Best Tea for Sore Throats: Green Tea
Having a sore throat can cause a hoarse voice, or sometimes a loss of voice. You can reduce the risk of having a sore throat if you can stop eating greasy fried food, or quit smoking. And some traditional Chinese medicinal materials are helpful as a treatment to sore throats, such as isatis root(Ban Lan Gen) , forsythia suspensa(Lian Qiao), and fructus arctii(Niu Bang Zi). If you learn to make a herbal tea with the appropriate ingredients, you can cure the sore throat and save your voice without suffering for a long time. There are many causes for a sore throat. According to Chen Yuyu, a registered Chinese medicine practitioner, the causes can be drinking or smoking too much for a long time, an energy deficiency in the lung or kidney and too much body heat, wind-heat, or toxic heat.
Internal or External causes of a Sore Throat
Throat connects the mouth, windpipe and the esophagus. Many meridians in the channel system are running through it. One can have a sore throat because of catching a cold, having measles, antiaditis, acute and chronic pharyngitis, or laryngitis. In addition, dry weather, drinking not enough of water, overfatigue or allergies to something can result in a sore throat in a short term or long term.
On the other hand, some external factors may trigger a sore throat, including a low humidity environment, air pollution, breathing with the mouth for a long time, gastroesophageal reflux disease, and chronic fatigue. And there is a high incidence of sore throat for professions such as teachers, actors, and salespeople who need to speak a lot, and for people who are addicted to drinking and smoking, have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or mental depression, or those who seldom exercise, and have a poor adaptability to the temperature or humidity change in the outside world.
Tips for Preventing or Curing Sore Throats
Mrs Chen recommends some easy methods we can take at home to solve the problem of sore throats. They are to have a gargle with salt water, take a sore throat lozenge, make a salted kumquat tea, drink some warm honey water, increase humidity in your home, stay away from smoke, and avoid talking too much. In the meanwhile, you’d better avoid eating spicy, cold or greasy food in order to keep your bowels healthy. And Chinese physicians writes prescriptions against sore throats, which normally include ingredients such as isatis root (Ban Lan Gen) , forsythia suspense (Lian Qiao), fructus arctii (Niu Bang Zi), blackberry Lily(She Gan) and ophiopogon japonicas (Mai Dong).
Isatis root (Ban Lan Gen) is believed as bitter and cold in nature and covers meridians of liver and Stomach. And its major functions are to clear heat-toxicity, cool blood, and relieve sore throat.
Forsythia suspense (Lian Qiao), is used to clear heat-toxicity, wind heat, fever, and cure sore throat.
Fructus arctii(Niu Bang Zi) is used to disperse wind-heat, relieve sore throat, clear heat and remove toxins.
Blackberry Lily(She Gan) is a commonly used herb to cure sore throat and coughing as it clears heat, removes toxicity, reduces swelling.
Ophiopogon japonicus(Mai Dong) is frequently given as a treatment for anxiety, insomnia, restlessness, and for conditions that affect the heart. Herbalists may also use ophiopogon japonicus to treat conditions of the lungs, stomach and sore throat because it is known to stimulate the mucous membranes, increasing the amount of fluid in both of these systems.
Soups or Teas Relieving Sore Throats
- Green tea with rock sugar
Green tea itself is cold in nature, and it helps our body to fight against bacteria. According to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, green tea has a therapeutic effect. And rock sugar can soothe an irritated throat, and is often used in traditional Chinese herbal prescriptions to strengthen the effect of other herbals. If you add rock sugar to green tea, it will double theirs effect on relieving the symptoms of sore throat.
- Herbal tea
Ingredients: Tian Dong 12g, Mai Dong 12g, Ji Geng 9g, Lu Gen 20g, Gang Mei 30g, Gan Cao 6g
Preparation: Cook all the herbs with water. Take it once a day.
Effects: it can remove body heat and toxins. And it cures swelling and pain in throat, acute pharyngitis and antiaditis.
- Luo Han Guo(Siraitia grosvenorii) soup
Ingredients: half of a Luo Han Guo, one pear/dried pear 30g, Gang Mei 20g
Preparation: Cook all the ingredients with water. Take it once a day.
Effects: It clears body heat and toxins, and cure acute and chronic pharyngitis.
- White fungus drink
Ingredients: white fungus 10g, Bei Sha Shen 10g, 1 to 2 eggs
Preparation: Cook all materials with water before adding the egg. Add sugar when the egg is ready.
Effects: It clears body heat and toxins, and increases the amount of fluid in the lung. Thus it is used to cure dry and sore throat caused by lung dryness.
- Sha Shen tea
Ingredients: sha shen 15g, Yu Zhu 10g, Mai Dong 10g, Tian Hua powder 3g, Di Gu Pi 6g
Preparation: Cook all materials with water. Take it once a day.
Effects: It is good for recovery from vocal fatigue and preventing hoarse voice. It cures coughing and fever caused by Yin deficiency. It is a perfect drink for teachers, singers and those who work in the night shift.
- Dark Plum Fruit Tea
Ingredients: 5 dark plums
Preparation: mesh the plums and put it in a cup. Steep it with boiled water for 15 minutes. Keep every sip in your mouth for a while before swallowing slowly. Take it once a day.
Effects: it can increase the amount of fluid in your body and cure chronic pharyngitis and hoarse voice.
- Honeysuckle and Mint tea
Ingredients: Jin Yin flower 10g, mint 5g, olives 5g
Preparation: Cook Jin Yin flower and olive with 600ml water in a jar. Add mint when it boils. Cook with low heat for another 5 minutes.
Effects: it cures throat swelling, inflammation and pain caused by a cold.
- Pang Da Hai tea
Ingredients: Pang Dai Hai 6g, 2-3 pieces of liquorice
Preparation: put ingredients together in a cup and steep with 600ml of water for 10 minutes.
Effects: it cures sore throat caused by throat inflammation and swelling after speaking for a long time.
- Bai He tea
Ingredients: Bai He 10g, Sha Shen 10g, Bei Mu powder 10g
Preparation: put ingredients together in a cup and steep with 600ml of water for 10 minutes.
Effects: it cures sore and itchy throat caused by allergy.