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More parents seem to be making an effort in recent years to limit antibiotic exposure for their children. This is due to concerns about how this may impact long term health or contribute to increased susceptibility to deadly superbugs such as C-Diff. Treating strep throat without meds remains a glaring exception to this trend.
It seems that whenever a doctor diagnoses a child or even an adult with strep throat, there is no question that they require an immediate round of antibiotics. Even those who typically avoid meds and follow a more holistic lifestyle seem to fall into this trap.Â
Strep Throat Symptoms
There is no doubt that strep throat is a serious infection. It is a bacterial infection and involves severe inflammation of the throat and tonsils. Typical signs of strep throat include:
- Sudden, severe sore throat
- Fever higher than 101°F/ 38 °C
- Pain when swallowing
- Pale colored spots on the back of a bright red throat
Some people suffering from strep throat will also get swollen lymph glands in their neck. Others experience vomiting or a red skin rash.
How Long Does Strep Throat Last?
Strep throat will only last 3 to 7 days with or without treatment. Doctors usually treat strep throat with antibiotics even though they will not make you well any faster. Strep throat contagiousness will continue for 24 hours once antibiotics are started. With no treatment, strep throat continues to be contagious until symptoms resolve.
In response to the persistent overuse of antibiotics for strep throat, the journal Canadian Family Physician states:
… symptoms caused by a bacterial sore throat [strep] fail to clear much faster when treated with antibiotics than they would if left alone.
It is certainly easier and quicker to hand out prescriptions every time than to explain and reassure. Each time we do this, however, we reinforce patients’ fears.
Do family physicians have to declare a conflict of interest in answering these questions? If we were to lower ourselves to examining the vulgar subject of money, it is certainly in our financial interest to keep many patients scared enough to rush to our offices whenever they get sore throats.
In view of the large number of antibiotics prescribed for sore throats, perhaps it is time to review whether we should be using such treatment for strep throat infections at all.
Is Strep Throat Overmedicated?
Mmmm.
Sounds like the idea of not administering antibiotics for strep throat may not be as crazy as it first sounds. Are doctors overmedicating strep throat just like they overmedicate ear infections, colds and sinus/respiratory infections?
A round of antibiotics has the potential to cause permanent damage to the gut flora. This, in turn, has a lifelong impact on overall immunity to both chronic and acute illness. Skipping those antibiotic pills altogether may prove in the long run to be the smartest approach of all.
Do You Have to Get Antibiotics for Strep Throat?
In light of the fact that every round of antibiotics potentially damages the gut in a manner than can never be 100% repaired, I think questioning the automatic use of antibiotics for every single case of strep is worth consideration. While some people clearly need meds, they are not necessary for everyone even if the suggestion may seem ludicrous at first.
The complications of strep throat are, after all, extremely serious. However, they are also rare especially for a healthy person with no autoimmune issues. Scarlet fever, inflammation of the kidney, or rheumatic fever which could permanently damage the heart are all remote possibilities.
I dated a guy in high school who was deaf in one ear from Scarlet fever (who is ironically now a MD). I am in no way kidding myself about how serious complications from strep throat can be by questioning whether antibiotics are truly needed for this type of infection.
My Experience with Untreated Strep Throat
My serious doubts about the wisdom of using antibiotics for strep throat go back to my one and only experience with this infection the summer I turned 15.  Strep was by far the worst sore throat I’ve ever had and the pain when I swallowed was almost unbearable to endure.
My Father, a Family Physician, made the decision not to put me on any antibiotics and let me ride it out under my own power. My Dad wasn’t into herbs or anything so I didn’t have any alternative treatments administered either.
The infection lasted over a week … my memory remembers a full two weeks but it might have been a few days shy of that.
I lost several pounds during that illness as I could only endure swallowing liquids the entire time. I pretty much subsisted on vanilla milkshakes from the ice cream shop down the road for the duration of that awful infection and I still got well under my own power with no complications.
The interesting thing is that I seem to have developed an immunity to strep ever since. I’ve never had strep throat ever again in 35+ years. This is despite repeated exposures at close range. During college, I even had a roommate with strep and didn’t get sick. This despite eating pretty rotten cafeteria food and lots of sugary foods. This no doubt suppressed my immune function considerably.
Is it possible that allowing the body to fight off strep throat naturally on its own confers partial or total immunity?
I’ve often considered this possibility over the years. My personal belief is that yes, it is very much possible to develop an immunity to strep throat. Certainly, though, my anecdotal story does not in any way provide sufficient evidence.
I can say with certainty that if and when any of my children (or myself) ever came down with strep throat, hands down I would without question skip the antibiotics.
