Gargle With Salt Water Every Night

Home remedies from Daadi's diary

My three-year-old suffers from atrange, but not uncommon, allergy. Anything cold, mildly sour, or crumbly, leaves him with a terrible cough, painful tonsils, and a high fever. After trying repeated courses of antibiotics with little effect, I started to look into alternative remedies. Little did I know that the solution lay right under my nose! My grandmothers have a treasure trove of tried and tested home remedies for treating many of the common ailments we face. Since I started using them for my son, he has been enjoying ice cream, milkshakes and fries without so much as a slight cough. He can also play in the rain, without fear of allergies. Some of these ‘totkas’ helped change my son’s life, and I hope they can do the same for you and your loved ones.

Honey cough syrup: 1tsp honey+ pinch black salt (kala namak) + pinch turmeric (haldi). Warm up slightly and take to relieve coughing and pain. If you take this as soon as you feel pain swallowing — which usually indicates the onset of a sore throat ­— you may avoid the infection altogether. It works for me!

This ‘medicine’ tastes quite good — my kids love it. The dosage, however, has to be reduced for them: a couple of drops of the mixture should be enough.

Honey and ginger brew: Add 1 tsp ginger juice and the juice of one lemon (or half an orange) to 1 cup of hot water. Add honey to sweeten. Sip slowly, letting it rest in the back of your throat between sips, to provide immediate relief from pain and irritation. This concoction worked wonderfully every time my brother had a tonsils infection.

Snorting water: This is extremely effective for clearing the airways.  It may be a little painful for the first 5 seconds, but gives instant relief so it’s well worth a try. Mix 1 tsp salt in a bowl of warm water. Take a handful and ‘inhale’ it through your nose, as far as you can. After a couple of times you’ll figure out how to take the water in your nose and out of the mouth. I know it sounds disgusting but it works like magic! Repeat at least 8 to 10 times. Warm salt water loosens the mucus, which you can then easily blow out through your nose.  This gives immediate results.

Health is Wealth » Sea Salt Water To Prevent And Treat Sore Throat

I used to have sore throat every other month when I first came to KL many years ago. I hated having to pop antibiotics so often. One of the after-effects of taking oral antibiotics is that I was very vulnerable to getting vaginal yeast infection. I hated what I had to go through every other month - throat infection, visit to the company’s GP to get a course of antibiotics which made my body weak and vulnerable to other disorders and treating the other disorder. Then one day, I went to this GP who advised me to gargle my throat with salt water every night, regardless of whether I had throat infection or not. It worked. I hardly got throat infection again. Even if I did, the frequent salt water gargling helped to heal the throat infection. I followed this doctor’s advice for many, many years and stopped this practice when I was very confident that I would not get a sore throat anymore. I have not gone to the doctor’s office for many years now. I now know how to prevent and treat a sore throat naturally, both for myself and for my girls. My girls have not stepped foot into the doctor’s office to treat a throat infection for a long time too.

I now ensure that my girls gargle their throat with sea salt water every night before going to bed. However, sometimes I will forget to fix them the cup of sea salt water. But if the girls have had a meal of ‘heaty’ deep fried food, I will ensure that they gargle their throat with salt water before they hit the sack. On several occasions, I noticed that Alycia and Sherilyn were loosing their voice as a result of eating spicy food. But after gargling their throat with salt water, they got their voice back and were spared from getting a throat infection. I also give them Esberitox whenever I notice that a flu that is about to attack them. So far, my pre-emptive measures of arresting a cold and throat infection with these 2 methods have been very effective. Along with getting enough sleep, plain water, fruits, veggie and a healthy diet, I am sure anyone can avoid stepping into the doctor’s office.

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