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.
515 User Reviews
Posted by NM (Norcross, GA) on 05/27/2009
★★★★★
I had a sore throat for a couple of days and as it seem to get worse I came back to this site and I read what others had done and I tried it, I just put some cayanne pepper in 8 oz of water and I just held it in my mouth and I held my head back so that it could go to my throat. Then I spit it out and I could not believe, it but my throat was fine. I put the rest in the fridge just in case it came back the next day, but it didn't. It has been 5 days and I am still fine. Thanks for this site.
Cayenne
Posted by Celena (Morgantown, WV) on 05/20/2009
★★★★★
I used a little less then 1/8 teaspoon in my mixture, I also added 1/2 juice of a lemon, and 1 teaspoon honey, which made the "tea" taste better. I've used this remedy before, but only after I had went to the Doctor, I needed relief before the antibiotics kicked in. I have recommended this to friends and family because it truly works. I had a horrible sore throat last night before bed, I went to sleep thinking I'll call the doctor in the morning, but when I woke up at 5am with my throat hurting so bad I couldn't sleep, I remembered this remedy, so at 5 in the morning here I am gargling with the mixture. This gave me enough relief that I was able to go back to sleep, and when I woke up 2 hours later I went right back to the gargle. My throat feels so much better!! I'm not completely cured, but I'm sure that I will be by the days end.
Cayenne
Posted by Elena (Honolulu, Hawaii) on 05/15/2009
★★★★★
I recently had a sore throat that was plaguing me for over 3 weeks. Not only was the pain affecting what I ate, but it was affecting my sleeping, and I was just too tired for everything. Nothing over-the-counter worked. My doctor couldn't prescribe anything except to say to continue with the warm salt gargle and to continue with over-the-counter meds. The salt garble wasn't really working until I added a couple of dashes of cayanne pepper. In about 8 ounces of warm salted water, I started with one dash and finally built up to 4 dashes. It's important to continue to stir the water so that the pepper doesn't settle. I garbled every morning, when I came home from work, and before bed for 3 days. Because I couldn't gargle the water deep enough down my throat without gagging, I resorted to drinking ramen broth with as much cayanne pepper as I could handle. I sipped a little of the broth with pepper at each meal. I found that the hotter the liquid, the more pepper I could tolerate. And the more pepper I consumed, the better my throat felt. I also found that a couple of dashes in hot cocoa is great. I used a popular hot cocoa brand that had milk in the powered mix that only required water. To that I added two dashes of cayanne pepper. I was able to tolerate up to about 7 dashes of pepper. In about 3 days I was pretty much cured. I continued to drink my cocoa mix with cayanne pepper once a day for about a week just in case, and well, because I aquired a taste for it.
Cayenne
Posted by UA Student (Tucson, AZ) on 05/10/2009
★★★★★
I woke up this morning with a sore throat and have to go to work today where I am constantly talking to patrons. I decided to warm a coffee mug with warm water and about 1/2 a teaspoon full of cayenne pepper and gargled. It feels remarkably better! The only side effect I would say I felt is that my lips are kind of burning like I just ate some spicy salsa. But definitely worth it!
Replied by xsosdid
(London, Ontario)
05/15/2009
★☆☆☆☆WARNING!
Replied by Cammicty
(Veenendaal, Ca)
07/10/2009
Replied by Chelsea
(Greenville, Sc Usa)
01/06/2010
Replied by Jula
(Hesperia, Ca, Us)
03/04/2010
Replied by Hh
(San Diego, Ca)
04/10/2010
Replied by Kurt
(Ames, Ia)
09/03/2011
Cayenne
Posted by Tricia (Sanford, Florida) on 05/01/2009
★★★★★
Yesterday morning I woke up with a sore throat, and it wasn't the dry, itchy kind, either. It was mildly painful, and I knew if I didn't do something fast, it would only get worse. I gargled a small amount of hydrogen peroxide, and it relieved the symptoms, and I felt fine until mid-afternoon. The pain in my throat started creeping back in, I started to develope a runny nose, had a very mild fever, and my body started to to ache a little. When I arrived home, I could barely swallow, it hurt so much! Then, bypassing the hydrogen peroxide, I approx. 1/8 of a teaspoon of cayenne pepper and approx. a tablespoon of honey to a cup of hot water. I took my time, sipping the concoction over a period of about hour while I browsed the web. Well, I went from a pain level that was between 8-9 on a scale of 10 to a pain level between 4-5. I mixed another cup of the mixture and sipped at that for another half hour. By the time I went to bed, the pain level was between 1-2. I slept through the night and when I woke the pain was almost completely gone. I'm sipping on some more right now, and to be honest, my throat feels back to normal. My nose is still a bit runny, and I'm extremely tired and a little weak, but that's about it. I'm going to add apple cider vinegar to my routine today. I've been rather lax about taking the ACV lately, but that won't happen again, believe me! Bottom line---I'm convinced that the cayenne pepper cured my sore throat!
