Sore Throat
What is a Sore Throat?
Sometimes it begins with a funny feeling in the back of the throat. Other times it’s first noticed when it’s hard to swallow just after waking up. Sometimes it’s simply the first part of a cold that spends most of its time in the nose and lungs, or it’s a symptom that lasts for a week on its own. Regardless of the onset and what else happens alongside it, getting a sore throat is never an enjoyable experience.
A sore throat, more formally known in the Western medical world as pharyngitis, is a symptom that takes place when the throat becomes inflamed. When this inflammation occurs, the sufferer can experience dryness, scratchiness, or swelling of the throat, and it can often hurt to swallow.
Most sore throats are caused by one of the many viruses that also cause the common cold, and often this is simply a symptom of a more significant ailment. Less often, the sufferer may experience a sore throat because of a bacterial infection which leads to a more significant illness such as strep throat.
The condition typically resolves itself on its own, and usually within five or seven days of the beginning of symptoms—if not sooner. Because of the self-limiting nature of a sore throat and the lack of a remedy to resolve this type of viral infection, Western medical practitioners typically only suggest the sufferer use methods to lessen the discomfort associated with the symptoms. It is usually recommended in the West that the patient drink a lot of fluids—particularly those that are warm, gargle with salt water, suck on hard candies and throat lozenges, and use over-the-counter pain relievers like acetaminophen (Tylenol).
How Does Ayurveda View a Sore Throat?
Given its origins with inflammation and irritation of muscles and other related tissue, Ayurveda considers a sore throat to be a symptom associated with a Pitta imbalance. When looked at as one of several symptoms of a cold, certain things like a clear, mucus discharge from the nose can be associated with the excessive moisture of the Kapha element and others like a dry cough can be associated with the excessive dryness of the Vata element. If a sore throat is of particular discomfort, lengthy, and intense for a person, then that person’s constitution is likely sensitive to the heat associated with imbalances of the Pitta element.
How Does Ayurveda Treat a Sore Throat?
It is important for someone suffering from an intense sore throat to do what they can to lessen the amount of heat in their body. This can happen through a Pitta-balancing diet, taking Pitta-balancing herbs, and utilizing other remedies that cool off the throat and the body as a whole. Below are a number of remedies that help both to reduce the aggravation of the Pitta element in the body and to reduce heat in the throat more specifically.
Lifestyle Changes for a Sore Throat
When we neglect to establish the root cause of one illness, it can turn into another, stronger illness in the future. The first step in resolving a specific ailment or disease in the body is to assess the nature of our lifestyle and make general modifications. Living our day-to-day life with a deliberate intention to improve our health will help us to both resolve the disease we are suffering from and prevent further incidence of it and other diseases in the future. The following actions can be taken to help resolve symptoms of a sore throat:
- Eat foods with sweet and cold qualities.
- Take hot water and honey with peppermint or lemon juice.
- Add a pinch of turmeric and pepper to honey and keep in the mouth for a few minutes. This mixture can also be gargled.
- Gargle salt water with a pinch of pepper and turmeric.
- Gargle and ingest some aloe vera gel with a pinch of turmeric.
- If the body is strong, take 2 teaspoons of castor oil in a cup of boiled water, or adjust the amount to be more or less as needed. This is a good purgation to relieve excess heat from the system.
- Avoid rapid movements and aggressive exercise.
- Avoid speaking too much and emotionally investing in too many conflicts.
- Avoid the hot sun and letting it shine directly on the head and body.
- Breathe as much as possible through the nose.
- Avoid eating dry, coarse, and roughly textured foods.
- Favor more liquidized foods.
- Favor warmer food.
- Keep a stick of licorice root in the mouth from time to time throughout the day until it has become soft.
Better Foods For a Sore Throat
Ayurveda teaches us that disease and sickness are derived from poor digestion and inappropriate food choices. We then have the opportunity to make deliberate and more conscious decisions as to what foods we do and do not put in our body which increases the chance of resolving the body’s imbalance.
Food needs to be in season, in moderate combinations of one or two food groups, not too hot or cold, in a modest enough quantity to allow for room in the stomach later, consumed without too much liquid which hinders digestive power, and should be fresh and not left over for more than a few hours. The general intention of responding to a sore throat with food is to eat items that help to reduce the heat in the body that is intensifying the sore throat.
