Strep Throat
Health Benefits

  1. Home
  2. Ailments
  3. Strep Throat

Harness the Power of Cayenne Pepper for Strep Throat Relief

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.
Sort by Default New Loved

54 User Reviews

5 star (46) 
  85%
4 star (5) 
  9%
1 star (3) 
  6%
Write a review
Posted by Shelby (Blue Springs, Missouri, United States) on 04/30/2011
 ★★★★☆

Okay, so I've had strep throat for three days and haven't been dealing with just a sore throat- it's the whole deal: body aches, head aches, and a horrible fever. I'm on antibiotics, the maximum dosage that I can have, but the pain has been getting worse in my throat. I'm also an asthmatic, which, of course, does not help the situation in the slightest because it makes it very difficult for me to breathe.

I Googled home remedies for strep and this was the first website that came up. The most revered fix seemed to be the cayenne pepper (and that was the only thing I had in my cabinets that was on the list) so I went ahead and tried it. I just sprinkled some into a little bit of orange juice and drank it down. Since I cannot stand cayenne pepper, not because it's spicy but because I hate it, I followed the glass down with some milk, but I sipped it because I was afraid the cayenne wouldn't work properly if I didn't. I must say, it worked a lot better than I expected it to. Although I can still feel the swollen, tender lump in my throat, the pain was 95% gone after I had finished the drink and I can breathe a little easier now.

Hopefully, this response will work for somebody else, the way it worked for me.

Cayenne
Posted by Bill (Philadelphia, Penna) on 11/28/2010
 ★★★★★

I've been reading many of the comments on using cayenne pepper for a sore throat and also for strep. I figured by now we all know it works so there was no reason for me to add my two cents. But so many people seem to have a hard time with it. Even the ones who have no problem at all are making it much more difficult than it has to be. When I feel one coming on all I do is take a Q-tip and wet it. Then dip it in the cayenne and dab it on your throat where you feel the pain. If you need more turn it around or get a new one and keep going until you cover as much as you need to. I was surprised that you don't even taste it and no burning at all.

A few weeks back my throat started killing me. I never even looked at it all day. The next morning I woke up in great pain. I looked in the mirror and there it was. A big white spot on the back of my throat about the size of a jelly bean. I dabbed a little cayenne on it and never even thought about it again. About two days later I remembered it and thought "That's weird. I wonder what happened to my Strep" I looked in the mirror and couldn't see anything. Gone.

The Q-tip works fine but what I've been doing is using a camel hair brush. It's a number 6. They're actually meant for painting models(cars, planes etc. )It works better because it has a much longer handle and you can see better because you're not stuffing all your fingers and half your hand into your mouth. Just rinse it well and then rinse it in some rubbing alcohol or peroxide so you don't keep recontaminating yourself. Also dump a little of the cayenne out into a cup or on a plate or something and then when your done rinse it down the drain. Never dip right into your cayenne container. Anyway hope this helps those who don't/can't gargle the cayenne. I know it's not pleasant, I've tried. This is much easier plus the cayenne is EXTREMELY concentrated and not literally watered down.

Cayenne
Posted by Kristy (Denver, Co, Usa) on 04/16/2010
 ★★★★★

My son who is 12, was complaining about a really bad sore throat last night, he was talking funny and could not swallow any foods and had a hard time with liquids as well. When I checked his mouth I noticed there were 2 white puss pockets and knew he was getting strep. I really did not want to take him to the Emergency room last night and pay a BIG out of pocket expense, so I looked up strep on Earth clinic and found a strep throat remedie using Cayenne Pepper and lemon juice. Well, I put 1/2 tbl spoon of cayenne pepper and 1/2 tbl spoon fresh squeezed lemon juice in 1 cup of warm water and had him gargle through out the evening. At first he was complaining that it wasn't working, and it was a little spicy. When he got up this morning boy was he excited, when he was able to swallow breakfast and there was no more pain at all. I am very very excited about using this site more often in the future. First time HAPPY Earth clinc remedie user!!!

Cayenne
Posted by Stephanie (Ruidoso, New Mexico, USA) on 04/14/2009
 ★★★★★

Cayenne pepper for strep throat works GREAT! I have had strep throat four times (confirmed) in the past five months. I went to the doctor, took the antibiotics given and about 2-3 weeks after the antibiotics were finished, I would get symptoms again and my doctor suggested seeing an ENT doctor to get my tonsils out. At the first signs of strep throat this time (achey, sore throat, lump in throat) I saw this site and thought why NOT try the cayenne pepper. I had two small white patches in my throat so I KNEW it was heading to strep and I started gargling 1/8 tsp organic cayenne pepper with warm water around 5pm. I can NOT eat hot foods and was scared to death but it wasn't bad at all. It burned my tongue more than anything but I was desperate! I also added some cayenne pepper to my chicken noodle soup. I probably gargled once an hour at first but right before going to bed, I gargled every fifteen minutes for about four times. I went to bed (still seeing the small spots on my throat but feeling better). I slept for about 7 hours- which was GREAT and first thing looked down my throat and one spot is gone and the other has been reduced dramatically. Now, I have to admit that I caught this one early and I think that helped immensly but I am a believer! Thanks so much to all your postings! I am going to shout it from the rooftops - CAYENNE REALLY WORKS!

