Most sore throats are caused by viruses and will resolve on their own within a few days, but that doesn’t mean you have to sit through the discomfort doing nothing. A combination of simple home remedies can meaningfully reduce pain, swelling, and irritation while your body fights off the infection. Here’s what actually works.
Salt Water Gargle
Dissolve half a teaspoon of table salt in one cup of warm water and gargle for 15 to 30 seconds before spitting it out. The saltwater draws excess fluid out of swollen throat tissue through osmosis, temporarily reducing inflammation and easing that tight, painful feeling when you swallow. You can repeat this several times a day. It won’t cure anything, but it provides reliable short-term relief, and it costs almost nothing.
Honey
Honey is one of the best-supported natural remedies for sore throat and cough. A 2020 systematic review and meta-analysis found that honey was superior to usual care for improving upper respiratory infection symptoms, reducing both cough frequency and cough severity across multiple studies. Honey coats the throat, which soothes irritation on contact, and it has mild antimicrobial properties. A spoonful on its own works, or you can stir it into warm (not boiling) tea or water.
One important exception: never give honey to children under 12 months old, due to the risk of infant botulism.
Over-the-Counter Pain Relievers
Ibuprofen and acetaminophen are both effective for sore throat pain. Ibuprofen has the added benefit of reducing inflammation, which can help with swelling. Adults and children 12 and older can take combination tablets containing both, typically every eight hours as needed, up to six tablets per day. For younger children, check with a pediatrician for appropriate dosing. These medications don’t just take the edge off. They can make it significantly easier to eat, drink, and sleep, all of which help you recover faster.
Stay Hydrated and Humidify Your Air
A dry throat feels worse. Warm liquids like broth, tea, and warm water with honey keep the mucous membranes moist and can loosen mucus that’s contributing to irritation. Cold liquids and ice pops also work well, especially if your throat feels hot or swollen. The temperature you prefer is the temperature that helps.
If your indoor air is dry, especially during winter with heating running, a humidifier can make a real difference. Research suggests that mucociliary clearance (your airway’s natural self-cleaning function) works more efficiently at a relative humidity of at least 30%, and even better at around 45%. Keeping your indoor humidity in that 30% to 50% range prevents the throat from drying out overnight, which is why so many people wake up with the worst sore throat pain of the day.
Throat-Coating Herbs and Lozenges
Marshmallow root and slippery elm bark both contain mucilage, a gel-like substance that swells when mixed with liquid and coats irritated mucous membranes. You can find them in herbal teas, throat lozenges, and supplements. The coating creates a physical barrier over inflamed tissue, which reduces the raw, scratchy sensation. These aren’t cure-alls, but they’re a useful layer of comfort on top of other remedies.
Standard throat lozenges and hard candies also help by stimulating saliva production, which keeps the throat lubricated. Menthol-based lozenges add a mild numbing effect. Some medicated throat sprays contain topical anesthetics that temporarily numb the area if you need quick relief before a meal or before bed.
What Not to Do
Avoid irritants that make inflammation worse. Cigarette smoke, vaping, and strong cleaning fumes all aggravate a sore throat. Dry, scratchy foods like chips and crackers can feel like sandpaper. Alcohol dehydrates you and irritates tissue. Whispering, counterintuitively, strains your vocal cords more than speaking softly, so rest your voice by talking less rather than by whispering.
Viral vs. Bacterial: When It Matters
The vast majority of sore throats are viral, meaning antibiotics won’t help. However, strep throat (caused by Group A Streptococcus) does require antibiotics to prevent rare but serious complications like rheumatic fever. Strep throat tends to come on suddenly with severe pain, fever, swollen lymph nodes in the neck, and sometimes white patches on the tonsils, but without the cough or runny nose that usually accompany a cold.
Current clinical guidelines from the Infectious Diseases Society of America recommend that doctors use a clinical scoring system to decide who should be tested for strep rather than testing everyone with a sore throat. If you’ve been in close contact with someone diagnosed with strep, you have a history of rheumatic fever, or you develop signs of a more serious infection like a high fever with a rash, testing becomes more important regardless of your other symptoms.
Signs That Need Medical Attention
Most sore throats resolve within a few days. But according to the CDC, you should see a healthcare provider if you experience difficulty breathing, difficulty swallowing, blood in your saliva or phlegm, excessive drooling (particularly in young children), dehydration, joint swelling and pain, a rash, or symptoms that aren’t improving after several days or are getting worse. These can signal complications like a peritonsillar abscess or a more serious systemic infection that home remedies won’t address.