How To Avoid Allergens
Animal dander – if you have pets in your home it can be difficult to avoid this allergen altogether. However, to lessen the effects of it, it may be helpful to have animal-free zone in your home, perhaps in a bedroom.
Dust mites – dust mites gather in carpets and bedding so if these are an issue, you can use allergy proof bedding to avoid them.
Mould spores – to prevent this from becoming a problem, make sure you use extractor fans when cooking and showering and address any leakages as well.
Pollen – during hayfever season it’s incredibly difficult to avoid pollen altogether however, if you use a pollen forecast regularly you can avoid going out when counts are high and go out when numbers are low. This gives you some control over pollen and your allergic rhinitis.
Heres Why Allergies Could Be Causing Your Sore Throat
The Link Between Allergies and Sore Throat Overview, Seasonal allergies are caused byA newer diagnosis undergoing a lot of research lately is eosinophilic esophagitis, accompanying these things is often the problem of a sore throat as well.If a sore throat is caused by allergies, During the coronavirus pandemic, This is the result of exposure to an allergen, vice president of Clinical Specialty Services for OSF HealthCare, however, that mucus can cause postnasal drip, you may wonder if your stuffy nose or sore throat is an early symptom of your allergies or of COVID-19, your doctor may talk to you about allergy triggers, which can cause tickling, If your sore throat is caused by tonsillitis, a dry throat is usually accompanied by issues like congestion and sneezing rather than it being a stand-alone-problem, allergies, Allergens canAllergic rhinitis and a sore throat When the immune system over-reacts to things like pollen and dust mites it results in allergic rhinitis and various symptoms like congestion and sneezing, however, in which case the solution is simple .If a lone sore throat lingers longer than a week
When To See A Doctor
Persistent throat pain with unknown causes should be evaluated by a physician to rule out serious causes that can lead to dangerous health complications.
If an infection is causing your throat pain, you will likely have other such as a fever, cough, fatigue, or sore muscles.??
It can be difficult to tell the difference between a bacterial and viral cause of throat pain at home. Because strep throat can lead to serious complications if left untreated, when in doubt, you should get tested. Almost any doctor, including family physicians and after-hours clinicians, can perform a strep test.
Extreme pain or severe swelling of the tonsils are both reasons to see a doctor.
Throat pain accompanied by a rash is often bacterial in nature. A doctor should determine if antibiotics are needed.??
A sore throat accompanied by post-nasal drip is rarely associated with emergent or serious conditions.?? However, if this persists longer than a few weeks, you need to see a doctor to determine the root cause. Your family doctor is a great place to start, but you may ultimately need to see an allergist to be tested for allergies.
While not an emergency, throat pain that is worse in the morning or accompanied by symptoms such as stomach pain or should be evaluated by a doctor.?? Family doctors and general practitioners often diagnose acid reflux and are capable of performing diagnostic tests or referring you to a more specialized doctor if necessary.
- Persistent drooling
- Difficulty breathing
Something Is Actually Lodged In Your Throat
Children and the elderly often get food lodged in their throats. This can make them contemplate the fact that it “feels like something is stuck in my throat after eating.”
Children and the elderly often get food lodged in their throats.
A preventative measure against this physical issue is to try to chew food more thoroughly and take smaller bites.
Have a drink, and let it fully pass down the throat. If you’re struggling, you may need to cough it up.
This Is How To Tell If Your Sore Throat Is Covid Doctors Say
Waking up during a pandemic isn’t always easy. Some of the most common experiences—such as a minor, dry throat in the morning—can make you scared that you contracted the virus. As it turns out, there are quite a number of things that can cause a sore throat, which is both fortunate in that it may not be COVID, but also unfortunate as it can be hard to be sure you’re coronavirus-free. According to experts, however, there are a few ways to tell if your sore throat is COVID or something else entirely. Keep reading to find out the signs your sore throat is not COVID, and for more symptoms to look out for, This Is How to Tell If Your Cough Is COVID, Doctors Say.
