The comments below reflect the personal experiences and opinions of readers and do not represent medical advice or the views of this website. The information shared has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or prevent any disease or health condition. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional for medical concerns.
66 User Reviews
Posted by Kyle (Clarksville, Tn) on 08/07/2011
★★★★★
I just happened to find this site while desperately searching for something to help my sore throat. Its the middle of summer and I didn't exactly have a stock of conventional cold/flu medicine at my home. I did have Nyquil, but it was already 0530 and I did not want to sleep the rest of my Sunday away just to treat a sore throat. Thats where this site came in. I tried a suggestion on here of 8oz of boiling water, 1/4tsp of Cayenne pepper and a couple TBs of ACV. From the moment I took the first sip I was sold. I felt instant relief. I've been gargling/drinking the mixture for the last 15 - 20 minutes and my throat soreness is almost completely gone! I'm going to keep this regiment up throughout the day in hopes that by this evening I won't have anything to worry about. Thanks for providing a place where people can share these types of remedies with one another!
ACV and Cayenne
Posted by Ninae (Queens, Ny) on 05/06/2011
★★★★★
Hi,
I tried the Cayenne pepper, ACV and the turmeric gargles all at the same day. I gargled with Cayenne 3 times and once with Apple Cider Vinegar once with turmeric in a period of 2 hours. I also filled a glass with salt and warm water and I gargled with that as well.
In between I took throat lozenges and I steamed some wated dropped some Eucalyptus drops about 10 and inhaled to open up my sinuses.
My throat dosent hurt anymore. My ear pain diminished... I dont know which one did the trick but my sore throat is gone and its only been an hour! I know its alat of work but I was determined to try it and it worked for me...
ACV and Cayenne
Posted by Ashley (Detroit, Mi) on 01/12/2011
★★★★★
I came down with a very bad sore throat about 3 days ago.. I just started a new job and knew I couldn't miss any work so I hunted online for good, quick home remedies to make me feel better!
I was already taking dayquil & nyquil, using these Zicam gel swabs and these Zicam vitamin c tablet thingys.. But nothing was helping. I tried the cayenne pepper a time before, but it just didn't do the trick like I thought it would. So I ran up to the store and got some apple cider vinegar and some honey & lemon lipton tea bags.. (not as good as using real lemons or real honey, but better than nothing! ) and I started gargling and sipping on some of the ACV & cayenne pepper together in hot water.. My throat ALMOST INSTANTLY felt better!! So thanks guys :] My nose is still very runny, and I'm still very tired and am not 100% better.. But at least I can talk :D
ACV and Cayenne
Posted by Ms. Kaye (Indianapolis, Indiana) on 02/03/2010
★★★★★
Concoction of apple cider vinegar, cayenne pepper, dash of salt, honey, lemon, organic throat coat tea bag, and honey and lemon tea bag helped my sore throat. Taking Acv straight works, but if u can't stand the taste try this:
ACV: 2-3tbsp; sprinkle of cayenne pepper; a dash of sea salt or reg.salt; 2tsp honey; slice of lemon;(cut in half and sqeeze juice in tea, remove pulp & place in cup) the other half garnish cup, eat after tea is gone; steep organic throat coat for 3-5 mins. & take out. Steep and leave the black tea & honey teabag in glass. SIP, gargle, & swallow. Taste is ok. May not be the best but u should feel better. Repeat as neccessary.
I decided to combine all the remedies into a nice herbal tea. U can add brandy to this. You will sleep well and you will be able to swallow.
ACV and Cayenne
Posted by C.summers (Fort Worth, Tx Usa) on 01/18/2010
★★★★★
I'm 33 yrs old, have had a bad sore throat for 4 days & it's FINALLY going away thanks to this website!!! I read everyones posts & suggestions & tweaked your ideas to make up my own. Here's what I did:
1) Went & got fresh ginger (which I peeled), carrots, apple, lemon (use whatever qty you like) - juiced & drank
2) made a concoction of 1 tsp. cayenne pepper, 1 tblsp. apple cider vinegar, 1 tblsp. honey, 1 tsp. fresh lemon juice - add hot water & a splash of cold water --- gargle as many times as you wish & then continue gargling as you feel like it
3) OPTIONAL - same concoction as #2 MINUS the cayenne pepper - drink it down
I'm telling you - it works! Yesterday I thought I was dying & today I'm almost 100% back to me. WOO HOO!!! Good luck!!!
