Sore Throat Prevention
Weather change brings with it common types of cold and flu. I found that this natural remedy is great to combat sore throat especially if used as a prevention. This recipe was given to me by my natural remedies tutor; Ms. Joyce Muscat and I truly find it useful as it really works.
Sage (Salvia Officinalis) has one of the longest histories of use of any culinary or medicinal herb. Sage is anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, anti-septic, anti-spasmodic and anti-viral.
I like to take this tea often when I start feeling that tickling throat. Of course the amount of essential oil released from such a small amount of sage is minimal and thus frequency and repetitiveness is suggested for this tea to truly act as a prevention. I like to enjoy two cups of this tea a day until symptoms disappear.
Another quick and effective alternative is to chew on sage leaves with honey instead of lozenges. This is another trick that I learned from Joyce. Use a couple of young sage leaves, drizzle some honey on them, roll them up and bite on. This is a quicker way to get the benefits of sage. The photos below show you how to do it.
Finally keep in mind that prevention is always better than cure. Always seek natural alternatives on the first sight of symptoms because cure is always more difficult.
- Hot water
- 4 sage leaves
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar (optional)
- Place the sage leaves in a mug or small teapot.
- Boil the water and pour immediately over the sage leaves.
- Allow the essential oils to infuse, after about 10 minutes while still warm add the honey (don’t put the honey when it’s still boiling hot as this will kill all the good enzymes).
- Stir in apple cider vinegar.
- Drink warm or at room temperature.