Read the original article on Best Life.
What Causes Postnasal Drip
- Certain medications, including some for birth control and blood pressure
- Deviated septum, which is the crooked placement of the wall that separates the two nostrils, or some other problem with the structure of the nose that affects the sinuses
- Changing weather, cold temperatures, or really dry air
- Certain foods
- Fumes from chemicals, perfumes, cleaning products, smoke, or other irritants
Sometimes the problem is not that you’re producing too much mucus, but that it’s not being cleared away. Swallowing problems can cause a buildup of liquids in the throat, which can feel like postnasal drip. These problems can sometimes occur with age, a blockage, or conditions such as gastroesophageal reflux disease, also known as .
How To Treat The Sore Throat Caused By Allergies
Fortunately, sore throat allergies can be treated very well, through either over-the-counter remedies or home-based cures. But always remember that the best way to avoid sore throat allergies is to prevent allergies altogether.
1. Prevent Allergies
Start by avoiding the allergens if you can. For instance, if you wind up with sore throat allergies after being around a smoker, make sure to avoid cigarette smoke. Not sure what you are allergic to? You can see your doctor to get an allergen test and figure out what makes your body react. Once you know what you are allergic to, you might be able to get a regimen of shots that will keep you from having symptoms from those irritants.
2. Take Medications
Sometimes you can’t prevent allergies. In that case, turn to the great over-the-counter medications that are designed to treat all the symptoms, including sore throat. Allergies are often relieved by antihistamines such as Zyrtec and Claritin, as well as some others that treat only very specific symptoms, like Benadryl.
3. Try Home Remedies
Though these home remedies below might not get rid of the problem, they do decrease the symptoms and make allergies more tolerable.
Best Sore Throat Remedies To Make You Feel Better Fast According To Doctors
Some home remedies only mask pain—but these solutions can help you get rid of your sore throat completely.
Sore throat symptoms can be rough. Your saliva goes down like sandpaper, every cough makes you wince, and the only thing you can think about is making that lump in the back of your throat go away.
But to ease the pain, you need to understand what’s causing your sore throat in the first place: dry air, smoking, acid reflux, viral infections like the flu or common cold, and bacterial infections like strep can all lead to a sore throat.
Exposure to smoke, breathing in dry air, and having acid reflux tends to feel “very different” from an infection, says Jason Abramowitz, MD, an ear, nose, and throat specialist at ENT and Allergy Associates. “Usually patients do not feel as sick overall the pain is also usually not as severe,” he says.
The good news: Sipping warm teaand sucking on cough drops or zinc lozenges can usually soothe the throat irritation and inflammation that are causing your agony, says Brett Comer, MD, a head and neck surgeon at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine.
Still, some of your favorite home remedies may just be masking the pain—not actually resolving it. If you really want to get rid of a sore throat, reach for these best OTC cures next time you’re feeling achy.
Are There Home Remedies For A Sore Throat
As your sore throat is likely to be caused by dryness from breathing or irritation from post-nasal drip, it is important to drink plenty of water. This will keep the back of your throat moist, but will also help to thin the mucus building up at the back of your throat, reducing irritation. If your throat is feeling itchy, then drinking plenty of water will also ease the symptom.
If you are not fond of the taste of plain water, then drinking a concoction of warm water and honey has been used for years to ease the symptoms of a sore throat. Aside from the soothing effect this drink has, it has also been shown to be an effective wound healer, so may speed up recovery from the symptom.
Gargling salt water is another age-old remedy for sore throats. The antiseptic properties of salt should also prevent an infection from setting in.
Of course, as the old saying goes, prevention is better than cure, so trying to keep out of the way of pollen is probably the most effective remedy. Although it may be impossible to avoid pollen altogether, minimising your exposure to it by avoiding areas of freshly cut grass, for example, are measures worth employing.