Replied by Stephanie
(Ruidoso, New Mexico)
05/01/2009

Hi all! I posted about 2 1/2 weeks ago about my reoccuring strep throat and how Cayenne pepper worked great. And it did, but I looked in my throat last night and there are little white spots again and my right tonsil is swollen and it hurts to swallow. I guess my question is: Will it come and go for a while until my immune system is built up to fight it? I was surprised to see white spots on my throat again. It took about three-five days to get rid of the sore throat/spots the last time and have only been symptom free for a little over a week. I have done the antibiotics route and for 5 months, it kept coming back - so I don't want to try the antibiotics again. My symptoms are less severe this time around so I know that the ACV and the cayenne pepper are helping. Should I not worry and just keep trying to fight this naturally?
Any input is welcome!
Thanks!

Karla
(MO)
02/20/2021

I read where avoiding dairy products can help prevent strep throat.

Replied by Carolyn
(Milford, Ct)
07/11/2012

Last year my seven year-old daughter spent almost 7 months fighting recurring strep throat. They doctors wanted to remove her tonsils, until I did a little investigating. It turns out that pets, particularly cats, can be carriers, as can mature humans. The carriers exhibit no symptoms/white spots, but pass along the infection to those who are vulnerable. If you live with any creatures, human or furry, they may be the culprits of your re-infection. Treat them while you treat yourself with cayenne, and you may be very pleased with the results. I know we were!

Cayenne
Posted by Monique (Cincinnati, OH) on 03/05/2009
 ★☆☆☆☆

I tried gargling with the cayenne pepper every 15 minutes to help cure my strep throat but nothing was working. I even tried mixing the cayenne with apple cider vinegar and still nothing. I even swallowed the apple cider vinegar and my throat still feels like it is on fire. Since strep is a bacteria and contagious I truly believe now that it is one of those things that should be treated with an antibiotic to ensure that it does not come back. No home remedy for this one.

Cayenne
Posted by Jory (Crossville, Tennessee, United States) on 03/01/2009
 ★★★★★

the cayenne pepper thing... yes i tried it, and it worked wonders, thank you so much for this, this was fantastic, completely and utterly amazing, and as long as you do it right people, it will work i swear it. my whole family had strep, and we did this pepper thing, and it worked on all of us in less than 24 hours. so save yourself a trip to the doctor, just go to the kitchen and grab some pepper!

Cayenne
Posted by Alicia (Birmingham, United Kingdom) on 12/02/2008
 ★★★★★

Chest infection/ Strep throat

I came across this site when searching for cayenne pepper uses as I knew there was something pretty special about it. I have a chest infection, which when combined with asthma is pretty horrific. I haven't been able to breathe and my throat has been so sore. I tried cayenne pepper in orange juice, in the first cup i used only a few sprinkles, in the second 15 minutes later i poured loads in. The burn didn't really effect me. Immediately I feel a little more alive, and my nose is less clogged. I think this will really work if I take it every day. Miracle cure!

Measurements;
1 teaspoon in total in 400ml of orange juice.

Replied by Suzy
(Conroe, Tx Usa)
07/19/2010
★★★★☆

Yes Cayenne Pepper is effective! You will find that most reviews here say that they received a 50% cure within the first day. The point here is that you have to continue the use of it (just as you must continue a full pack of antibiotics because they keep working up to 10 days after you take your last one). A couple people here said it did not work for them, but I wonder how often and how long they used it for it not to work? I read every review here before I tried it yesterday(07/18/10). I woke up Saturday morning with a severe sore throat that felt swollen and raw, stiff and painful neck, chills, body aches, and occasional minor headache. I googled sore throat and then realized that I had strep throat, first time in my life and I am 30yrs of age. My clinic is closed on weekdays so I needed something to get me through the weekend since many over the counter drugs/meds were NOT doing anything for me and the pain! Only thing that did help a little was sore throat spray. You will find you have several options with the cayenne pepper. You can gargle it with warm water; use about a 1/2 tsp cayenne with half or full cup of warm water. I prefer using less water because then you won't have to gargle as much, but you are still getting the same dose of cayenne. Someone else spoke of eating 1/8 tsp of cayenne, allowing it to rest in their throat for minutes until they chased it down with milk. That is probably one of the more effective ways offered as it is direct contact. Another idea I learned was mixing it in with a warm drink. You can either heat natural lemonade or water, and add honey, lemon of course, and a dash of cayenne pepper. Microwave it and slowly sip. The lemon mixed with cayenne and heated up has a kick to it, so prepare yourself! But it taste sweet and is tolerable. I find it better than liquid meds. Last you can just add it with whatever food you'd like! I put some of that chili in a can (vegetarian actually) on a piece of bread and sprinkled some cayenne on top and ate that last night. I basically took a little of everyone's advice and applied it. I am on day two and I have noticed a significant positive change! The pain has subsided by about 75%. I have no doubt that if I continue on with this pattern I will be cured within 1-2 more days. Regardless if I do feel better by tomorrow (day 3 of cayenne use) I will continue through the day with it just to be sure it is gone!

