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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 have gotten strep every year, occasionally twice a year since I was about 12 (17years). I usually go get meds because I have musled through it a few times and yet it continues to return. I will def be trying these remedies to see if they help. Thanks for sharing!
My child has strep for the first time at age 10. She is also immune compromised. Never would I risk things like not take an antibiotic for a verified bacterial infection. And why would I want to prolong her pain? Within 24 hours she was great. And yes, I know about the risks of these medications. We do microbial stool testing and high quality probiotics among other things to get her gut healthy. We have an MD who also does holistic medicine, and even he knows that you need antibiotics sometimes. They’ve saved her life more than once. Everything in balance, people.
The article CLEARLY states that autoimmune compromised people should just take the meds.
I am now going through this.I have never had a flu shot and have never had the flu!I believe I have strep and not the first time I have muscled through no doc no meds I find it funny that EVERYONES FIRST RESPONSE IS TO GO TO THE DOCTOR “BECAUSE IT WONT GO AWAY ON ITS OWN I HAVE GONE THROUGH MULTIPLE EAR ACHES SOUR THROATS SINUS INFECTIONS WITHOUT A DOCTOR VISIT AND I’m still alive!
Not everyone can afford to take off 2 weeks of work to make sure they’re no longer contagious. I for one would lose my job if I did that, even if I had a Dr’s note. Don’t think everyone has the same luxury as you do. When I’m unemployed, on food stamps, Medicaid and every other gov’t assistance I can get I’ll try your method the next time I get strep. I wish I didn’t have to take antibiotics, I wish I could just chill at home with strep for 2 wks and be cured for a lifetime. When I get strep my tonsils swell to the point where there’s no gap at the back of my throat, so I need immediate relief or it can very quickly become life threatening for me, not because of fever, because of dehydration. I’ve been hospitalized for strep b4 and was severely dehydrated by the time they got to me.
I have suffered through having strep almost every year of my life, sometimes multiple times a year. I have had a poor immune system since I was a child and as a result my parents almost always took the route of antibiotics with almost any sickness I had. As I grew older I tried my best to build my immune system naturally and use more holistic methods of treating my illnesses. I worked at a hospital for about 3 years in patient care and never had gotten sick however I lost my job there about 2 years ago…since then I have gotten sicker than I have ever gotten in my life once this year already. I thought I was past an almost 2 month sickness that I refused antibiotics for and now a not even a month after I thought I was all the way better and now I have strep once again. I tried this garlic method and despite me loving the taste of garlic my body did not agree with the first dose of this treatment…. I really want to build up my immune system again however I still have to work so when I saw a method that could possibly help within 3-7 days needless to say I was excited to try with an open mind… However this method is not working for me. I rarely throw up and this treatment made me run straight to the bathroom to vomit… are there any other methods that might be easier on the tummy that I can still do? I drink plenty of organic green tea with raw honey and wouldn’t mind cooking garlic and cayenne pepper into my food to make it more tolerable for me however it may lose its effectiveness… I gargle diluted ACV and it seems to help but I want to make sure I get better and get rid of this sickness for good. I think I just really need advice and you really seem to know your stuff. Anything is greatly appreciated… Thank you for writing this article. I hope it works for other people like it did for Martin!
Aren’t you contagious if you don’t take antibiotics? While I understand not wanting to take antibiotics and giving your body the chance to heal itself, shouldn’t one stay home if not using antibiotics? I’ve been told Strep throat is extremely contagious. Doesn’t seem right to be out and about knowing you are contagious.
So …. take antibiotics for strep even if you can get well without them just to stop being contagious? What about the old fashioned idea of just staying home until you are well? Why does everyone need to be “out and about” when they are sick? Antibiotics are no free lunch .. they destroy gut health, weaken immunity and predispose you to strep and other illness in the future. Avoiding them if you can is a very smart idea.
This is great but I’ve had strep at least once a year for most of my life and have never had antibiotics for it (they are not so commonly used in my country except for serious illness), so being antiobiotic free doesn’t help everyone. I’ve used every holistic and herbal cure in the but still get at least annual bout of strep.
I’m a mom of 4, and I’ve had strep 3 times in the past 2 years. I never had it before that. I want to fight if off without antibiotics (we’ve been learning about gut health the last 2 years and treat many things naturally at home now). But strep is a difficult one for me. This time, my temperature has run 102.8-103.5 and I’m so miserable. My husbands had to take off work to care for the kids because I’m so weak. I struggle with allowing it to go longer even though I want to build up that immunity and hate being on antibiotics. Maybe I can try it next time I get strep. Strep is awful! Any suggestions?
Additionally youyoung childen may contract scarlet fever or PANDAs from improperly treated sore throat. It is one thing for an adult to muscle through as they have a much better idea if they are getting better or worse. For kids I would give the antibiotic. Also please note that white spots can occur with a virus or tonsil stones. The singer mentioned here may never have had strep at all.
The article clearly said that HEALTHY people can try to treat strep without antibiotics. Not old people with heart problems.
I don’t even know the last time I went to the doctor or took antibiotics. They are horrible for you. I’ve definitely had terrible sore throats but drank lots of fluids and ibuprofen PM and I always come out of it fine.