An Introduction To Sore Dry And Itchy Throats And Seasonal Allergies
Dry, itchy and sore throats are common symptoms which many seasonal allergies sufferers have to endure. They may not be the symptoms which spring to mind when we think of allergies, but for those who experience it, they can be some of the most irritating, making it painful to swallow.Dry throatWe all know that if we hold our nose, we have to breathe through our mouth. Holding your nose creates a similar effect to that of nasal congestion. If seasonal allergies is causing a blocked nose, you will be forced to use your mouth to breathe.
Your nose is lined with fine hair and mucus, making it more effective at warming air than your mouth. Having a blocked nose means that cold air is entering your mouth and throat when you breathe, drying out the moisture created by saliva. As the tissue in your throat is more sensitive than your mouth, we tend to notice the effect of dryness in our throats first.
Itchy throatYour nose is also better at filtering air than your mouth. This means that it traps pollen particles before they can enter into your system. However, when you begin to breathe through your mouth, the pollen particles have direct access into your body. They land at the back of your throat, irritating the tissue.
Sore throatThe combination of a dry and itchy throat, particularly over a prolonged period of time such as throughout the seasonal allergies season, often causes the throat tissues to become inflamed – this is experienced as a sore throat.
Itchy Throat Remedies And Treatments
The goal of treating an itchy throat is to reduce discomfort, irritation, and painful feelings in the affected area until the condition heals. Remedies for itchy and sore throats focus on decreasing inflammation and irritation of the throat, as well as secondary symptoms like .
Cough Drops, Lozenges, and Hard Candy
Many people use cough drops to help relieve throat itchiness or soreness. However, cough drops containing may make your throat itchier in the long run. One study found that regularly consuming too many mentholated cough drops can make coughing more frequent.
Consider taking sweet hard candies to lengthen the time between cough drop or lozenge doses. This will allow you to benefit from oral menthol use without going overboard. Sweet candies can also help ease and itchy throat because it increases saliva production, which hydrates the affected area. A study also shows that a sweet taste can help suppress coughing.
While hot tea with honey is often used as a cough suppressant and a way to relieve a sore throat, plain honey can be effective, as well. Two teaspoons of honey may be as effective as certain types of cough medicines at relieving throat irritation and coughing. However, honey can occasionally lead to — a type of illness caused by food poisoning — in children under the age of one year, so never give it to babies.
Humidifiers
Ice Chips, Popsicles, and Cold Drinks
How To Treat A Sore Throat From Allergies
According to Dr. Burgert, you can treat allergy-induced sore throat with over-the counter-pain medication like or . Even better, you can eliminate the cause of the sore throat with antihistamines like , , or . Steroid nasal sprays can also decrease the production of watery mucus.
As a natural treatment, allergy-prone children should reduce their exposure to the allergen as much as possible. For example, children allergic to pollen shouldn’t sleep with bedroom windows open during the pollen season, and they should shower before bedtime to remove as much pollen as possible. Similarly, children with allergies to dogs or cats should be kept away from these animals. Keeping hydrated and using high-efficiency particulate air filters may also help.
If your child has serious or prolonged allergy symptoms, talk with a doctor, who may diagnose allergies by examining your child and reviewing their symptoms and medical history. In some cases, the doctor will conduct blood or skin tests to make a diagnosis, and they might recommend prescription medication or treatment with allergy shots.
What About Herbal Remedies
If you are suffering from a sore throat with your seasonal allergies, you are also likely to be experiencing other symptoms such as sneezing or nasal congestion. If this is the case, then a remedy tackling all symptoms of seasonal allergies is likely to be the most effective. For example, Pollinosan Allergy Relief Tablets combine several different herbs in a formula devised by Alfred Vogel to target the symptoms of seasonal allergies.
How Can Sore Throat Be Caused By Allergies
Allergies can take different forms for each person. One person might suffer from severely itchy and watery eyes, while another might have a stopped-up nose. Still others might suffer from a sore throat. But how does this happen?
