Fall and winter are the gateway to the cold and flu season. One of the most common symptoms of both a cold or the flu is a sore throat—a painful and irritated feeling at the back of your throat every time you swallow. A sore throat is caused by pain and inflammation of the mucous membranes and other tissues of your throat, and it can be aggravated and hurt more by talking and swallowing.
There are a number of causes of a sore throat, including viruses, bacteria, allergies and even the drier air of winter plus indoor heating. In most cases, though, it’s caused by a viral upper respiratory infection or a cold and is frequently accompanied by a running nose, sneezing, stuffy sinuses, a headache, sore or swollen glands in your neck and a low-grade fever. In addition to going hand-in-hand with a common cold, your sore throat can also be caused by:
- Strep, also called strep throat. This is the result of the streptococcus bacteria settling in and causing a very painful sore throat.
- Infected tonsils, a condition called tonsillitis. Your tonsils are lymph nodes that are found at the back and top of your throat. They’re part of your immune system and their job is to filter out pathogens that make you sick. While tonsillitis usually affects children, it can occur in anyone at any age.
- Mononucleosis, which is an illness most frequently caused by the Epstein-Barr virus—the virus that’s also responsible for chronic fatigue syndrome. Mono can cause a variety of symptoms, including a severely sore throat.
- Post nasal drip from allergies or other sinus problems. The drainage of mucous down the back of your throat causes irritation leading to a sore throat.
- Laryngitis, which is an inflamed voice box, can not only cause you to lose your voice, but can also cause a sore throat.
Chinese Medicine and Sore Throats
Your throat, sinuses and nose are all considered to be a part of your Lung organ system in Chinese medicine. That’s because all of these parts of your body are a part of respiration—from the base of your diaphragm to your nose. While there are many reasons for having a sore throat, by far the most common cause is an upper respiratory infection—the common cold. According to Chinese medical theory, a cold is caused by something called wind, which comes from the outside in the form of a virus, bacteria or allergen and makes its way into your body, specifically your respiratory system. The nature of wind is that it’s very changeable, so one day you may have a sore throat and the next day that irritation has moved down into your chest to cause a cough. In most instances, the wind causing your cold is cool in nature, which means it’s not too severe, and may come with slight aches and pains and a low-grade fever. This kind of cold usually resolves in about a week or so.
However, sometimes your upper respiratory infection can become inflamed and turn hot, in which case you would have wind that’s warm or hot in nature. When this happens, you may run a high fever, become very achy and sore and your throat can feel like it’s on fire.
Treating a hot wind respiratory virus or flu in Chinese medicine involves a strategy of expelling the wind and cooling the heat that’s responsible for the worst of your symptoms. Treating this kind of cold or flu would involve acupuncture, and in most cases, a Chinese herbal formula. Both the acupuncture and herbs are aimed at clearing the heat, reducing your fever, relieving your very sore throat, reducing the achiness and supporting your recovery. An herbal formula augments the acupuncture treatments and would combine cooling herbs with those to reduce the pain of your sore throat and expel wind. Individual herbs can also be added to address a runny nose, cough or other symptoms.
In addition to acupuncture and herbal medicine, there are some things that you can do at home to help ease the pain of your sore throat. You can:
- Choose foods that are easily digestible and are cooling for your throat. Some good choices are apples, pears, cucumbers, melon and mint tea.
- Avoid foods that promote mucous, such as dairy, very sweet foods and rich or fatty foods.
- Try gargling with a weak solution of lukewarm salt water to ease the pain of your sore throat.
- Keep your throat moist. For the pain, you can use medicated lozenges that temporarily numb your throat. And lozenges that contain phenol can help keep the surface germs at bay, giving your immune system some time to build up resistance.
- Stay hydrated by drinking plenty of fluids. This also prevents your throat from becoming dry and more irritated.
- You can also hydrate your home, too, by using a humidifier or by putting a pot of water on the stove to boil for 10-15 minutes to add moisture to the air.
- If you lose your voice, don’t try to talk. Even at a whisper, any talking just further aggravates your voice box and hinders the healing process.
With a sore throat, as with the common cold, it takes some time it heal. However, acupuncture, Chinese herbs and a little self-care can keep you comfortable and speed up the healing process.
Cindy Chamberlain is an acupuncturist in Overland Park, KS and the founder of Eastern Healing Solutions, LLC. She is licensed in Kansas and Missouri and has been practicing traditional Chinese medicine since 1996.