ACV and Cayenne
Posted by Bambam775 (Puyallup, WA) on 06/19/2009
★★★★★
So after suffering for most of the day with an excrutiating sore throat, I came to earthclininc.com. Why it took me so long I don't know. Anyway, I put 2 T raw honey, 2T ACV and a couple dashes Cayenne in hot water. I have a hard time with ACV because I took it for so long it now makes me gag. But I am suffering through and it seems to be easing the sore throat. Nature knows how to help us after all! I'll keep using it as long as I can to make sure the YUCK is gone. Thanks for all the great ideas from everyone.
ACV and Cayenne
Posted by Mike (Queesbury, New York) on 06/27/2008
★★★★★
When i woke up this morn i had the worst sore thoat ever... it was so bad i had to spit out the saliva i had in my mouth because it was hurting so bad to swallow... so i tried to boil up some ACV with cayenne pepper and salt and it helped my throat out 75% better.. try it it will help you. Don't use sugar products.
ACV and Cayenne
Posted by Jerry (Clayton, North Carolina) on 06/24/2008
★★★★★
This works good and tastes good. One bag of Celestial Seasonings Mandarin Orange Spice, 3 table spoons ACV, 1/8 measure of cayenne pepper with hot water {from tea pot heated on stove}8 or 10 oz cup. I don't believe anything should come out of a micro wave. It worked almost instantly and is loosening the mucus. EARTH CLINIC RULES... LOVE THIS WEBSITE, NEVER GIVE UP. THANKS.
Replied by Lou
(Tyler, Tx)
03/06/2012
ACV and Cayenne
Posted by Drew (Salina, Kansas) on 03/27/2008
★★★★★
I have had a sore throat for a couple days now. Probably worsened by the fact that outside of death I won't go to the doctor. Put 8 oz. water, 1/4 tsp. of cayenne, splash of ACV and some honey in a cup and then in the microwave for a minute. Sipped/gargled this for half an hour. Amazing!!! I can actually swallow not with no pain! Thank you so much!!
ACV and Cayenne
Posted by Eloise (New York, NY) on 03/18/2008
★★★★★
I tried the ACV/Cayenne Pepper remedy as suggested by Laura for the severe sore throat that I was having thanks to all my allergies and post nasal drip. I put two tablespoons of ACV, two tablespoons of honey, and 1/8 tsp of cayenne pepper in a cup of boiled hot water. I drank it and then it worked a bit but I could still feel the daggers in my throat everytime I cleared my throat, so I just went to bed. Today, my sore throat is GONE, and my runny nose has changed to a congested nose which isn't ideal, but baby steps! Also, for some reason, I noticed that after I drank the cayenne pepper, my saliva started becoming really thick so I would constantly spit it out. Whats that about?
ACV and Cayenne
Posted by Annette (Coolah, Australia) on 03/15/2008
★★★★★
James' recipe & cayenne pepper cured my sore throat. Brilliant information - thanks! I was quite desperate yesterday morning with a throat that was severely swollen and each swallow felt as though it was against razor blades. I had been gargling with apple cider vinegar for a day already but although it relieved it slightly immediately it definitely wasn't improving. I read the most popular cure (Penny's) of cayenne pepper in water and used a spare eyedropper to squirt small amounts of this down to the back of my throat - ooooh, hot, nasty taste, but it relieved it slightly. I repeated every 15-20 minutes for a couple of hours and it felt slightly better. I continued regularly doing this and about 4 hours after beginning tried James' recipe - 12oz water, 4oz apple cider vinegar, 1/2 tspn cayenne and some honey (I used 2 heaped teaspoons), heated and sipped. It tasted foul and made me feel quite ill, so I stopped sipping and used it as a gargle instead. I gargled every hour or so with this mixture and in between used the cayenne/water mixture squirted to the back of the throat. Within about 8 hours of starting the remedy it was feeling substantially better and now 24 hours later has almost completely gone. Thanks!!!
ACV and Cayenne
Posted by Jennifer (Mesquite, Texas) on 03/08/2008
★★★★★
I must have had the worst sore throat in history. I have had three babies, and several tooth infections, but nothing compared to the pain of this sore throat! I went to the doctor and it was confirmed viral. The only thing they could do was give me pain meds. So guess what I was given...codine...in syrup form! Why would anyone in their right mind give someone with an extreme sore throat syrup to gag down?!?! Anyway, it didnt touch the pain. I was double dosing and begging my husband to knock me out...for real. He wouldn't, so in desperation, I got online and started searching for natural cures. At 2 a.m. I found earthclinic! I didnt have apple cider vinegar, but I had powdered cayene pepper in the kitchen, so i mixed it with warm water and oh praise the Lord...the pain was decreasing! I cried and cried from sheer relief. I would gargle it for 30 seconds or so every 15 minutes. After about 3 hours, I was feeling waaaay better and could sleep finally. After I woke up, I started drinking ACV in green tea with lemon and honey and cayene pepper. I didn't have to gargle anymore after that. I would just drink the acv cayene concoction all day.After 24 hours,I was completely normal!