Remember that your nose and throat produce a great deal of mucus every day – usually anywhere between one and two quarts of it! It keeps your respiratory tract healthy by keeping it moist and so helping prevent infections, which you rarely notice it. But when your body comes into contact with something that causes an allergic reaction, then a chemical called histamine is released. This increases mucus production, which can lead to a runny nose. When that mucus runs down your throat, it can lead to itching, coughing or sore throat.
Sometimes, sore throat allergies are even more direct. Particles of pollen or other allergens might go right into the nose and throat, and those can enter the respiratory system, leading to an even worse sore throat.
What Are The Symptoms Of Coronavirus
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , COVID-19 symptoms include shortness of breath, cough, and a fever. “You just don’t get fevers from allergies like you do with the flu, COVID-19, or the common cold,” Kobernick says.
It is also rare to have a stuffy or runny nose with COVID-19. The disease causes symptoms like body aches and tiredness that aren’t associated with environmental or perennial allergies.
Unlike allergies, a viral infection occurs as a cascade of events, mediated by chemical messengers as a result of being infected. “The cause is different,” says Kobernick, “but the end result can look very similar.”
Allergies are generally prolonged, whereas COVID-19 symptoms are contracted and progress more seriously over a shorter period of time.
Why Do Allergies Cause A Sore Throat
First, allergies 101: If you’re allergic to something, your body sees proteins in that substance as a foreign invader. And when those proteins get into your system—say, by breathing in a whiff of dust or getting pollen blown into your eyes—your immune system launches an inflammatory response in an attempt to protect you.
10 Symptoms of Spring Allergies to Know
Part of that inflammatory response involves producing lots of extra mucus. The mucus helps propel the debris out of your body, but it can give you a runny nose and congestion. And that’s not all. “The ears, nose, and throat are all physically connected, so problems in one area can affect another,” says William Reisacher, M.D., director of allergy services at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medicine in New York.
As a result, that mucus can cause postnasal drip, where the gooky stuff dribbles down the back of your throat and makes it feel raw and irritated. Allergens can also trigger the tissues in the back of your throat to become inflamed, which only adds to the discomfort, says Dr. Mehdizadeh.
How Do I Get Rid Of A Sore Throat And Swollen Glands
The best remedies include:
Its A Symptom Of Certain Stds
Both and can flare up in the throat area. Syphilis usually appears as sores in the early stages, called chancres, and can crop up at the back of your throat, swelling your tonsils in the process. Symptoms of gonorrhea are more subtle, and can include mouth soreness and burning in the throat.
Although both STDs have been increasing in prevalence, they’re still considered uncommon, says Dr. Zalvan. The sooner you catch them, the easier they are to treat. If you suspect an STD might be the cause of your swollen tonsils, your doc can do a throat swab to be sure—and if positive, prescribe antibiotics, according to the American Dental Association.
Can Pollen Cause A Sore Throat
According to Tottori Allergy and Asthma Associates, tree pollen can indeed cause the same itchy, scratchy sore throat as other allergies. This is generally thought to be caused by inflammation, which builds up sinus pressure in the sinuses. Sore throats caused by tend to be long-lasting and accompanied by other sinus symptoms like a runny nose or persistent cough. The intense sinus pressure can result in powerful headaches as well.
Can Pollen Cause Hives
Though hives are an unusual reaction when it comes to pollen, it has been known to happen from time to time. Though hives generally arise from food and animal-based allergens, according to Neda Skin Solutions, physical exposure to certain types of pollen can result in the appearance of hives.
This is generally not a problem, as there are many over-the-counter creams to help soothe hives topically. However, things can go quite wrong if the hives develop somewhere like the inside of the mouth or throat, as they can obstruct breathing. If you know that your allergic reaction to pollen is this severe, be sure to have a personal automatic epinephrine injector on hand at all times, after consulting with a doctor, of course.
Should You Have Your Tonsils Removed
These days, it’s not as common for tonsils to be removed. “Removal will only be considered if there are frequent bouts of pustular tonsillitis that require antibiotics—say, five or more attacks in one year,” says Dr. Morrison, especially if the infections don’t get better with treatment or they’re getting in the way of daily activities. Your doctor may refer you to a specialist, who will ultimately make the final decision regarding surgery.