Cayenne
Posted by Katelynn (Indianapolis, Indiana) on 04/29/2009
★★★★★
i recently started having a very sore throat that felt a little congested and so i looked up any type of remedy to try because i was desperate i tried the cayenne pepper with warm water and hot sauce (a certain name hotsauce starting with an F) i gargled and then swallowed like 3 mouth fulls and it instantly started feeling better...plus the more you use the better it feels for the measurements i just filled a coffee cup 1/2 full with warm water and then poured in the cayenne pepper until it was really red and then put in like 4 drops of hot sauce. it worked for the throat and cleared out my nose but some congestion is still there
Cayenne
Posted by Cathy (Atlanta, GA) on 04/16/2009
★★★★★
I want to thank everyone who provided information about the cayenne pepper treatment for a severe sore throat. I've got an acute bacterial infection, which has spread to my eye and my throat. As I'm on antibiotics, I did not want to use any pharmaceutical cold rememdies, but my throat has literally felt as if hot coals were stacked inside it. I could not sleep, could not eat, and was having more & more trouble swallowing. I found the earth clinic site; carefully read all the "sore throat" posts, and decided to try the cayenne pepper mixed with pulpy orange juice. I put 1/8 teaspoon into a 10 ounce glass; mixed it up well, and drank the whole glass. I'm not sure what the healing properties of cayenne pepper are, but I can tell you I already feel some relief. The pulpy orange juice apparently dilutes the cayenne pepper, and I had no pain or burning while drinking it. I plan to drink some more later on today, and am keeping my fingers crossed. Thanks so much.
Cayenne
Posted by Alex (Chico, CA) on 04/14/2009
★★★★★
Like Magic! I did two (light) shakes of cayenne in a cup and a half of water with either a tablespoon to two tablespoons of lemon juice or tangerine juice and a tablespoon of honey mixed in warm water. (important to mix because the cayenne will float to the top and give you extra spicy gargle if you don't mix) Gargled every 15 minutes for about a four hour period. A couple times I alternated with 1/2 Hydrogen Peroxide 1/2 water gargle or just straight water when the heat from the cayenne was too much. Put four shakes of cayenne in the chili I had for dinner. Got up in the middle of the night and gargled once with the hydrogen peroxide and water mix and took a ibuprofen because I was still having pain. When I woke up three hours later -- the lump in my throat had disappeared and I was spitting up junk. Have been feeling great ever since! I am a cayenne fan thanks to your posting!! Thanks for saving me! I got to enjoy the last day of my vacation(finally!).
Cayenne
Posted by Justin (Pittsburgh, PA/USA) on 04/11/2009
★★★★★
Crazy Pepper gargle works...at least, for now! I'm not a measuring type of guy so I'm not sure how much of each but here's how it looked to me: just took a ceramic coffee cup, about a 1/2 ounce lemon juice, 1/2 ounce water, teaspoon honey, and covered the top with crushed red pepper. I microwaved it for 30 seconds, stirred, gargled and swallowed. I was able to get down about 3 gulps before I started sweating! My stomach feels like I just ate a bunch of hot wings, but my throat feels better.
