infection can be difficult on your own.
Our experts at Wellnest MD help patients feel better from illnesses like the common cold, flu, and COVID, reducing their sore throats.
At-Home Care for a Sore Throat
When you are seeking sore throat remedies in Sandy Springs, our team at Wellnest MD is happy to offer our guidance. For individuals who experience scratchiness or raspiness in the throat, we recommend a few at-home solutions to help manage their symptoms.
Drink Warm or Cold Fluids
When they are sick, many people reach for a cup of warm tea or a glass of cold water. Drinking warm or cold fluids helps keep your body hydrated and the throat moist.
Warm fluids like tea, water, or broth help clear mucus, reduce coughing, and soothe your throat. Cold fluids like iced tea, water, or even sucking on ice chips help control pain and inflammation.
We recommend drinking whichever fluid provides you the most relief over the next few days to soothe pain and keep your throat hydrated.
Avoid Caffeine and Alcohol
When trying to soothe the throat with fluids, stay away from caffeinated teas, coffees, sodas, and alcoholic beverages.
These drinks have the potential to dry out the throat due to their dehydrating effects. Caffeine and alcohol are diuretics, meaning they reduce hormone production in the kidneys and result in fluid loss and a lack of saliva.
Eat or Drink Honey
With a long history of medical use, honey makes a great sore throat remedy. Honey has properties that are:
- Antibacterial
- Antiviral
- Antioxidant
- Anti-inflammatory
Our team recommends adding honey to hot tea, water, or taking a spoonful of it by mouth for sore throat remedies. In Sandy Springs, you might find both pasteurized honey and raw honey on the supermarket shelves.
Researchers believe the process of pasteurization destroys many beneficial nutrients, so opt for raw honey, which is straight from the honeycomb, where all of the properties remain.
Avoid Giving Honey to Children Under 1
If your child under 1 experiences a sore throat, do not give them honey. Babies who consume honey before they turn 1 can get infant botulism, a dangerous illness caused by bacteria in the digestive system.
If your baby has a sore throat, speak with our team to discuss possible remedies safe for infants.
Use Over-the-Counter Pain Relievers
If your throat pain worsens, you should take over-the-counter pain relievers like acetaminophen (Tylenol), ibuprofen (Advil, Aleve, Motrin, and others), or aspirin. Each of these medications works to relieve pain and can even reduce the fever associated with a sore throat.
Avoid Aspirin for Children
Aspirin can help adults manage throat pain, but avoid giving aspirin to children under 3 or to children recovering from flu-like symptoms. A rare, life-threatening condition called Reye’s syndrome can affect children who take aspirin.
What to Do if Your Sore Throat Gets Worse
If your sore throat worsens, you have trouble breathing or swallowing, have a fever, or pain that spreads to your neck and ears, visit us for advanced sore throat remedies in Sandy Springs. Our experts diagnose your condition and provide medications and services for relief.
Sore Throat Remedies at Wellnest MD
Usually, a sore throat heals with at-home care in less than a week, but if it worsens, our providers need to run diagnostic testing to confirm the source of your throat pain. At our wellness center, we offer tests for COVID-19, strep, and flu to figure out if your infection has a bacterial or viral source.
In addition to advanced testing, we have various IV therapies for patients who need an immunity boost, including powerful science-backed vitamins. We also use medication to help patients battle illness and treat their sore throats.
Vitamin Packed IV Infusions
Infusion and injection therapy at Wellnest MD provide patients with vitamins and nutrients to boost immunity and fight off illnesses, providing sore throat remedies in Sandy Springs. Our specialists can customize infusions to target your specific symptoms, whether from the flu, a cold, or allergies.
Specifically with IV therapy, the vitamins and nutrients bypass your digestive system for effective absorption. Unlike capsules or foods that get digested, these ingredients enter the bloodstream immediately through a catheter in a vein (intravenously).
Vitamins offer additional antibacterial, antiviral, and anti-inflammatory properties that help reduce discomfort from illness. We have a selection of curated infusions, or we can create custom infusions to target each symptom.
Let’s take a look at some of the vitamins we recommend for infusion services when battling an illness and a sore throat.
Vitamin C
As a powerful antioxidant, vitamin C helps strengthen your body’s immune defense, heal wounds, and contribute to vital protein formation. When we are sick and experiencing sore throats, taking vitamin C via IV therapy can reduce symptoms and provide strengthened immunity.
Vitamin B Complex
Vitamin B complex, a powerhouse made of 8 different B vitamins, helps the body function properly and cells remain healthy. Specifically, vitamin B12 supports immune responses to viral infections. With a B complex infusion, patients more efficiently fight off colds, the flu, or other viruses.
Vitamin D IM Injection
At our wellness center, we use vitamin D intramuscular injections to help patients fight off sickness and reduce the sensation of a sore throat. Vitamin D enhances your cells’ immunity and provides anti-inflammatory properties to the body.
Regular multivitamin IM injections that include vitamin D help keep away illness and strengthen your immune system.
Related Topic: Discover Our Flu Prevention Tips
Prescription Medication
If our providers evaluate you with a flu, COVID, or strep test, we wait for the results to diagnose your illness. If any test is positive, we call in prescription medications to help you fight off the illness and provide sore throat remedies.
In Sandy Springs, our team supports you and your wellness by providing solutions and following up on the efficacy of our treatments and medications.
Get Clinical Care at Home
Evolution members at Wellnest MD get access to our at-home visits. For the days that you feel too sick to come visit our office, we can come to you to provide efficient diagnoses.
We bring our supplies and tests with us to determine the cause of your sore throat and help you recover quickly in the comfort of your own home.
Find Sore Throat Solutions at Wellnest MD
A sore throat can cause interruptions to your plans, especially if you don’t know the cause. If you experience dryness, hoarseness, and pain in your throat, speak with our providers at Wellnest MD for sore throat remedies in Sandy Springs.
Through advanced testing and health guidance, we help our patients protect themselves against illness and treat them when necessary. With our expertise, patients of all ages can stay healthy when the seasons change and life gets in the way.
Experiencing a sore throat? Book an appointment with our experts, so we can help diagnose and provide treatment options.