Why?
Developing Strep Throat Immunity (yes, it’s possible!)
The reason is that folks who take antibiotics for strep throat seem to get it over and over and over again. Sometimes they get strep throat again within mere days or weeks from the previous infection. Have you noticed this vicious cycle too?
Wouldn’t it be a far better and healthier approach to fight it off one time and be done with it possibly for the rest of your life?
My retired MD Dad is of the philosophy that if you give the body a crutch every time it gets ill, it will always expect and demand that crutch. This results in immunity getting weaker over time. I have witnessed the truth of this philosophy through observation. Those who have the tendency to over-medicate their illnesses whether it be with antibiotics or (gasp) even natural remedies can unwittingly experience a downside.
Attempting to squelch illness at the first sign of a sniffle, for example, is not a wise approach in my opinion even if nontoxic.
The immune system stays strong when it is allowed to fight and defeat an illness with no interference. Ideally, rest and nourishment only (including frequent mugs of homemade bone broth or soups made with it) should be provided.
Now, I do think that much consideration needs to be given to the health of the individual before forgoing the meds. A child with autoimmune issues who is not eating well in the first place probably should just take the antibiotics.
On the other hand, a robust healthy child with no autoimmune illness who is consuming an excellent diet has a superb chance of handling the infection well with no intervention.
My Daughter’s Experience with Untreated Strep Throat
Recently, my preteen daughter came down with strep. She is my youngest child, and this was the first time any of my three children had ever had strep throat.
Given that she is healthy with no underlying health issues, my husband and I decided to ride it out. We treated her with natural antibiotics only.
The result?
She recovered completely within 48 hours. In fact, the white spots on her throat disappeared in less than 12 hours once we started treatments. We used garlic, raw manuka honey, and turmeric several times a day.
It will be interesting to see if she ever gets strep throat again. My bet is that she won’t. She will likely develop partial or total lifelong immunity just like I did when I recovered at age 15 from untreated strep.
UPDATE
It’s been nearly four years including a very bad flu season with no recurrence of strep for my daughter. It’s looking good for her having developed natural immunity.
Have you recovered from strep throat with no antibiotics needed? Did you develop a strep throat immunity afterward? Please let us know your experience in the comments section.
References
Canadian Family Physician, Should we treat strep throat with antibiotics?
More Information
How to Repair Your Gut After Antibiotics
Why Antibiotics Today Could Threaten Your Life Tomorrow
Hey,
I had never had strep throat until university but the first time I was prescribed antibiotics right away and ever since then I have had it three times in two years. This time (currently have it) I decided not to get antibiotics but have taken a lot of oil of oreganol. It is pretty expensive but you don’t need a lot. Buy some gelatin capsules and put in one to three drops and take it three times a day. This is what I did right away once my throat started hurting and it helped a lot.
WOW! I really wish I had done my research. I had strep throat as a child and in my early 20’s landed in the hospital for 5 days because it turned into an abscess that had to be drained with a large needle. Then 10 years later same thing but with a 2 day stay in the hospital and allergic reactions to many of the antibiotics they gave me. They were running out of options. The final decision was to let my throat heal a few months and remove my tonsils. Which I did. I haven’t had strep since but I still get soar throats, get food stuck in my throat all the time and now have a metallic taste in my mouth since the surgery. It’s been 1 1/2 years now.
I’m sorry, Sarah. I assumed that the fact that sugar weaken your immune system was common knowledge. But, even if you disagree with that, you also recommended nutritious foods. I’m sure you don’t consider sugar to be a nutritious food. Either way, I was just trying to help this young girl.
I’m 17 and have had scarlet fever in seventh grade. This is the third time I’ve had strep (unrelated to scarlet fever) since. I currently have strep and tomorrow will make it one week with it and I honestly couldn’t be more miserable. We don’t have the money to take me to the docs for antibiotics since we’re paying off some allergy shots so I’m really hoping this suck it up and wait it out method really works and hopefully discontinues me getting strep. Thanks for giving me hope!
I wouldn’t just wait it out, Jessica. Not considering you seem to not have the best immune system if you keep getting sick over and over again. You could search online for more natural remedies and also for things that will boost your immune system. And, number one, improve your nutrition. Stay away from junk food, and particularly sugar in any form, since that is known to weaken an immune system and offers no nutrition. But, in my opinion, antibiotics, except for in life and death situations, will just weaken your immune system even more. Good luck to you.
The advice to avoid sugar is unfounded and base at best. Processed food will weaken your immune system. Sugar will not, its the main fuel for our cells avoiding it will have the effect you speak of.
