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.
Cayenne
Posted by Krasavitza (Philadelphia, Pa, Usa) on 11/14/2011
★★★★★
Yesterday I could feel the strep throat coming on so, I came to my favorite forum to find out how to treat it. I went to the doctor today and have the antibiotics just in case, since this is my first time trying a home-remedy for strep throat, but I am hoping to not have to start taking the prescription. After reading numerous posts on strep throat, I decided to take everyone's advice and tweak it to what I hope will work for me.
What I did was take about a teaspoon of raw, organic honey and mixed into it about 1/2 teaspoon of organic cayenne pepper. It made a thick, sticky reddish paste. I then (using a small flashlight to aid in seeing back into my throat) used a cotton swab to dip into the paste and then brush it onto my tonsils and uvula. (the uvula is the dangly thing hanging in the center of the back of your mouth and the tonsils are on the sides). I am keeping it in a tiny tupperware container to use until my strep throat (hopefully) goes away.
I was gargling with a warm-water and cayenne mixture, but that was burning my tongue so much that I thought this might be better; plus I'm applying it directly to the problem so, I think it is a better idea. I love that it doesn't burn at all when I apply it directly to my tonsils!
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!
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.
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 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!
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.
Cayenne
Posted by Salem (Providence , Rhode Island) on 01/18/2008
★★★★★
I am a teen and my throat was annoyingly sore and since me being really sensitive I was ready to cry because it hurt so bad. So, I went online and looked up remedies and found cayenne pepper. I went straight to my dad's spice cupboard and found the pepper we used to make Buffalo chicken. I put a little bit of water and a few dashes of pepper and gargled it. It burned my lips a little but it was nothing to the strep I've had so hats off to this great website for curing my ailment.
Cayenne
Posted by Constanza (New York, US) on 01/16/2008
★★★★★
I saw the cayenne pepper cures posted on this site and I want to tell everyone that it absoloutely works!
I cured my son's' strep with the following remedy:
1/8 teaspoon of organic cayenne
distilled water
fresh lemon juice
organic maple syrup
I'ts the same recipe alot of users have posted. We were fortunate to have all of these ingredients on hand because we use them regularly, but I wasn't aware of their usefulness for strep or sore throats in general. My son had a 102.4 fever that came on suddenly one night. We gave him fever medicine and he went to sleep. He woke up in tears because he could not swallow and it was painful for him to even speak. I started him on the cayenne concoction that morning. I had him drink it and gargle it. Within minutes he was asking for scrambled eggs and toast! it was truly miraculous! I've had strep myself twice and i know how extremely painful and miserable it is. Unfortunately, I didn't know of this cure, or I would've taken it instead of the antibiotics! I was also exposed to the strep that my son caught, both from him and from the person he most likely caught it from (my friends daughter) and I'm convinced it didn't get a chance to take hold in me because i was drinking the cayenne mixture along with my son. His fever was gone by the second day, the sore throat was completely gone by the third day. And now, his immune system knows how to fight this bacteria and he is less likely to be afflicted by strep again. Not the case with antibiotics.