This is what I did on day one and plan to continue each day for 3 days total:
Gargle with 1/2 tsp cayenne in 3/4 cup warm water until it's gone. After each gargle, it wouldn't hurt to swallow a bit of each gargle to be sure it gets in your throat. Right after that I warmed 1 cup of water in microwave with about 1 tbsp of honey, squeezed a couple slices of lemon in water, and sprinkled some cayenne with it. Then I took some medicine, and since we cannot discuss brand names I cannot say exactly what I used. But it is the stuff that you can buy over the counter in the medicine aisle, used specifically for the ". . . . . Flu" or for "severe cold & cough. " It comes in packets (powder form which you dissolve in water). I bought the double pack, which had 6 packets of daytime and 6 for night time. The daytime is "berry infused w/ menthol & green tea. " The night time packets contain "honey lemon infused w/ chamomile & white tea flavors. " Regardless, they still taste like medicine. So if I was you I would not mix it with a full cup of water like the directions say, but rather make it a shot! Next I took 5ml of colloidal silver, a mineral and NATURAL OVER the COUNTER ANTIBIOTIC! It cost me $10. There are several brands out there of colloidal silver. I personally shop at specific vitamin stores to get supplements that I can trust. Next I ate 2 oranges because this source of natural vitamin C is the absolute best! I know this from personal experience when I was cured of illness when I had no access to supplements or vitamins, but only access to food. (Basic Training). Last I ate chili on piece of bread with sprinkle of cayenne on top. I have no doubt that the combination of these things worked together to heal my body. But I know that the cayenne does work because of the fact that I did feel better soon after I gargled and consumed it which was before I had taken anything else. I will follow all these steps today and tomorrow. I doubt I will need to go to the doctor now! I will follow up in 2 days. . .

Cayenne
Posted by DK (St. Paul, MN) on 10/29/2008
 ★★★★★

I put 2 tea spoons of ACV in a cup of lipton tea with a shot of honey. A mere couple sips and 10 minutes later, my throat was nearly perfect again (temporary, cause I had a cigarette, and that messed my throat up again = )

Cayenne
Posted by Kate (Vancouver, British Columbia) on 09/19/2008
 ★★★★★

I am so glad I found this website. Last week I had strep throat for the second time in 3 months. I had white patches down my throat, fever and chills, and could hardly swallow. I began ingesting about 1/8 tsp. of cayenne pepper, straight, every hour. I let it burn in my throat for 5 minutes, then chased it with some milk. Within 24 hours, I was feeling better; no sore throat. Within 48 hours, all blisters were gone and my fever went away. I am 100 percent cured. I am blown away - I have been suffering with sore throats all my life and I so regret all the rounds of antibiotics I have taken. Cayenne pepper is a miracle - I'm going to take a small dose every day for the rest of my life. Thank you to all the folks on this site - I am so happy right now.

Cayenne
Posted by Alex (Bryan, Texas) on 07/01/2008
 ★★★★★

I had strep as a child and thought all that was over, but have now been getting the sickness every year in my late twenties. I was tired of going back to the doctor after a week of pure hell only to have him hit me with another huge shot in the butt. I found this remedy and it seems to work. I have found that using a small glass of room temp. water, 1 tsp or more of cayenne pepper, a squirt of lemon juice and a squirt of honey does the job right. You may want to tone down the pepper if you are highly sensitive to spice. At the very least you may want to be sitting down for the first swig if you have had a really painful sore throat as I did, I felt that faint feeling coming on. I definitely prefer swallowing the entire mixture rather than gargling since the pepper gets directly to the source. You had better belive that it will come out as hot as it went in if you catch my drift. Other than that slight sid-effect I would definitely recommend this as opposed to painful and costly doctor visits.

