Are you at home, close to your medicine cabinet every time a sore throat strikes? I’m not. I can remember coming down with a nasty upper respiratory infection while I was on a long car ride. With every mile, my throat hurt worse and worse until I was just about ready to cry. I didn’t even have a cough drop in my purse, just miles of misery.
One of the best things you can do to relieve a sore throat is to gargle with warm salt water. But what can you do if you’re away from home or stuck at work and your throat is starting to feel scratchy?
- Swing by the nearest fast food restaurant and use one of those little salt packets to mix up a quick gargle. Save the packets when you order lunch — keep a few in your purse, in your jacket, or in the car.
- Hit the nearest drug store and look for Simply Gargle packets. These nifty little pouches contain water, salt, and vitamin C extract all ready to go gargle.
- Eat something spicy. The spicy stuff will fire the pain receptors in your throat, making the pain less intense for a while. (Capsaicin — the stuff that makes hot peppers so hot — is a natural pain reliever.)
Of course, planning ahead means you may have things you need on hand when you aren’t feeling well. If I dig around in the bottom of my purse, I can generally find a cough drop or at least a piece of gum. Sometimes, chewing a piece of gum to keep my mouth and throat moist helps when my throat is scratchy. If you’re prone to headaches, you should keep your favorite painkiller handy. When you’re planning a road trip, make sure you’ve got a little first aid kit in your car that has bandages, painkillers, and other basics to handle any minor illness or emergency.
You don’t have to just grin and bear it when you aren’t feeling well away from home!