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If you’ve ever wondered why some people get strep throat over and over and over again, sometimes even just days after a strep infection was supposedly eradicated with antibiotics, here’s the likely answer as explained by old-time MDs who practiced medicine before the modern love affair with prescription drugs got its start.
Most people are far too quick to run and get a prescription for antibiotics and never give their immune system a chance to build any resistance whatsoever. Most never consider the use of home remedies for strep throat either.
Conventional doctors today do a great job of scaring people out of their minds about the possibility of rheumatic fever/heart damage from allowing the body to deal with a strep throat infection unmedicated. However, the truth is, the risk of complications from strep throat is very small for healthy people who have no issues with their immune system. Even WebMD used to state (before pharmaceutical industry pressure forced a change in language to only mention antibiotics) that strep throat will go away on its own with or without treatment in 3-7 days.
I’ve written before about the one and only case of strep throat I ever had. It occurred when I was 15 and I am ever so grateful my MD father loved me enough to let me fight through it and win without antibiotics. The result? I’ve never ever gotten strep throat again despite repeated exposures. One exposure was in very close quarters – a college roommate had strep throat and I still didn’t contract it! What’s even more interesting is that none of my children have ever had strep either despite multiple exposures from friends and classmates.
I obviously built up a strong resistance to strep throat at a young age and have been blessed with never having to suffer with it again by allowing my body to fight through it naturally. It’s also quite possible I passed on my immunity to my children via breastfeeding, although that is obviously just an educated guess on my part.
The article I wrote on my personal strep throat story has invited both ridicule and applause over the past couple of years. Some folks have angrily emailed me saying I am crazy and putting people’s lives in danger by suggesting that forgoing meds for strep is the best way to go if one is in good health.
For others, the article triggered an “aha moment” with more than just a few deciding once and for all to stare down the strep throat demon and win!
One such inspiring story crossed my inbox recently and the strep throat victim was none other than professional singer Martin DeBourge!
Here’s what Martin had to say:
As a singer, getting strep throat every single year is not only frustrating, but vocally debilitating! So when it hit again this year, and I felt it coming on, I decided a new course of action was in order.
I spent a day researching. The one article that really rang true for me was on your website about whether antibiotics for strep are really necessary. You talked about how you “muscled through it” when you had strep throat as a teenager, and how your body may have even built an immunity against it.
That sounded great to me! But, I am well aware of the massive pain strep throat can cause. Just swallowing fluid is excruciating, let alone solid foods. So I needed a sort of “healthy second opinion”.
I called fellow friend and vocalist David Katz in New York. I knew he was an herbalist, but most importantly, he would understand my plight as a singer needing to do what’s best for my pipes. He runs a website and has an herbal product line JUST for singers, so I knew he was the right guy.
He ALSO encouraged me to steer clear of the antibiotics and gave me a few suggestions to “get through it”.
I braced myself for at least 10 days of bed ridden fever, throat swelling and sickness. Like I said, I’ve been through this numerous times before, so I knew what I was in for. I didn’t clear my singing schedule though, hoping for the best.
To my amazement, the strep “spots” started clearing within a couple days. I had my voice back in 36 hours! I was floored… and convinced.
Martin kept a daily log of his strep throat home remedies adventure outlined below. Hopefully, it will inspire more than just a few others to take the leap themselves.
Effective Strep Throat Home Remedies
Martin’s holistic strep throat treatment consisted of the following ingredients which he consumed at a rate of ½ teaspoon every 30 minutes to an hour.
- Use a mortar & pestle to mash up 3 cloves of fresh garlic (sources). If the raw garlic is too hot for you or you’re concerned about the odor potential, use homemade pickled garlic instead. Do not use commercial pickled garlic as it has no therapeutic value.
- Mix in half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper (sources).
- Mix in raw honey (manuka honey is the most potent. Be wary what brand you buy as most manuka honey is fake. Get UMF certified 15+) to taste which has healing properties of its own (sources).
Martin also gargled with raw apple cider vinegar diluted with some water 3x per day (sources). Although Martin didn’t use it, adding small cups of bone broth to the regimen would have helped speed healing as well.
Note that some people like to gargle with colloidal silver, which also works well. However, note that this remedy will kill the good bacteria in your throat area as well as the bad, potentially contributing to more problems down the road from unbalanced mouth, throat, and sinuses flora.
Below is Martin’s daily journal logging his progress to a cure.
Using Home Remedies for Strep Throat: A Daily Journal
10/6 – Sunday afternoon – felt “something” in throat. Still sang well at rehearsal.
10/7 – Monday morning – “something” became more prominent and I began the research into what I felt was inevitably the strep bacteria attacking my throat.
