How Do You Get That Irritating Sore Throat? Strep Throat

If you have a cold, you sometimes also experience an annoying feeling in your throat. He can be swollen and give you the feeling that you are swallowing a piece of sandpaper. Did you know that a sore throat is also a symptom of other ailments? We put a number for you in a row.

Virus infections
A cold virus is often accompanied by a sore throat, but there are also other virus infections that give you a sore throat. In laryngitis, the vocal cords or the larynx are inflamed. The main symptoms of laryngitis are hoarseness and losing your voice. Your throat may feel prickly and raw.

An inflamed throat can also be a harbinger of Pfeiffer, a disease that occurs mainly in young people. The glandular fever will disappear by itself, but you can keep long suffered from fatigue.

Bacterial inflammation
There are several organs and glands near your throat where bacteria can cause inflammation. If you swallow food, a cover will prevent your food from entering your windpipe. This cover, called epiglottis, is such an organ. In case of inflammation, it swells up, as a result of which the trachea is partially closed. Epiglottis causes a severe sore throat, hoarseness, and problems with breathing and swallowing. It usually occurs in children up to six years.

In your throat, there are left and right tonsils: glands that keep viruses and bacteria out. Yet they can also be infected. They turn red, sometimes with white dots, and swell up. If you often suffer from inflamed tonsils, you can have them removed.

Your throat itself is not safe for bacteria. Angina is a strep throat caused by bacteria called streptococci. You recognize angina in white spots in your throat and on your tonsils.

Other disorders
An inflamed thyroid gland can cause symptoms that resemble a sore throat. You then have pain in your neck, near the thyroid gland. Such thyroid inflammation can have various causes. Hashimoto's disease is a chronic thyroid infection that often starts with an enlarged thyroid gland. The thyroid also often works too slowly. With subacute granulomatous thyroiditis, you suddenly feel pain in the neck, which is often described by patients as a sore throat. The pain can worsen if you swallow or turn your head.

If something goes wrong with the seal between your stomach and your esophagus, the stomach acid can flow back (reflux). The acidic stomach acid causes a burning sensation in your esophagus or throat. Also, dry or polluted air, smoking and talking too loud are not nice for your throat.

Solutions
What you can do to your sore throat depends on the cause. You can alleviate the unpleasant feeling with all kinds of home remedies, such as a water ice cream, (chamomile) tea with honey, suck on licorice, gargle with saline and if that does not help a paracetamol. Antibiotics usually do not make sense. Antibiotics do not help against virus infections anyway, and a bacterial infection does not pass when you use antibiotics.

*Image source : Medical News Today

References :

1. National Cancer Institute
2. Gezondheidsnet.nl
3. American Cancer Society