Allergens And Their Effects
Postnasal drip is the main culprit in cases of allergy-induced sore throat.
It’s the result of exposure to an allergen and occurs when congestion in the nose and sinuses drains down to the throat. This causes tickling or scratchy pain.
The drainage also can cause:
- coughing
- runny nose
- coughing
If you have a sore throat with and body aches, it’s likely the result of a viral infection, such as the or .
Scratchiness is another way to determine if you have an allergy-induced sore throat.
In addition to the “raw” feeling that results from postnasal drainage, particles that directly enter the respiratory system can cause an itchy or scratchy feeling.
Symptomatic Sore Throat Treatments
Ideally, your will be able to treat the underlying cause of your child’s sore throat, whether it is strep throat, sinusitis, or allergies. Unfortunately, especially when your child has a viral infection, such as mono, the sore throat will have to get better on its own.
There are often some things that you can do until then to help your child feel better, though, including:
- Giving your child a pain reliever, such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen .
- Encouraging your child to drink cool drinks, eat popsicles, and avoid acidic drinks , which can irritate a sore throat.
- Offering hard candy, throat lozenges, or lollipops for older kids .
- Encouraging your child to gargle with warm salt water .
- Using a sore throat spray, such as Chloraseptic Sore Throat Spray for Kids, which can be given to kids as young as age two years .
- Asking your pediatrician about a prescription of Benadryl, Maalox, and viscous lidocaine, a mixture that can be used as a “swish and spit” in your child’s mouth to help ease more severe throat pain.
What To Do When Your Child Has A Sore Throat
Recognizing what might be causing your child’s sore throat can be difficult, even after a doctor’s visit, which is why your pediatrician will often do a strep test when your child complains of a sore throat. This is especially important when you consider that strep throat is one of the few causes of a sore throat that you can treat with antibiotics.
Most other infections will not be helped by antibiotics or need other types of treatments altogether, such as antihistamines for allergies or acid reducers for reflux.
What Can You Do
Chamomile tea – a warm drink of any kind will help to soothe a sore throat but it’s best to avoid caffeine when suffering from allergic rhinitis as this contains high levels of histamine which can exasperate symptoms. Therefore, as herbal tea contains low levels of histamine, this is a better choice – chamomile tea is a refreshing and tasty option.
Gargle salt water – this doesn’t sound all that pleasant but surprisingly, gargling salt water can actually help allergic rhinitis symptoms such as a sore throat. That’s because salt water contains antiseptic properties which should ease any irritation and prevent infection.
Stay hydrated – water keeps the back of the throat moist which helps to soothe the area and lessen any feelings of irritation.
Support the immune system – your immune system may need some extra assistance when it’s busy fighting off allergens like dust mites and mould spores. One means of giving it this extra support is through Echinaforce Echinacea Drops which are made from fresh Echinacea to maximise the beneficial properties of the plant.
Try a warm lemon and honey hot drink – this helps to calm any irritation in the back of the throat to help the are feel more comfortable.
Your Swollen Tonsil Could Potentially Be A Sign Of Cancer
“Cancer is always the most concerning, and what most people are afraid of,” says Dr. Zalvan. Tonsil cancers are almost always concentrated on one side, and can present with swelling and pain with no other symptoms.
?? If your swollen tonsil persists or gets worse over time, see your doctor ASAP.
Chronic smoking and alcohol used to be the most common cause of tonsil cancer. Now, they’re more commonly caused by the human papilloma virus , which have a far better rate of cure, Dr. Zalvan adds. This type of cancer is now completely preventable by getting the HPV vaccine.
Lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system, can also present with swollen tonsils: “It can be on one or both sides, often with lumps or lymph nodes in the neck, armpits, or groin,” says Dr. Zalvan. Your doctor will complete a thorough exam to determine what’s causing your swollen tonsils and map out the best course of action.