10/7 – Monday early afternoon – visit to doctor for regular checkup and asking about an unrelated pulled muscle. He checked my throat (routinely) and said nothing. It didn’t matter if he had, I would have just went through the motions of accepting an antibiotic prescription, but not taking it – I had already made up my mind to do something “different”.
10/7 – Monday afternoon – found information on The Healthy Home Economist about beating strep with no meds. Followed up with a phone call to David Aaron Katz. Became convinced that I will muscle through it with home remedies. As per David’s suggestion, I started by sucking/chewing on cloves of garlic – 5 of them before the day was out!
10/7 – Monday evening – attempted to sing. Did not go well, highs were very strained.
10/8 – Tuesday morning – throat uncomfortableness, but quick mirror check didn’t seem to reveal anything overly red. Driving son to school is when I looked in rear view mirror and noticed two white spots. Strep confirmed.
10/8 – Tuesday later morning – started a cycle of garlic chewing with a mixture of raw honey & cayenne pepper every half hour (concoction detailed below). First two administers I experienced upset stomach, but became very tired and slept most afternoon.
10/8 – Tuesday afternoon – continued garlic/honey/cayenne mixture every half hour during awake times.
10/8 – Tuesday early evening. Headaches persisted, but still had an appetite. Gargled with ACV – that was a bit painful.
10/8 – Tuesday evening. Continued with mixture until I went to sleep. Noticed a third spot very far back and lower behind the tongue. May have always been there, but this is the first I noticed.
10/9 – Wednesday early morning – Awoke with a sore throat, a bit difficult to swallow. Gargled and drank 16 fl oz water with 2 tbs of ACV & Raw Honey. Checked throat under light, saw the same three spots.
10/9 – Wednesday afternoon – no stomach issues, and the sore throat lessened considerably throughout the day. Still uncomfortable, but I can definitely eat.
10/9 – Wednesday early evening – third spot undetected, second one lessening. First one still prominent, but definitely all good signs. Also, I noticed I am not all that drained and exhausted – which I attributed to the garlic intake.
10/10 – Thursday early morning – woke up with slightly less of a sore throat. Gargled and drank 16oz water with ACV & Honey. Throat under light still shows the one stubborn spot, hard to tell, but it could be a tiny bit less in size.
10/11 – Thursday afternoon – Was told by my wife that she can’t bear with my garlic breath another day… no worries, that third spot is definitely reduced in size. I decided that come morning, I will just do Apple Cider Vinegar. Besides, I had a karaoke gig this night and needed to not smell like garlic for the customers.
10/12 – Friday Morning – Spot free. Wow. Not a single spot, throat back to normal. I decided to slowly warm up the voice as I had a singing engagement to prepare for on Saturday.
10/13 – Saturday evening – voice 100%. Throat clean as a whistle. In all my years (year after year) getting strep throat, I have NEVER bounced back this quick – not to mention getting through it without antibiotics.
10/15 – UPDATE: I made a facebook post about this a few days ago, simply saying that I kicked strep to the curb without the use of antibiotics. I have over 1400 followers on my profile, so I certainly expected varying comments. One particular comment jumped out at me… “make sure you really got rid of it, it typically comes back within a couple days if you didn’t eradicate it”.
Well……… it’s not back!
Congratulations Martin on the amazing success of your strep throat remedy! Please keep us updated on your progress, but my bet is that you won’t ever be taking antibiotics for strep throat again, and you may very well never even have it again!
Have you always wondered how to get rid of strep throat without meds? Have you ever muscled through it under your own power using one or more strep throat home remedies? If so, what remedies did you use and have you experienced immunity to strep throat since? Please chime in with the strep throat cures which worked for you below.
Want to connect with Martin? These links below will point you in the right direction:
(youtube) www.youtube.com/martindebourge
(bio) www.15hifi.com/site/martindebourge
More Information
Remedy for Sore Throat (fast acting)
How to Repair Your Gut After Antibiotics
Why Antibiotics Today Could Threaten Your Life Tomorrow
Best Natural Antibiotics and How to Use Them
Fever Blisters Home Remedy
Reader- if your going to muscle through it, be sure you’re prepared to face the possible life threatening consequences- that may be rare, but DO happen. My uncle had strep in his teens, was prescribed antibiotics but didn’t take them. It got better. When he was 28 he had sudden kidney failure, biopsies revealed strep had been eating them away for years, he was on dialysis and received 2 donated kidneys before passing away 8 years later. This CAN happen. You take the chances if you want. I won’t.
Thank you, Stephanie! I’m sorry about your uncle. I wonder if pride could be the cause of people not wanting to take antibiotics? As a stay at home mom I don’t have the luxury of 10 days in bed. The last time I had strep throat I thought it was the flu, by day three my husband had to carry me to doctor I knew I was dying. Thankfully it was just strep throat and I could have not been more relieved for antibiotics. There is no way I could have gone another day in that condition without intervention. I do believe these herbal remedies can help, but they are not always the cure or end all.
