Sore Throat Remedy

Tea for a sore throat - a help or a danger.

When you've got a sore throat, you want relief.

A lot of approaches people take to easing the discomfort either try to numb the pain or just keep your throat from drying out. Spraying a numbing agent into the back of your throat does may help you feel better for awhile, but what is the ingredient that is doing the numbing? Is it alcohol, or some antiseptic? And drinking beverages to keep your throat moist may keep you running to the bathroom all day while spiking your sugar intake as much as those tiny little eucalyptus cough drops do.

For a change from the sugary drinks and the numbing spray, try something that has worked for me in order to temporary alleviate the soreness - tea.

No not, caffeinated (aka: dehydrating) tea, but a specific blend of herbs and other natural elements.

Although I respect organically produces edibles, and I respect the nutritional benefits of herbs, please don't mistake me for someone who only eat organically grown foods and practices homeopathy (healing sickness by natural ingredients, or those not created in a factory test-tube laboratory).

We still eat our share of fast-food, hormone-injected meats, and test-tube created pharmacy medicines.

But for our sore throats, we found something natural that has helped us feel better, and which comes from plant extracts.

Be warned, though, they include the following cautions:

"Cautions: Consult a healthcare provider prior to use if you have hypokalemia, if you are taking any kind of hormonal therapies, diuretics, potassium depleting agents, or MAO inhibitors.

Contraindications: Do not use if you have impaired kidney or liver functions, high blood pressure or heart disease.

Pregnancy and lactation: Not to be used during pregnancy or while breastfeeding."

The tea is called "Throat Coat" and is made by Traditional Medicinals.

The Traditional Medicinals webpage for this tea says:

"Throat Coat provides a protective coating on the membranes that line the throat.* Throat Coat contains herbs with demulcent action, and in a double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study it was shown to provide rapid, temporary relief of sore throat pain.

How does it taste? It's sweet, aromatic, earthy and viscous (which allows the herbs to coat your throat). Children love the sweet, soft and soothing feel of Throat Coat."

Ingredients include:

"Licorice root 760 mg, organic slippery elm bark 80 mg, licorice root dry aqueous extract (8:1) 60 mg, organic marshmallow root 60 mg. Proprietary blend: wild cherry bark, bitter fennel fruit, organic cinnamon bark, organic sweet orange peel."

So keep this in mind, and confirm with your doctor whether or not this is an appropriate alternative (or complement) for your other sore-throat remedies.