Cayenne
Posted by Krista (Merced, CA) on 04/07/2009
★★★★☆
I have to admit, I was skeptical like a lot of peoples testimonies that I read were. I have acid reflux and I get colds quite often due to a low immune system. When I get bad colds, I get really bad sore throats. Today I have had a sore throat for two days straight, and when I googled natural remedies for a sore throat, this site came up. I read some testimonies that seemed scary but most were positive so I tried it. Keep in mind, spicy foods do NOT agree with me and I have a weak tolerance for it. But I used the 2 tbsp of honey, about a 3 second squeeze of the "real lemon" juice, and 5-6 shakes of cayenne pepper and heated it for 20 seconds and gargled it three times. I tested the taste with my finger first to make sure I could handle it and it was fine, so I gargled it. The cayenne was not too hot for me, but the honey was a bit sweet for my taste. My sore throat isn't gone, but it does feel a little better. I probably didn't do it long enough due to my gag reflex I don't tolerate gargling well, so tomorrow I'm going to try 1/8 teaspoon in my broth soup and see how it does if it still hurts tomorrow. Thanks for whoever first posted this, I will definitely recommend this to whoever has a sore throat.
Cayenne
Posted by Travis (South Jordan, Utah) on 03/30/2009
★★★★★
I am manly, right? So I decided to use two tablespoons of cayenne pepper with 1/4 cup of warm water. The first gargle was ok, the second was horrible. I actually coughed it up through my nose. That was a miracle cure, because my sinuses immediately cleared out from having them blasted with pepper. My throat feels a lot better too.
Cayenne
Posted by Brittney (Vanceboro, North Carolina) on 03/17/2009
★★★★★
So I googled how to cure sore throats and I came upon this website. I read a few negative comments about the Cayenne Pepper, so at first I was somewhat scared to try it. But trying almost everything, I decided to give it a try. I used the 2tbsp of honey, 2tbsp of lemon juice, and exactly 1/4 tsp of Crushed Red Pepper, I believe Cayenne Pepper and Red Pepper are the exact same thing. I microwaved it for 15 seconds, stirred it up, and I gargled for about 15-20 seconds twice. I swallowed a generous amount, it was very spicy but I was able to handle it. It had a spicy aftertaste in my mouth and throat so I drank Kool-Aid and it took the spicyness away. And I was very happy with the results, it took a lot of the pain away, it still hurts but it's very, very mild but not as discomforting as it was before. If it helps any, instead of using lemon juice from the bottle, I used a lemon, cut it in half and squeezed out all the juice, since the lemon is much fresher than lemon juice in the bottle. But I will definetly keep using this whenever I get a sore throat and I'll spread the word of it's wonders.
Replied by Elano
(Southern, Ca)
07/26/2010
Replied by Blanche
(New Iberia, La. Usa)
07/27/2010
Cayenne
Posted by Rob (South Jordan, Utah) on 03/13/2009
★★★★★
I had a severe sore throat that Started Monday night. I took the maximum amount of advil over two days thinking it would go away, however, it kept getting worse. I was concerned that it had turned into strep. I started to gargle 1/8 of a teaspoon of Cayenne Pepper every 15 minutes for the first couple of hours about 5PM. I then gargled about every half hour until I went to bed. Last night was the first night in several nights that I didn't wake up because of pain. When I woke up this morning, I still had a slight amount of pain but it has continued to improve through today. By noon the pain was so minimal, I didn't notice it unless I stopped to think about it. Thanks for listing this online!
Cayenne
Posted by Marilyn (Arroyo Grande, CA) on 03/07/2009
★★★★★
I had such a sore throat and was so miserable so in desperation tried the 2 tbsp honey and 2 tbsp lemon juice with a fair amount of cayenne pepper sprinkled in and microwaved 20 seconds and after drinking the first one I feel so much better that I am a cayenne pepper believer.
Cayenne
Posted by Shelley (Sacramento, CA USA) on 03/03/2009
★☆☆☆☆
NAY....*sigh* I'm disappointed...after using the suggested (1/8 tsp.in water) cayenne pepper remedy, 4-5 times over 24 hrs. leaving my throat feeling like I'd put...umm..well, cayanne papper on it...I've had to come up with ways to stop the burning...ice, ice cream, OTC pain reliever. No relief at all... After researching the pain reducing properties of cayenne...it was rather perversely comical as I winced in burning pain during and after gargling. After all, my throat was raw and I was putting pepper on it!
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