I never progressed enough to see white spots. But a couple years ago, I began to develope the worst sore throat of my life. Within hours I couldn’t breathe without pain, let alone swallow. Food was a distant dream. The pain in my throat was overwhelming. Talking was impossible, and eventually, my external muscles began to freeze, limiting my neck movement. It terrified me! I tried the first natural remedy for strep(because my mom thought for sure I had it, having dealt with it before), which was the ACV and raw honey. I did mone in juice. And halfway through this painful, large glass of juice, the paralyzation of my outer neck muscles began to relax! From there my symptoms reversed, and over the next day and a half, with a couple more glasses of juice, they disappeared completely! I was amazed. I have autoimmune issues, so getting sick has always been a nightmare for me. I think leading up to this, a big help was daily use of Greens! It’s boosted my immune system a lot, and now I can fight off infections and viruses like anyone else! I am fully pro-natural remedies!!
Not sure if I have strep, although I have the symptoms of it. I had a fever a few days ago when it began and a scratchy throat. Now, four days later, it feels like knives when I swallow. I can hardly swallow my saliva, never mind eating. I was lucky to get down a banana smoothie today. I can’t fathom trying anything else. My head feels like it might explode, my body aches (although less severely than it did two days ago) and little red spots on the roof of my mouth and back of my throat. No white patches yet. But I made the honey, cayenne, garlic mixture (I think it tastes kind of good, sweet and hot and spicy) and we’ll see how it goes. I have to be at work tomorrow and since I have no voice and my job requires me to be able to go over contracts, I’m going to hope this works fast.
I used to get strep throat once a year. I was wary of antibiotics and sometimes, I would stress over getting an appointment with a doctor and they would say that the strep had progressed to the point that antibiotics were unnecessary. So one year I decided to forgo the doctor bills an all the rest, having read that many people just let the illness run it’s course without meds and survive. It was indeed the worst case of strep I’d ever had. I was down for a week and barely able to swallow my own saliva much less water. I didn’t know about apple cider vinegar at the time unfortunately! I took to swabbing the ridiculous amounts of pus/blood from both sides of my throat and gargling with a sea salt water/ hydrogen peroxide mixture. It was worth the uncomfortable and feverish week. This was in 2005 and I’ve never had another case of strep again!!
I feel like I have strep but I’m not sure; I’m going to wait it out a few more days. I’ve felt crappy since Tuesday; so I’m going to wait it out a few more days; so far I’ve gargled with salt water and have been drinking nothing but water and resting as much as possible. So if what you say rings true; then I’ll be okay.
So I have to share my experience. So a couple of days ago I started to feel the onset of a sore throat and fever, immediately I began gargling with a mixture of warm water, sea salt, and a few tablespoons of raw ACV. A little later on, I discovered about 5 puss pockets in the back of my throat. First thought. Strep. Darn. I called and made a doc appt for the next day, that’s when I decided to do some research and found this post. I started that afternoon taking the garlic mixture. What I did differently was I didn’t use it every half hour, but more like every 2-4 hours apart, or whenever I remember to. However, I would follow every garlic treatment with the ACV mixture instead of just 3 times a day. Also, I took a small spray bottle and combined it with filtered water, a tablespoon of collodial silver, a few drops of lemon essential oil, peppermint essential oil, and oregano essential oil, and I sprayed this on the back of my throat to soothe irritation. The next day I woke with practically no fever. Yay! And I was down to 3 puss pockets. Continued my normal treatment, went to my doctor appt, and tested negative for strep…. Huh. He believed I just developed bacteria from the sore throat. Perscribed my with some antibiotics, which I probably won’t take. Told me I look fine sent me home. Now, I woke up this morning, with absolutely no fever and no puss pockets whatsoever. What?! Woohoo! I was going to call into work Tommorow, but now I don’t think I have to!
I’m an RN and I currently have strep throat for what is probably the 10th time in my life. I’m not a carrier, but my sister was when I was a child and until she got her tonsils out, every time she got it, I got it. I toughed it out the first 2 times without antibiotics. Guess what-it came back. You can’t develop an immunity to strep throat caused by Group A strep. You can’t pass on a fake immunity to your child either. That’s like saying you can develop immunity to a staph infection after surgery and then pass that to your children so they will be immune to staph infections. It doesn’t work that way. Strep is a bacteria that can recur at any time suddenly. Most of the population has it in their system naturally, sometimes it just flares up. So sure, I’m all for home remedy-but your “article” title of how to kick strep throat fast by telling us “let your immune system work” is misleading. Those aren’t tips. That singer gave us more info in his response. But for the record-if it doesn’t resolve in a week, you should definitely get a strep test and get treatment as it can lead to further complications if not addressed, especially if immunocompromised.