Replied by Ed
(Pontevedra, Spain)
12/11/2010
★☆☆☆☆
ACV and Cayenne
Posted by Lisa (USA) on 02/01/2008
★★★★★
At 1:00 this morning, I finally got out of bed because my sore throat was making me miserable. It has been sore for a few days but it had finally reached it's peak. I couldn't swallow and was almost in tears. I sat down in front of the computer and researched home made remedies until I came across your site and the recipe for ACV, Cayenne pepper, honey and water. After I read all of the Yea's, I decided I certainly didn't have anything to lose. I didn't have any cayenne pepper but I did have some hot sauce with cayenne listed as the main ingredient of 3 so I used 1/2 teaspoon of that instead and I added a small amount of sea salt. Here are the results: It didn't taste terrific... obviously. But it wasn't horrid either. I only finished about 12 of the 16 ounces because I was starting to get a little nauseated. I am assuming that is from lack of food in my stomach though. It took me about 40 minutes to drink that because I waited a few minutes in between each sip. I gargled and swallowed each drink. My first surprise was that immediately, I started having tons of mucus come up. I haven't been congested so I was a little shocked. And, I was disappointed that it really didn't feel better quickly. I went back to bed and then my nose started running...again, surprised since I hadn't thought that was an issue. I did finally fall asleep. I awoke again around 4:30...and was AMAZED in the difference in my throat. While it was still a little sore, the change was dramatic! I could swallow without total agony. It is now 8:00 and it my throat is a little sore but nothing like it was. I am headed downstairs to make another batch of this stuff because I am sure it can only help. THANKS so much! Lisa
Replied by Kathleen
(Los Angeles, Ca)
01/29/2013
Replied by Kathleen
(Los Angeles, Ca)
01/29/2013
★★★★★
ACV and Cayenne
Posted by Jason (Mammoth, Cali) on 01/27/2008
★★★★★
Kudos to the nice site! I hope this helps many people as it did me. Four days ago, I woke up with a little tickle of a sore throat. By yesterday it had become absolutely atrocious. I got desperate, found this site, and went to the store and bought some apple cider vinegar and cayenne powder last night. I have chili powder and balsamic vinegar at home, but figured I should try the exact recipe. I've almost finished a pint of acv and a couple teaspoons (haven't been measuring) of cayenne. compared to yesterday, I feel wonderful! I was getting fever/chills for the last two days, and that's done too. I've also been taking lots of astragalus, echinacea, and goldenseal. So, although I may be in the same shape today if I didn't take anything at all, I am convinced that the cayenne/acv soothed the pain and irritation in my throat. Maybe it helped me along in other ways, too, but who knows... I was very skeptical to try this, as I almost always get hiccups when I eat anything spicy, and I really didn't want to be hiccuping with a sore throat. I started with five "bottom taps" of cayenne per serving (and oh yes did it make me hiccup), and am now up to fifteen taps per serving (without hiccups), which include about two eyeballed-tablespoons ACV and hot water. Mmmm, mmmm, good! Thank you so very much!!!
ACV and Cayenne
Posted by Jason (Mammoth, Cali) on 01/27/2008
★★★★★
Kudos to the nice site! I hope this helps many people as it did me. Four days ago, I woke up with a little tickle of a sore throat. By yesterday it had become absolutely atrocious. I got desperate, found this site, and went to the store and bought some apple cider vinegar and cayenne powder last night. I have chili powder and balsamic vinegar at home, but figured I should try the exact recipe. I've almost finished a pint of acv and a couple teaspoons (haven't been measuring) of cayenne. compared to yesterday, I feel wonderful! I was getting fever/chills for the last two days, and that's done too. I've also been taking lots of astragalus, echinacea, and goldenseal. So, although I may be in the same shape today if I didn't take anything at all, I am convinced that the cayenne/acv soothed the pain and irritation in my throat. Maybe it helped me along in other ways, too, but who knows... I was very skeptical to try this, as I almost always get hiccups when I eat anything spicy, and I really didn't want to be hiccuping with a sore throat. I started with five "bottom taps" of cayenne per serving (and oh yes did it make me hiccup), and am now up to fifteen taps per serving (without hiccups), which include about two eyeballed-tablespoons ACV and hot water. Mmmm, mmmm, good! Thank you so very much!!!