"I have a sore throat!"
The ear, nose and throat doctor
What do I advise my patients? Above all drink, two to three liters should be. Always good is a wet and warm wrap. Soak a cloth with warm water, put it around your neck, protect it with a dry towel and fasten it all with a safety pin. And of course, rest!
Usually two days are enough. Just do not exercise, you risk a heart muscle inflammation that can be very dangerous. A walk is allowed, but only as long as the fever does not rise above 38 degrees. I am also quite convinced of sage, as a solution, as a tea, as a sweet ... Of classical slime removers like ACC, I hold little, their effectiveness is controversial. I also find throat tablets that have a disinfectant effect problematic: If you take them for more than a week, it often causes confusion about your sense of taste and, above all, the natural oral flora - fungi then have it all too easily.
If you still have the feeling after several days that everything in the throat is very rough and sore, you should go to the doctor again. Because possibly in addition to the virus has developed a bacterial infection, so that an antibiotic is needed. And for stubborn viruses, the ENT doctor can brush the neck with a tincture. As a result, the tissue contracts and heals faster.
Info: Dr. med. Hans-Joachim Proescher, Hamburg
The general practitioner
Sore throat? This happens very often in my GP practice at the moment. In nine out of ten cases, viruses are to blame, and no antibiotics help against them. I recommend to paracetamol and lozenges with an analgesic drug, as long as the pain is there. Headaches and body aches make you feel bad - and that's why you get better and slower on your own. And with difficulty swallowing one often does not like to eat and drink enough. But both are important in order to regain strength - just like physical protection.
I ask the patient to come back if she does not feel much better within two to three days. That's how long the body usually takes to help itself.
Info: Dr. med. Dorothea Hengstermann, Hamburg
The alternative practitioner specializing in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)
TCM is all about finding out which disabling factors are responsible for the condition - and then removing them from the body using acupuncture, teas or herbal tablets. Therefore, I first ask a patient with a sore throat: Did you get a train? Were you dressed too thin, did you freeze? That tells me a lot about the harmful influence that could have caused the pain. Harmful influence does not mean viruses or bacteria, but cold, wind or moisture.
When it comes to a cold, it often happens like this: First, cold penetrates into the body. Then the pores close, so that not more energy can be lost. But also the cold stays in the body. In the cold, the energy - the chi - circulates more slowly. And the slower it flows, the sooner it can get stuck, you can imagine it like a stream. Over a period of two to three days, this energy build-up leads to excessive heat, which manifests itself in typical heat symptoms: fever, rapid heart rate, thirst, and severe sore throat.
For me, it is very important to recognize which influence currently predominates. That's why I ask, among other things, how thirsty the patient is, how often she has to go to the toilet and what color her urine has: Rare urinary urgency and dark urine are also heat symptoms. Depending on the findings, I then prescribe certain teas or tablets that cause more heat, cold, wind or moisture from the body.
Many patients wish that they feel better immediately. Then acupuncture is optimal. I need about ten to twelve points, including two, which I always use for sore throats. At those you can treat yourself well with acupressure by massaging them with the fingertip. TCM treatments usually do not pay statutory health insurance companies. A short history (conversation and physical examination) for acute complaints costs about 20 euros, for an acupuncture session you have to expect around 26 euros.
Info: Marion Billker, Glinde
The doctor for natural remedies
"How big is your life force, measured on a scale of 0 to 10?" I ask all my patients with acute complaints, including anyone with a sore throat. So I quickly get a first impression of how "deep" the disease is. Most say 6 or 7. But there are also patients who feel a maximum of 3 with a cold, so seriously ill. How someone perceives his illness has to do with his current life circumstances.
I try to grasp this in order to understand what the patient needs now.With acupuncture and homeopathic remedies I have the best experience. In addition, I can recommend some home remedies: Gargle with bolus alba - white healing clay - soothes the inflamed neck. A teaspoon on a glass of water is enough. Sage is also good for gargling, but only if the patient has no fever. Otherwise, better not, after all, sage also inhibits perspiration.
Even neck wraps do well: for shivering patients a potato wrap, for fever a quark wrap. To do this, put the quark or the cooked and crushed, still warm potatoes in a kitchen towel. And, of course, a lot of rest, light food - at best gently cooked - and plenty of fluids are very important.
Ideal is "sweet-boiled" water: simmer two liters of water with a little untreated lemon peel and a juniper berry for ten minutes and then leave for at least five minutes, fill in thermoses and drink throughout the day, warm or room warm. When simmering, the water absorbs energy that can be supplied to the body.
Info: Ute Knierer, Hamburg
The homeopath
There are about ten homeopathic remedies that have been proven to treat sore throats or mucosal problems. I find out which is the optimal remedy for exactly this patient by examining her in detail and talking to her.
I ask exactly for their current complaints, including, on which side the pain is: For left-sided sore throat, for example, Lachesis often helps very well.
An important piece of information for me is also whether she has cold feet or what makes it worse or better. I am also interested in the emotional state of the patient, which is just as important as the physical one. Does she have extraordinary stress at work or in partnership? Is she generally in a good mood or sad? Has the mood changed only with the pain? This is how you approach yourself until I know which globules of this patient should help - sometimes, of course, it is also a drug that is not one of the typical painkillers.
Such an acute treatment usually takes about an hour, so it is much shorter than the usual first consultation. It also covers only a part of the constitution or constitution of the person. I ask my patients to call the next day how they are doing - even on weekends. It is important to know if something has changed, it has become better or worse. I often hear that a few hours after taking the homeopathic remedy it was much better. But sometimes the patient needs another dose, a higher or lower dilution, or a completely different remedy.
Even homeopathic treatments, the health insurance does not take, possibly the drugs. For an acute treatment you have to expect about 60 euros.
Info: Kathrin Monday, Hamburg