Apples
Oats (cooked)
Ghee
Milk
Pears
Mangoes
Pomegranates
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Brussels Sprouts
Asparagus
Olive oil
Barley
Rice (white basmati)
Coconut oil
Foods To AVOID In Response To a Sore Throat
While some foods can help to balance an aggravated dosha, other foods can cause further imbalance. Dry and cold foods as well as pungent, bitter and astringent tastes will dry out the body and aggravate the Vata dosha. Sour, salty and pungent tastes as well as spicy foods will add more heat to the body and aggravate the Pitta dosha. Sweet, sour and salty tasting foods will add heaviness to the body and aggravate the Kapha dosha. The following foods should be avoided in response to a sore throat:
Grapefruit
Bananas
Cherries
Pineapple
Garlic
Carrots
Spinach
Tomatoes
Corn
Rice (brown)
Nuts
Lentils
Corn oil
Almond oil
Spicy foods
Salt
Meat
Sour foods (like yogurt, sour cream, and pickles)
Beverages For a Sore Throat
Generally, Ayurveda discourages the consumption of too many cold beverages, as doing so hinders the strength of the body’s digestive fire. Instead, favors room temperature or hot beverages to encourage the strength of the digestive fire.
- Hot water, especially during meals and first thing in the morning
- Hot water and honey with peppermint or lemon juice, as noted above.
- Hot water with licorice, fresh ginger, dry ginger, and sandalwood (white). This can be mixed with raw honey and cane sugar.
- Avoid cold and frozen drinks
- Avoid sugary or fizzy drinks that blend with the digestive juice and make it weak.
- Avoid alcohol, coffee, and black tea.
Herbs For a Sore Throat
Herbs are used in the Ayurvedic system much like Western medicine utilizes drugs and vitamins and can be taken like tea 2 to 3 times a day. Herbs aid in the digestion of food, the breakdown and elimination of toxins, and help to strengthen the cellular structure of our system for greater vitality. Herbs become more potent once mixed with other herbs of similar properties. Mix together 2 to 4 different herbs from the below list by adding a quarter to a half teaspoon full of each, for a total of 1 teaspoon. Drink these in half cup of hot water.
Licorice
Fresh ginger
Dry ginger
Sandalwood (white)
Musta
Lotus seeds
Gokshura
Pippali
Aloe vera with a pinch of turmeric
Yoga Postures For a Sore Throat
When applied therapeutically to specific ailments, yoga postures provide an opportunity to strengthen the body, rid it of toxic matter, and restore balance. The postures included in this section can be practiced as part of a more general sequence or can be focused on in short sessions. When first exploring yoga postures, it is best to only practice them for twenty minutes or so per day and buildup from there once the body becomes more flexible.
Knee to chest
Bridge
Shoulder Stand
Fish
Hero
Corpse
Aromatherapy For a Sore Throat
Aromatherapy utilizes the fragrances of essential oils when applied to the skin. Essential oils can burn the skin and therefore must be diluted with a base oil such as sesame, coconut, sunflower, canola, or mustard oil. Mix 1 fluid ounce of base oil with about 12 drops of essential oil before applying to skin. You can also just mix 5 drops of base oil to one drop of essential oil if using on one spot.
A sore throat can be treated with sandalwood, tea tree, rose, honeysuckle, gardenia, lily, iris, mint, or lavender oil.
- Use a coconut or sunflower oil base.
- Apply oil in the chest center in front of the heart.
Mantra Therapy For a Sore Throat
Ayurvedic tradition suggests that repeating certain words or sounds can help a person suffering from an ailment to restore subtle balance to nerve tissue and enhance one’s mental clarity. Different sounds are prescribed to either repeat mentally or chant outwardly. These sounds are also used and repeated in the mind for the purpose of spiritual growth.
For a sore throat, repeat the syllable “Aum” (pronounced ohm) for several minutes a few times a day and build more practice over time.
Given the strain on the throat, it is helpful to inwardly repeat this syllable for the duration of time it is practiced.
Breathing Practices For a Sore Throat
Controlling the breath is a central practice toward developing peace and stillness in the mind and body. When the breath is under our control, we are no longer at the mercy of the senses that are stimulated by everything and lead to greater fluctuations of the mind. When applied to the context of resolving specific ailments, the breath is used as a tool for developing lung capacity, heating and cooling the body and resolving mental afflictions like anxiety and stress.