Sore throat( tonsilitis) is something I have been susceptible to since I was a child. So whether it is because the virii in the air, or the ice cold water I gulp down at the peak of the hot summers, or the chilled ice creams or spicy pickles I can’t resist, I often get up with a bad throat in the morning. And so I rely on my simple home remedies to cure my sore throat and bad cough that comes with it. They work quite nicely for me, though you do need to have some patience when you try home remedies and not expect them to work like a magic wand. Here’s what I do:

• Boil half a glass of water with tea leaves. Filter and add a tea spoon of salt to the water. Add some bottled water(at room temperature) to make the resultant comfortable enough to gargle with. Gargling with this works wonders for me. I do this 2-3 times a day depending on the severity of the sore throat.
• Grind one cinnamon stick, one green cardamom, 1/2 black cardamom, a few peppercorns, 1/2″ ginger and some sweet wood (liquorice or dalchini) – I use mortar and pestle for the job. Add this to a glass of water and heat in a pan. Let the water simmer for 5-10 minutes after the first boil. When the quantity of water has reduced and it has changed its color, strain the mixture.
  To the liquid, add a spoon of honey and drink it. You can vary the quanitities of ingredients used to suit your taste. I find it to be a great concoction – works great for my daughter who is quite susceptible to dry cough!
• If my throat is too bad to enjoy a good meal, I take Besan Seera. If you’ve never made it, here is my recipe…
  Add a serving spoon of ghee to a pan, add about the same amount of gram flour(besan) to it, stirring continously till the besan turns a nice golden brown. If you don’t stir, it may burn, so be careful. In another pan, simultaneously, heat some water and sugar ( add sugar to taste and water depending on consistency desired). Let the water boil till sugar has completely dissolved. Now, slowly add this hot sugar water to the pan with gram flour and ghee. Remember to add slowly and be careful when you add hot water to the hot ghee-besan mixture. It is good to reduce the flame of the pan with ghee-besan when you add water and keep stirring continously.
  Let the mixture simmer for a while till you get the consistency you want. Now remove from flame. If you like it really thick, put it in a bowl and eat with a spoon – really soothes the throat. I like to have it as a drink though and keep the mixture to a pouring consistency. Having this a couple of times a day soothes my throat. 
• At bedtime, I have a glass of hot milk boiled with Banapsha (herbs found commonly at Auryeda stores and even at local Grocer’s sometimes). Super for dry cough and cold too.
• If my throat is dry, I try and massage heated ghee on the neck.  

If my tonsilitis is at an early stage, I am mostly ok by the next day. If the throat is really bad, it takes about 3-4 days for me to get ok with this. Does anyone have any other remedies for common sore throat? Would be happy to hear…

Tags: ayurvedic cure, cough, home remedy, natural cure, Sore Throat, tonsilitis