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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
Thank you for the new ideas 🙂
As a child, I’d lost count of how many times I’d been on antibiotics for strep, but when I was in my 20’s I’d heard about gargling with cayenne for strep, so when I saw the pus in my throat, I tried it and within a few hours, the pus and pain were gone. It has been over 30 years since having my last strep, but two weeks ago, I had the flu, next a cold, last night seizures, and now swollen painful glands and sore throat. I gargled with some cayenne a few minutes ago and I feel better. I’d never heard of gargling with garlic, but will add that to my cayenne!
Because of being on so many antibiotics as a child, I think that is why I have so many autoimmune diseases today.
Thanks again for taking the time to post this helpful article.
I should add that it was a mixture a teaspoon of crushed garlic, cayenne pepper and honey I used, when I told my doctor about using garlic, cayenne pepper and honey to clear up ear infections and strep throat his response was “stop with that silly stuff and just use the antibiotics.”
I get strep throat multiple times a year and now with it for the past year I’ve been getting ear infections. I never had ear infections in the past even as a child. In the past i use antibiotics to fight strep throat. Last couple times I got strep throat I fought it with lots of rest, garlic and cayenne pepper. This time I am having a hard time fighting this painful throat infection . It hurts just to swallow and even with garlic it got worse as I look at my throat I see the infection has grown. I wish I know how to get rid of it once and for all.
I have 8 years baby boy. When my boy faces this problem I usually follow this technique: Take some slices of ginger and chew them with a little salt. If you think that your baby can’t chew raw ginger, then mix some sliced ginger extract with hot tea.
Ma’am my name is Shakida. I have been battling strep throat since last Sunday on the 21st. It is now the 28th still dealing with the bugger. I just bought some Echinacea tea the organic kind on the 22. Can’t say that I have been using it properly. I just put two to five bags of tea in a large with lemon and heated it up and drunk the whole thing hoping for a quick fix. Or at lease some signs that it is receedeing. I’ve been sent home from work and have officially missed work for about 7days trying to get rid of this bacteria. I see you all drink acv and chew garlic. Items I hope I’ll be able to get on my next check. Right now I’m working with little to no money…thank you guys for the insight. I desperately need to work to provide for me and my family but I can’t work if I can’t breathe properly let alone eat anything.
My son is allergic to antibiotics. I love his pedicatritian. We work together on everything. We have to ride alot of things out with home remedies. I am a Holistic Health Practitioner and am hoping my son doesn’t have strep. He doesn’t have a fever. But doies have a painful soar throat.
Yes, a lot of folks are turning to old time remedies for strep due to antibiotic allergies or the fact that many don’t even work anymore so you literally destroy your gut flora for nothing.
I gargle with room temp raw ACV watered down a little and then just drink it. Gargling with it helps a sore throat too…will have to try to warm with honey.
I think these remedies are excellent and I thank you for posting this article. My son is a strep carrier (or so I have been told), which I’ve been told is not uncommon in kids with large tonsils.
But here’s my question. Our pediatrician says that the reason they treat strep with antibiotics is to prevent rheumatic heart disease (which causes lifelong, irreversible damage to heart valves), and things like PANS/PANDAS. (I looked those up and they are horrible.) She also says that bacterial endocarditis can develop, and any way you slice it, those are very serious issues. What’s worse, is that you don’t know the damage they are doing to your child until the damage has been done (sometimes, as with RHD, you don’t know until later in adulthood).
So that is what scares me. My son always tests positive for strep. He has had a sore throat for ten days now, and I’ve been told to get him checked for strep. He will test positive, and they will throw an antibiotic at him.
Using your remedies, he FEELS a lot better. But how do I know what lingers behind the feeling better? Statistics show that all strep will clear up within 7-10 days (sometimes less), with OR WITHOUT antibiotics. The dangers, however, do not go away.
That is my dilemma as a parent, and I wanted to share it as a part of this discussion.
Yes, this is a dilemma. You as the parent who knows your child best … plus the input of a trusted physician can determine the optimal course of action.
Hi Sarah, I appreciate your post, and for encouraging people to overcome illnesses with the help of their own immune system and not conventional medicine. I have had a general head/sinus cold (but the pressure had since been relieved with saline rinses) since mid Dec 2017. I am a very healthy 37YO female who lives a natural life w/o OTC medication, and eats real food. I went full keto in Aug 2017, have two children under 4, and live a healthy and active lifestyle.
I had a positive throat culture for strep on the 1/9/18 and treated it at home with garlic/cayenne/honey smashes, GSE + salt water gargles, ACV gargles, and oregano/peppermint + salt water gargles. Plus lots of Liposomal C, zinc, and bone broth. The spots on the back of my throat were gone by 1/11/18. That night of the 11th, my left ear spontaneously perforated, which was one of the most painful things I’ve ever experienced (coming from someone who had 2 natural births). That Sunday the 14th, my right ear spontaneously perforated. Bilateral serous otitis media – non-infected fluid in the middle ear. The pain was so severe, I had to begin taking Ibuprofen and decongestants. On Tuesday the 16th I had a myofascial massage and was able to stop the OTC medicine. That night I got a fever that rose over 6 hours from 99 to 102.7, and I let it ride out, hoping my body was creating an inhospitable environment for the bacteria. I took a blood test and c-reactive protein test the following day which showed my body had high inflammation. The following two nights I had a standing low fever. On Friday I acquiesced and began a course of antibiotics because my body was not recovering. I also wanted to find out what was the issue at present and had them take a throat culture and swab. The swab came back positive for strep 10 days later, after 10 full days of natural treatment. The throat culture came back positive for strep and indicated high growth of bacteria.
I was very discouraged that after two weeks of fighting (bedridden, mostly) the strep, that I could not overcome what the UK calls a “self-limiting disease.” I have a few thoughts. One, perhaps the strep in the US is so strong now – or the strain/seroype so different – that it is near-impossible for someone at the height of their health to overcome. Or two, perhaps my confidence in my own immune-system defense was/is overestimated.
I guess the silver lining is that I should have strep antibodies now for next time, but it is important for people to know that complications from strep can result if you tackle it on your own, like serous otitis media or acute otitis media. My ears have been draining for over a week now, and I have tinnitus and a 30% decrease (at least) in hearing. Hopefully it will all get restored again over time, but I won’t know for a matter of weeks/months.
Good luck to everyone out there fending for themselves, but be aware of the risks/complications. My doctor was very hyped up about ARF and RHD, but I did a great deal of research and thought that the risks of complications from antibiotics were greater than that of rheumatic fever. Hopefully I was right.
Hi, I’ve had strep for about a week now and I’ve been taking pain reliever and gargaling salt water and Apple Cider Vineger. It seems the spots on the back of my throat aren’t going away and are actually spreading. Is this just a part of the healing? It’s going to get bad before it gets better? Thank you.
Pain relievers lower immunity and should not be used if at all possible. Also, you are not using the remedy as identified in this post. I think you should go see a doctor if you aren’t getting better.