When someone advises you to gargle salt water when you’re suffering from a sore throat or other similar malady, you might ask yourself, “what does gargling salt water do, exactly?” In a world with broad spectrum antibiotics available, it’s a fair question. The surprising answer is: salt water is actually very effective at helping symptoms of a sore throat, as well as several other minor health complaints..
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Reasons Salt Water Helps Certain Problems
For a painful, itchy, or sore mouth, tongue or throat: If you are having pain from a minor throat infection, chancre sores, thrush, toothache, sinus infection, or any other ailment that is causing pain to the tissues of the mouth, tongue, gums, or throat – you should address the problem with your healthcare practitioner to determine a cause. If you are lingering, in misery, waiting for a doctor’s appointment: salt water gargles are a very safe home remedy to try. Lots of sources say that adding a licorice tea to a salt water gargle regime is additionally helpful for oropharynx pain.
If you are curious why this works, salt naturally draws out water from areas of a higher concentration of water to salt, so if you introduce concentrated salt water, essentially you can reduce some swelling through the miracle of osmosis that you learned about in high school biology class. Additionally, sodium chloride has natural antibacterial and antiviral properties, and will actually aid your immune system in fighting infections that are able to be exposed to the salt. The reduction of excess swelling, plus the effects it has on inflamed or infected tissue will ease pain pretty significantly, compared to doing nothing at all.
For heartburn: It’s not really advisable to drink salt water for heartburn, although there are definitely a lot of bathroom chemists out there who will tell you that a teaspoon of baking soda in a half cup of warm water will quickly quench a fire in your belly after a spicy meal. Salt water gargles will help with sour breath and other problems related to poor digestion, however. Always get pain in the abdomen or chest checked out, especially if it recurs or lingers longer than just briefly. Your physician can recommend more long-term treatments for problems like reflux, and occasionally reflux or heartburn is masking what is actually cardiac pain.
Precautions To Take
Although gargling with salt water occasionally as a treatment for certain problems is often helpful, it’s a bad idea to do it on a daily basis. The excess sodium is drying to the tissues of the mouth, lips, and throat, and can actually dehydrate mucous membranes and the tongue when repeated too often, to the degree that it can exacerbate problems and make your mouth or throat more painful. Accidentally drinking the salt water gargle isn’t harmful, but can certainly cause an unexpected bout of diarrhea, or even vomiting. Frequent salt water gargling can adversely affect the teeth and gums, as well, so it’s a useful treatment – but only occasionally. Any symptoms that don’t go away should always be checked out by a physician, regardless. If you find yourself needing repeated salt water gargles for any reason, it’s best to get yourself checked out by a medical practitioner.
How To Gargle With Salt Water
For a general salt water gargle: add a teaspoon of table salt to about a half cup of warm water, and vigorously stir it to dissolve. If you want to add some lemon or mint to make it more palatable, there are no rules saying not to do that. Also, as previously stated, a lot of people recommend combining salt water gargles with drinking licorice tea for an even more effective effect.
To gargle, take a small mouthful (a few sips) and tip your head back, making a gargling sound to keep the salt water agitating in your mouth and throat, kind of like a washing machine. Also, this keeps you from swallowing much of the salt water – by making the “gargle gargle gargle” noise. There is a reason, after all, they call this “gargling”. Do this for as long as you can stand it, or 30 seconds – whichever comes first. Then repeat it once or twice.
It’s pretty safe to do this three times daily, but try not to overdo it (as stated in the paragraph above).
