Home remedies · Throat, pharynx & cough
No home remedy here replaces treatment, and none is talked down. What has done good for generations does good — even if no one ever measured it. Where something is well studied, it says so. Where it is only experience, it says that too.
Pour hot water over a teaspoon of leaves, steep covered for ten minutes, drink lukewarm or gargle, two to three times a day.
Sage contains tannins that lay a fine film over the inflamed lining. It has been the throat herb for centuries, and it also curbs sweating.
It does not shorten a throat infection; the effect lasts as long as the film.
Not for weeks and not in high doses — sage contains thujone. Avoid in pregnancy and breastfeeding, as it reduces milk production.
Get seen at once: severe one-sided pain with high fever, trouble swallowing your own saliva, a muffled voice or breathlessness. Likewise hoarseness lasting beyond three weeks, and coughing blood. In children also drooling and sitting with the chin pushed forward.