Jerry, thank you for posting this comment. I wish you would have elaborated on the complications if a strep test and treatment isn’t followed so that others are aware. I am currently suffering from strep throat that I let go for almost a week, thinking it would clear up. It didn’t. It steadily got worse. Visiting my doctor’s office yesterday, he informed me that my uvula (the fleshly thing hanging at the back of the throat for those reading this) was so swollen that it was threatening my breathing passage. He said another day or two at most and I would likely be in the ER needing to be intubated. I was given two hefty injections in the rear and sent home with two scripts for antibiotics. I’ve had two dosages of the by mouth antibiotics and felt pretty good all day, now I find I’m declining back where I was before I saw the doctor.
I’m worried. I’m wondering if the antibiotics will actually work, if it’s normal to feel a setback initially and how long I should wait before going back to see him again. Normally, I get strep throat, start taking the antibiotics and I’m on the mend. This time, not so much. Maybe I’m expecting results too soon…or maybe I waited too long to get medical attention? Thoughts, anyone?
Yes! So glad someone said something! If I were to listen to this article all the time I could die. I have a previous vsd and heart issues currently so not treating strep isn’t an option as it could go to my heart.
I do have to admit, I waited a good 6 days to go to the doctor the first time, I didn’t think I actually had strep so didn’t want to go through being swabbed, and the pain never lessened, my throat just kept getting worse. In fact, I didn’t start antibiotics until 8 days after my tonsils swelling up. My strep didn’t go away on its own and I waited at least 7 days because I’m stubborn.
Jerry, if what you say were true and that it really was impossible to have any kind of immunity to Strep Throat, then everyone who is exposed to strep throat would get it every single time. The fact is, is that that doesn’t happen. People are often exposed to strep throat and don’t always get it. That means people do have some kind of immunity to this disease and that it does depend on the strength of that persons immune system.
You said that most people have the bacteria have it and that sometimes it just flares up. That is not a very scientific statement and that if this opinion is shared by the greater medical community, that indicates the greater medical community doesn’t have a clue why all of a sudden it could just flare up and overtake someones immunity.
I also do not trust a Natural remedy just because it is claimed to be natural (after all strep throat is all natural, but that doesn’t mean it is good for me! 🙂 ). I value people’s feedback on this site, combined with what it is saying, most valuable. I myself have strep throat now, but thankfully have a Chinese medicine doctor who prescribed non-antibiotic herbs in order to help the body heal. I see this as the best of both worlds. Non-antibiotic treatment to help my body overcome it.
So almost 4 weeks ago, I got what I think may have been the flu. The following weekend I [got a BAD sore throat. It knocked me out again. My neck was swollen and it hurt to swallow for a few days. After day 3-4 it gradually got better. I thought strep throat was always related to the white spots and there were none. Now, 3 weeks later, my husband had a BAD sore throat no white spots, no fever, got tested after 5 days of not being able to knock it and it was strep. Now I am freaking out that I am going to develop a complication because I never got checked or received an antibiotic. What can I do naturally to hope that something like rheumatic fever or scarlet fever does not develop? Its been almost 3 weeks and I have read that is can be UP TO 6 WEEKS before complications come up. Does anyone have some advice to ease my anxiety?
If you don’t have symptoms it is very likely you won’t develop scarlet fever or Rheumatic fever. From what I understand, this happens when the immune system is desperate and failing to resolve the infection on its own.
One person stated that the white spots in the throat could be nothing but strep….WRONG….as a RN with 35 years experience,there are more reasons to have white spots in your throat: Thrush, mouth ulcers, sinus drainage causing raw spots, etc….you all are listening to someone who ASSUMES he had strep but was never tested…be careful… Strep is nothing to play with…left untreated it can migrate to the heart resulting in valve damage….it can also go to the kidneys causing severe infections and even kidney failure….
The point of this article is that the strep IS being treated, but naturally rather than with prescription antibiotics.
If the person was never tested, how do you know it’s strep?
What’s an RN?
Marissa, I really do hope that you are joking. An RN is a registered nurse.
I get throat issues regularly, and I’ve used a nearly identical formula to get rid of Strep Throat sans antibiotics, and MUCH quicker than when using antibiotics. Only thing different was I used Oil of Oregano directly applied to throat (extremely painful) and collidial silver in addition to what you listed. IMO OO and Silver sped it up a ton. Silver like, 30 sprays a day, spread through out the day, directly on back of throat. And OoO about 15-30 drops throughout the day.