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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
Sarah,
I loved your post! With the immune system, it’s definitely “use it–or lose it”! As a preventative measure…what I have found super helpful in boosting and supporting my immune system–including the throat–is a daily smoothie (yes, I rotate the greens!) that includes 3-5 cloves of raw garlic (natural antibiotic) + coconut oil (anti-bacterial, anti-viral and natural antibiotic) + cinnamon (boosts the immune system) + nutmeg (supports blood cell production to fight against bacterial infection) + lime juice (vitamin C).
I feel compelled to add to this discussion because there are several different kinds of strep that can manifest through similar symptoms.
There is ONE type of bacteria that causes serious strep–the kind that can affect your heart–that will show up positive on a rapid strep test swab kit. All the other bacteria cause mild strep will be cleared by the body’s own immune system (if you’re healthy) with no natural or chemical treatment of any kind and will show a negative rapid strep test. As this is the case, a very large proportion of strep cases will not be treated with antibiotics but will rather be met with “symptomatic therapy.”
While I’ll never choose antibiotics or white coat treatments, I must note that doctors are not prescribing antibiotics with the same fervor I believe this entry suggests–like they were 15+ years ago. Likewise, this article also seems to make some blanket claims about natural treatments for strep when actually the healing effects are made possible by one’s own immune response.
Eighteen years ago, my then 16 year old daughter came home with several white spots on her sore throat. At the time I was interested in Young Living Essential Oils. I just rubbed Thieves on her neck in the throat area and the arches of her feet. I did this a couple of times that day and by the next morning, there were no spots, just a little redness. She was fine within a couple of days of the first sign of not feeling well.
Thieves essential oil (hot tea, gargling, drops on throat and feet) would be very effective and smell ALOT better than garlic! 🙂
Every Winter One Or All Of My Family Members Would Get Strep Multiple Times. Last Summer We Started Drinking Raw Milk And No One Got It! Since Then We Have Been Radically Changing Our Diet To Real Foods. Love You Site I Have GotTen So Much InforMation From it.
I am an alternative practitioner as well as a nurse practitioner. In the hospital/clinic setting we rarely treat strep throat with antibiotics any more and actually recommend gargling with a mouthwash that contains zinc. Often times strep is carried by not only members of a family who are symptom free but also by cats and dogs. If there are frequent outbreaks, culturing your pets and family members throats and treating them in what ever fashion you chose , would most certainly help in stopping the recurrence.
I stopped taking my kids to get thier throats swabbed after reading “How to Raise a healthy child in spite of your doctor” by Dr Mendelsohn. He cites a study at an Air Force Base from the 1940’s and 50’s that is the basis for using antibiotics for strep. This study is also mentioned in a newer book entitled “Hippoctrates Shadow” by Dr. David Newman. Both doctors make it clear that this is an outdated and unnecessary treatment which causes more illness and deaths than the rare Rheumatic fever/ heart disease. At this time there is so much cutting edge science ( The Human micro biome project) that is highlighting the importance of healthy gut bacteria and the immune system. Because of this new and expanding knowledge there is strong reason to question the frivolous use of antibiotics! For treatment of strep throat I have had great success with the homeopathic remedy Belladonna.
I am working through it right now. I was very sick with a sinus infecion in early September and felt I was so sick that I needed antibiotics. It cleared me up but I became sick again this month (October). This time, I decided to take a spoonful of chopped, and smashed garlic with honey twice a day. It really is amazing how my symptoms lighten up a few hours after taking the garlic. I missed one of my garlic doses two nights ago and yesterday morning I woke up feeling as though my symptoms worsened and went to my lungs. I realized that it’s so importortant to take the garlic in regular cycles and don’t miss, your body needs the full amount to fight the bacteria that is trying to spread. I am feeling so much better today, not perfect but it is amazing how clear I am. My energy is back enough to clean the house and go on my walk.
My husband is a runner. Runs at least 20 miles a week plus strength training. Eats healthy. Neve gets sick. He tried to “tough it out” with strep a few years ago. He was 28. He developed Pericarditis… An infection in the pericardium (the “bag” the heart is in). We thought he was having a heart attack. The treatment for the pericarditis was a lot more intensive than a round of amoxicillin. Recovery was a LOT longer too. He couldnt run for 3 months. We don’t vax and tough through whatever illnesses may come, buy strep is not something we take lightly.
I’m not saying this is common, just that my very healthy, fit hubby developed a heart infection.
Just wondering for my own information, was your husband taking any natural remedies while he was toughing it out, like garlic?
I’m very interested in this timely article since strep is common and seems to reappear again and again often in the same person. I am always appreciative of your many followers who offer tips on their life lessons in taking care of themselves and families without resorting to drugs. So, I can’t pass up adding a note to the use of oil of oregano. Oregano is a dynamite means of ridding oneself of most things related to the respiratory system, however, oil of oregano and oregano oil are not the same thing and should be approached differently. Oil of oregano is not a pure oregano and can be used with much less caution than therapeutic oregano oil. On the other hand, I have taught classes on essential oils for a number of years and can tell you Oregano Oil is considered a “hot” oil and should never be administered without a carrier oil like grapeseed or almond oil to dilute it. There are many carrier oils out there, and these two are only a suggestion. The point I wish to warn your readers about is that Oregano oil can cause burning, possibly serious, especially in young throats. Also, unless you know the Oregano has been well-tested by an independent lab, it should never be ingested in the first place. Essential oils bought in health food stores or similar stores do not sell high grade oils regardless of their claim of 100% pure on the label. Also, a pure essential oil does not require that you use a lot. A true essential oil requires only one drop as in the case of the “hot” oil, Oregano, or it may cause detoxing or much worse, a healing crisis. I recommend that the novice use oil of oregano if you do not have background on your source or if the people who sell them have the knowledge to protect you. Essential oils are a wonder (God’s first medicine), but as with anything else there are good and there are not so good. I urge everyone to beware of uninformed promoters of this, otherwise, wonderful solution.
Thank you Frankie!!
This is why I use Premier Research oils. They are well tested and are already diluted.
Thanks, Frankie. I was wondering why when I put a drop on my child’s finger (to treat her wart), it became red & ‘burnt’. So, I stopped using it, I figured it might be too strong. I tried diluting it the next time with coconut oil, but, it still ‘stings’. So, I stopped completely. I’m confused, as what I have is “Oil of wild Oregano”. Is this the same as “Oil of oregano”?. You mentioned that ‘Oil of Oregano can be used with less caution than therapeutic oregano oil’. The ingredients says: Extra virgin olive oil & Oregano oil. Perhaps it wasn’t diluted with the right ratio of carrier oil to oregano oil?.
Sharon – it is VERY strong. Try more carrier oil – less oregano. If it still burns – rub more carrier oil into it. It will have a warm sensation because of the nature of the oil but you don’t want it to burn.