Rest, water, nutritious foods, sunlight and moderate exercise is all that is needed to heal and maintain a healthy body.
I’m really struggling to know what to do w/ my oldest (age 8). For the last 2 years he’s had strep probably 15 times. Five months ago I started all 3 kids of supplements (plus their regular gummies) of Vit. C, Echinacea, and Vit. D3 and he’s been strep free for 5 months! This was a huge victory since my husband and doctors were advising a tonsillectomy. My husband had one as a child and never gets strep. I, however, believe that there is an underlying reason as to why he gets it so easily. We eat mostly whole foods w/ lots of veggies and VERY rarely anything processed. We recently cut out almost all gluten to see if that would bring down the normal inflammation in his tonsils (even when he isn’t sick, they are HUGE!)…it didn’t BUT it wasn’t a gluten-free diet. Next, I was going to cut out dairy…but I suspect he has strep as of this morning. My husband is fed up and wants them out. I do not as I know that they ARE NOT just “evolutionary leftovers” but a part of God’s plan for our immune system. We live in a small town without any holistic doctors and don’t know where to turn. I DO NOT want to take him to get an antibiotic when I’ve been working so hard to get his gut flora back up these last 5 months w/ probiotics but the poor guy’s tonsils are huge…but no spots. I would never forgive myself if it traveled to his brain or similar. I want to “ride it out” and am hoping that since he hasn’t had an antibiotic in over 5 months, his body is more able to do just that. There’s no way I can get him to take the cayenne pepper/honey mix and I’ve read that the raw ACV gargle will burn. I feel like no matter what I decide, there’s risk involved. It’s days like this that I don’t like being a mom…big decisions. I dream of a world where doctors actually want to HEAL and I don’t have to figure all of this out for myself!!
Gina,
If you choose not to treat strep with antibiotics, I certainly hope you keep your son quarantined from other people until you confirm, with a throat culture, that he has actually cleared the infection. My own dd racked up over 150k in medical bills and could have lost her life thanks to an undiagnosed, untreated strep infection. She now has a chronic medical condition which may be with her for the rest of her life. Please don’t endanger his friends and classmates by not treating a known strep infection.
Just take the antibiotics, if your worried about digestion eat a clean diet while taking them and afterwards. By clean I mean no processed anything, fruits , veggies, lean meats if you want. Avoid dairy and gluten. It will feed your healthy bacteria and repopulate your intestines. Just my 2 cents. Strep is NOTHING to play around with.
I agree that a healthy body should be allowed to fight off infections. However, you have to be really careful with persons who suffer from a weak immune system or have an autoimmune disorder, like you already said. My Mum is someone who hates antibiotics with a passion, let us play outside in the dirt all day and nourished us very well. Nevertheless, my sister has several allergies and I have an autoimmune disease. I tried fighting strep throat and other bacterial illnesses on my own, but each time it nearly killed me and I got yelled at by my family doctor (and two rather nasty cases, the staff in the ER).
So although I hate antibiotics, because they ruin my digestion every single time and give me candida, I still take them, because in my case, they are the only thing that keep me from dying. And trust me, I have tried all kinds of natural remedies or simply not taking anything at all. So if you are considering skipping the antibiotics next time, talk to your doctor first. Not all of them are pro-antibiotics and will be able to tell you if you can risk it.
When she was nine years old, my daughter developed severe OCD and urinary incontinence overnight. The cause – PANDAS: Pediatric Autoimmune NeuroPsychiatric Disorder Associated with Strep. It took us three months to get her diagnosed and treated. But she continues to have flares every time she gets ill, or is exposed to someone who is sick. Especially with Strep. http://www.strepmonster.com is a great website to learn more about this horrible disorder. My daughter who was happy and calm before this happened, turned overnight into a raving lunatic. If it were not for the antibiotics, she would be in a psych ward now. Please, always treat strep as the serious disease that it is – You are playing with fire. I am totally on board with everything else you have written. But on this subject, I fear you just don’t know what damage could come of it. Please, learn about PANDAS and reconsider your position on this matter.
As you said, a person with strep can have devastating side effects. You can lower your chance of that by taking an antibiotic and correctly spaced out probiotic. Once the damage of strep is done, it’s done. For some, it really can be life and death. People need to know that strep is a serious bacteria.
Douglas County 1st grader dies from strep throat complications
http://kdvr.com/2012/12/18/douglas-county-1st-grader-dies-from-strep-throat-complications/
Local girl recovers from strep A infection, amputation
Girl’s Death Blamed On Strep
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19970718&slug=2550210
Gilbert boy loses eye, foot after contracting strep throat