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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
I struggled and suffered with annual strep throat infections throughout my childhood and teenage years. Each time I took antibiotics to cure it. Each year it came back.
Then, I became a poor art student, and this time I did not have the money to see a doctor. I suffered but found the only thing that relieved the excruciating swallowing pain was the all natural herbal toothpaste I was using. This toothpaste is Auromere licorice. It has over 20 Ayurvedic herbs, including the antibiotic neem. I started to take some of the toothpaste and mix it with some water to use as a throat gargle. Then, I would experience relief. I kept this up, repeating any time I needed relief, and I kicked strep. That was about 25 years ago, and I have not had another strep infection since.
Strep throat sloughs off cells and into the bloodstream. Over time, when untreated, strep will cause devastating other problems like kidney failure and arthritis. Most people I have treated with kidney failure are people who had strep as a kid and they did not get treatment with antibiotics. Any sore throat that does not go away in 3 days needs medical treatment. The home treatments are designed to bring relief from the pain and discomfort, not KILL bugs.
I’m all for natural treatments, but please beware of this one. I just took it for a confirmed case of strep and feel even worse now. My stomach is killing me. It started immediately. I normally like things spicy, so it’s not that I can’t handle the heat. It’s awful. I will recommend the acv gargle though. Feel better all
Did you make sure you ate with it? This is cayenne pepper, it will burn. Anyone who reads this, make sure you EAT something before ingesting this. Cheers.
I’m so glad I read this post 🙂 thank you!!! I’m open to herbal remedy as it works well for me, since antibiotics made me even iller once always look for the alternative route!
After confirming at docs it was a bacterial infection I followed this advice- althought they gave me a perscriptions for antibiotics I didn’t get it as there is plenty of natural cures in food!
Spoonfuls of straight up honey, herbal tea, gargling straight AVC (worked best for me straight as drinking it in water went on too long :,) ) and the cayenne and garlic I added sliced & raw to potato salad and curries along with turmeric. Made it bearable for me 😀
oh and drink coconut drink by ‘rude health’ and also cold pineapple juice! It’s antibacterial and soothing. Vegan coconut ice cream was a really yummy antibacterial treat too! Literally took two days too feel almost normal again. Sleep, drink plenty also wash hands and surfaces as it is contagious!!
Everyone’s body is deferent. Herbs are great remidies to bust the immune system and prepair it to fight off germs and viruses. Keep in mind that if you have developed an infection with a fever your body is telling you that your immune system needs help. See a doctor for immediate help and once you have fought your infection fortify you body with healthy greens, goldenseal, echinacea for immune support. Take care of your infection first.
As much as I agree that natural remedies work. I don’t agree with you that strep will go away on its own. I had it for nearly 3 weeks
Couldn’t get out of bed eventually had a horrible earache that came with it. The nearest walk in clinic was 10-15 minute walk and it took me an hour because I could barely walk from the pain. I had no money at the time and I didn’t drive as well as having to take an infant and a toddler with me. I ended up needing antibiotics as I couldn’t afford anything else. It could have gotten much worse.
So please don’t advise people it’ll just “go away” it’s not true. I’ve always had it longer than a week. These days I catch it early on an damage to eat a lot of garlic gargle with salt water and take honey. Sometimes lime or lemon and honey for the cough or some other remedy depending on what I have at home.
Which works.
But strep Def needs treatment as it will not subside within a week for some people.
You say it “usually” lasts over a week for you. Am I right to assume you are a loyal and regular strep patient? If you “usually” treat it with your anti-doctor-biotics your body is not ready to sweat it out in a few simple days. I rather believe yor experience was more like coming off heroin cold turkey than sweating out strep.
For you personally I would suggest to just stick with any doctors orders and work on the natural imune recovery slowly.
I agree with Sasha on that. I don’t go to the doctor for every little thing, and until I had strep a couple years ago, hadn’t been to a doctor in almost five years. My strep lasted three weeks, getting worse all the while, until I finally went to get antibiotics. Not everyone can muscle through, and have it go away within that timeline. Everyone has to recognize, that at some point, whether you like it or not, the doctor needs to get involved.
Anecdotal “cures” are often harmless but can sometimes be dangerous. Often relatively minor illnesses will clear up on their own, but people falsely claim the home remedy cured it. Be careful.
I need to know if I can go forward with these natural remedies as a pregnant woman. Would someone please kindly advise me of any adjustments or changes I should make or consider before I try one of these remedies? Thank you!
The raw garlic burns my mouth really bad, is there a different way to use the garlic?
I gargle with applecider vinegar and water mix. Also over the counter anti inflammatory seems to help with the throat swelling. Usually gone in 2-3 days and bearable in the meantime.