ask: Does anyone have any good home remedies for a chronic sore throat for an over 50 year old with tonsils in tact?

Evie, I'm sure you've heard of gargling with warm salt water? My mom taught me this and it always helps, though you get tired of the salty taste. The warmer you can stand it, the better, it seems.

You say it's chronic; have you had it checked by a doctor to see if it is either recurrent tonsillitis or strep throat? Do you regularly get prescribed antibiotics for infection, or does your sore throat generally go away on its own?

Here's a forum where people have written in about their own home remedies (the one about warm lemonade sounds like it would be a winner):

http://www.myhomeremedies.com/topic.cgi?topicid=187

and here is a page with some natural and herbal remedies:

http://www.natural-homeremedies.com/homeremedies_sorethroat.htm

In case you are interested, here's a very good discussion of tonsilliltis in adults by a doctor from the Mayo Clinic:

http://www.mayoclinic.org/medical-edge-newspaper-2008/jan-28.html

And here's a Brigham and Women's research study that discusses tonsil removal in adults. It followed 83 adults who had chronic tonsillitis for 3 years,and compared treatment with antibiotics to having the tonsils removed:

http://www.brighamandwomens.org/publicaffairs/Newsreleases/chronictonsil...

What have you tried in the past to treat your sore throat? Are you not getting much relief?

Thank you for your response. I wrote this email for a male co-worker who has been sick for 5 weeks. He has been to the doctor several times over the past five weeks. He has been on two different antibiotics. But says they have not tested him for strep throat. He has done the warm salt water as I suggested and the apple cider vinegar and water. He says he has little white puss pockets at the back of his throat.

I will encourage him to make another trip to the doctor for further test.

Thank you again.

Evie14

Poor guy, especially feeling that way after two rounds of antibiotics.

You're so welcome.

Here's a page on strep throat symptoms, along with a picture of what it looks like in one person:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/strep-throat/DS00260/DSECTION=symptoms

The white areas he talks about may be symptoms of tonsillitis. If you scroll down on this page there is a similar picture of what tonsillitis looks like in one person:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://img.tfd.com/mosby/thumbs/5...

Take care, and so glad we could help.

When I have make a nice hot cup of tea with lots of honey and lemon which always help my throat feel better. The honey and lemon really helps. It also helps calm a cough.

Good Luck.

Evie, also tell your coworker that a strep test is done at the doctor's office and the results take about 5 minutes.

Stay away from sugar. They grow bacteria in petri dishes. I gave up sugar and haven't gotten sick. Used to all the time. Try it yourself.

been fighting reaccuring sore throat for a couple months or more...comes on sudden and there are usually white tiny puss pockets in different places in my throat..I'll have a few good days and then it keeps coming back, feel really tired and sore muscles sometimes,been on antibiotics several times but no help...rinsing with salt water,,peroxide mix,etc...need some help please! some say mono,strep,tonsils.etc.no coughing,running nose or cold symptoms ..any ideas welcome..