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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 been making a drink we called switzle as a kid. It’s 1 cup Bragg’s ACV, 1 cup raw honey, 1 tbsp powdered ginger, in a 2qt pitcher fill with spring water. Works every time. The fastest thing my mom ever used on me though is crushed onion, crushed garlic, ginger, cayenne pepper, and ACV, (no water), she made me gargle that and swallow slowly with my head tilted up. It burned like heck but my throat was not on fire the next morning and within a couple days I was back to normal. Today when my girls are sick, I make them the switzle and slice an onion real thin and have them eat that on gluten free bread with lots of mustard. Works every time. Also I mix 1 cup raw honey to 1 cup powdered (Ceylon) Cinnamon. Make a paste of it and keep in a small mason jar. I take a tsp of that two to three times a day. I was skeptical of that but I have 5 daughters who kept getting sick at school. Can’t afford the Dr and meds every time so I had to try something. It has worked faster than any antibiotic we have ever tried. For my younger daughters I put the honey in a coffee cup with hot water. They call it their honey tea. 🙂
We are blessed to have antibiotics. When you NEED them and do take them correctly there is nothing wrong with that. When you take them when you shouldn’t and or you don’t take them on schedule and complete the perscription that is when you are doing harm.
Colloidal silver spray is awesome. I use it if my throat is even a little sore.
What is VERY IMPORTANT to remember here, is that the warning for complications of strep have largely to do with UNTREATED strep infections. Kidney damage, heart damage, etc is mentioned as a complication of UNTREATED strep. While even though best ‘hippies’ of practitioners might say you need an antibiotic for this one, the literature is referring to UNTREATED strep. Doesn’t this raise the question: if you use alternative methods to treat the strept (NOT just the symptoms), wouldn’t that count as treating? Not just “taking it” and hoping you develop immunity? I think an antibacterial treatment is in order once the strep IS CONFIRMED (also another oft missed point). Saying you had it and got over it without being 100% sure you actually had strept is only adding to confusion on the matter. Some non-strep sore throats are often worse in symptoms than actual strep. It is important to keep track of these distinctions, I believe.
Yes…several problems with those touting natural remedies to strep throat:
1) Has the strep been confirmed via throat swab? Or are people just presuming they’ve had strep when it was actually viral?
2) Was the strep actually cleared in a timely manner w/out antibiotics? Was a follow up swab done to confirm these people were no longer contagious? Are these people who are choosing to NOT treat their strep with antibiotics keeping themselves quarantined until said strep infection has actually cleared? Or are they going about business as usual, putting others at risk?
3) The consequences of untreated strep is serious. PANDAS isn’t rare and can have lifelong repercussions of mental illness. Acute rheumatic fever and kidney dz from untreated strep can kill. Even if you don’t care about yourself, please don’t put others at risk by exposing them unnecessarily to strep. Even if you aren’t worried about the consequences of untreated strep, think about others who may be more suspectable to these issues.
4) Strep throat *usually* goes away in 3 to 7 days with or without antibiotic treatment (for most people). If strep throat isn’t treated with antibiotics, you will continue to be contagious for 2 to 3 weeks even if your symptoms go away. So, the main reason for treating with antibiotics, isn’t to “get rid of the sore throat”, but to minimize your contagious period, AND prevent post-strep complications (kidney, heart, brain).
Thanks for sharing Janice Lizardo! I need to find a way to compile and save all these great articles!
Had strep throat in 1981, and have never had it again. Made a very strong tea of echinacea and goldenseal, which I kept refrigerated, and gargled repeatedly over the next 3 days. Also drank lots of sleepy time tea with honey. In 3 days it was gone, never to be seen again
My mom gave us avacodo tea to beat strep/staph infections. It worked in24 hours! I only had strep once in my life, and that was 30 years ago. My grandfather beat a terrible staph infection because of avacodo tea. I still feel, however, that it is important to continue to live a nutrient dense lifestyle, using the food and herbs correctly as our ancestors did.
How do you make avocado tea? Thank you.
In my experience, those that practice traditional food preparation and limit the processed foods as much as humanly possible (really hard to do at 100% unless u put ur kid in a bubble), have a better outcome using natural protocols. With the onslaught of numerous antibiotics, some even given at birth, vaccines which change the way the immune system functions(cellular vs humoral immunity) and with the food supply so tainted, it’s getting harder and harder for our kids to lead a healthy life. So much so, that serious allergies (a hyper-response if the immune system) are so common they are considered normal. I follow WAP eating principles and my son did get strep. I treated it with homeopathic Belladonna and he recovered in 12 hours. His best friend, who doesn’t follow those principles, got the flu shot, etc, got the flu and strep, couldn’t move his neck for 3 days because his neck was so swollen and was out of school for over a week. The use of natural remedies relies on the strength of the immune system of the individual. If the immune system is already over-burdened, then they are less and less effective.
Yes I would be very cautious about treatment of strep….it causes some pretty bad secondary complications if treatment is prolonged.
AMAZING!