Cayenne
Posted by Renate (Smalltown, Oklahoma) on 04/05/2008
 ★★★★☆

I just went through about with an extreme sore throat for 6 days. I am convinced I had strep throat, as I can't remember having a sore throat as painful as this. No puss or sign of infection otherwise. Thank God I don't have any tonsils! I tried gargling everything under the sun, cider vinegar & honey, salt, peroxide & soda, brandy, Listerine, camomile tea, and, your cayenne pepper, 1/8 tsp to a cup of warm water every half hour for two days. I love the taste, but the pain only got worse. NOTHING helped!!!

I finally got rid of the pain today, but rules do not permit me to tell you how - that is unfortunate.

Cayenne
Posted by Jimmy (Falmouth, KY) on 03/22/2008
 ★★★★★

I have an extraordinary pain tolerance. I'm devistated by sore throats. Desperate to avoid strep throat and a trip to the doctor, I looked up home remedies. I found this site. I put 1/8th teaspoon of cayenne in 8 oz of water with a teaspoon of real lemon juice concentrate. I gargled the mixture and swallowed just a bit after each gargle. You should get about 6 or 7 gargles. I don't like spicey food, I didn't coat my lips with vaseline. I had a 50 percent reduction in the pain immediately.

Cayenne
Posted by Rich (Atlanta, GA) on 03/13/2008
 ★★★★★

Cayenne Pepper for sore throat (Remedy) - put me under "Yea" please. This works. I don't usually care a bit for most home remedy -type stuff, but I'm sitting over here developing strep. It got so bad that I couldn't even swallow like a normal person without restraining the reflex to vomit, and having to wipe my eyes from the pain. Me. A 30 year old guy as big as a football player. My mom actually called me with this cure. The pain was so bad that I figured why not, so I hit the store and came back to give it a shot. That was at about 1:15PM. It is now not quite 3:15, and I feel so much better, I can't even tell you. There's still some pain and soreness there, as anybody would expect, but it's just a shell of the agony it was this morning. I would not write this comment if I didn't mean what I say. If you're in pain, try this. It will burn your mouth like hellfire for a minute, but it's gloriously, beautifully worth it. When the fire dies down, you'll be shocked at the difference. Thanks Penny, and thanks Earth Clinic.

Cayenne
Posted by Chris (Columbus, Ohio) on 02/23/2008
 ★★★★★

I read the comments and the remedy itself about gargling cayenne pepper-filled water. I started having a sore throat 3 days ago, looked in the back of my throat and compared symptoms 2 days ago and realized it was strep, and this morning it was so bad it brought tears to my eyes with each swallow.

I have taken so much ibuprofen over the past 2 days, easily twice as much as I have ever taken for anything else. I stopped taking it about 4PM today, and started looking for a better solution at about 8. I went to the store to get Cayenne, and while I was there I was hungry (surprising over these past 3 days) so I got some kettle-cooked jalapeño chips as well as the cayenne pepper. I gargled some water with quite a bit more cayenne than I figured was necessary, then ate some chips (I grew up with Mexicans, I love spicy food). After only 1 gargle and some chips, my throat is feeling drastically better. I'm about to go gargle another cup. Thanks for your guys' help!

Replied by Amber
(Florida)
07/15/2015

I woke up at 1:30 this morning w a sore throat so bad, I couldn't sleep. It's been on and off for over a week now. I was doing the goldenseal, echinacea, licorice tincture spray religiously for a couple days w throat coat tea and lots of water, lozenges which I thought took care of it. The last few days it's come, back w a, vengence and I really didnt wanna go to the Dr. I thought it'd just take care of itself.

Ran out of the throat spray and lonzeges stopped helping so I gargled w tsp of paprika as well as half a line and a cup of hot water. Lots of clear mucous came up and Im still having discomfort when I swallow but after every gargle (and especially swallow) of the drink, I keep spitting up which obviously tells me its working to bring up all that infection. Anybody else experience this? I'll be doing this all day tomorrow when I wake up and hopefully have good news tomorrow that the pain is gone. Thanks for all your tips! Oh! Also did the qtip w the cayenne on the back of the throat. Great idea

Cayenne
Posted by Sarah (La Linea, Spain) on 02/03/2008
 ★★★★★

I just wanted to say that my 2 year old little girl just got over a bad case of what I think was strep throat. She was puking and everything. We took her to the ER cos she wasn't keeping anything down and they gave her some antibiotics. Then of course, that night I felt my throat going. I felt like crap last night and decided that tonight I would search for some home remedies. And I came across this website. I was playing with some ways to take the Cayenne Pepper and settled on actually drinking a tablespoon of lemon juice and cayenne pepper, equal parts. It seems to have cut out my sore throat by about 50% so I'll keep it up. Advice for anyone thinking about trying this? Just try it - you have nothing to lose! Thanks people.


NEXT 
Previous Page 1 2 3 4 Next Page

Please note that we use cookies necessary for the functioning of our website, cookies that optimize the performance. To learn more about our cookies, how we use them and their benefits, please read our Privacy Policy