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Tonsillitis
What are tonsils?
 Tonsils
are glands situated in your throat, at the back of the mouth. If you open
your mouth wide and say 'aaah' out loud, you should be able to see your
tonsils. Tonsils help prevent bacteria and germs from entering your body,
and hence play a major part in increasing the body's immunity to diseases.
What is tonsillitis?
At times these glands themselves
get infected. A throat infection that targets the tonsils is called tonsillitis.
Children are especially prone to tonsillitis, but it can affect adults
too. If your child gets tonsillitis often, his tonsils should preferably
be surgically removed.
The symptoms of tonsillitis are:
-
Sore throat
-
Voice change
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Pain on swallowing
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Ear ache
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Pus, white spot, redness or soreness
of the tonsil glands
-
Slight swelling of the tonsils
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Chills
A tonsillitis patient may or may not
have temperature. The causes of tonsillitis are dry air, allergies, contact
with a tonsillitis patient (yes, it is highly infectious and spreads through
contact), cold, cough, sinusitis etc.
Home
Remedies
Lubricate
your throat
-
Tonsillitis dries out the throat. It
thus makes sense to lubricate your throat in order to sooth it. Have plenty
of warm liquids. Steer clear from cold drinks. Drinking a glass of warm
water with a teaspoon of honey helps lubricate the throat and sooths glands.
You could also add a little lemon juice to this water.
-
Drinking warm water reduces the pain
on swallowing. So keep sipping warm water through the day.
-
Place a humidifier in the room to add
some moisture to the dry air.
-
Crush a garlic clove and mix it with
a little honey. Have a teaspoon of this mixture once a day.
Inhale
steam
Inhale steam for at least 20 minutes.
Keeping your mouth closed, instead of sucking in air from your nose, suck
in air from your throat. If you can stand the smell, crush a garlic pod
and place in boiling hot water. Inhale the steam. This will immediately
kill the infection. Be sure to have plenty of garlic in some form
or the other, as garlic will help you fight the infection.
Gargle
Haldi also helps fight infection
as it is a natural antiseptic. Gargle at least thrice a day if not more,
with warm water, to which some haldi and salt has been added. Make sure
the haldi is pure, and not something you picked up in a masala form off
the shelf of your neighbourhood supermarket. It is not easy to get hold
of pure haldi, unless you know someone who is selling it or growing it.
Turn
on the heat
Warm soaks help reduce the swelling.
Soak a cloth in warm water, squeeze out the excess water and place it on
your throat. Alternatively, place a hot water bottle on your throat and
hold on to it as long as you can before falling asleep.
Apply
Ghee
-
Ghee works wonders. Apply warm ghee
to your neck, massaging the tonsils from the outside. Apply warm ghee to
your throat and cover it with a cloth before turning in for the night.
-
Swallow a teaspoon of warm ghee in the
morning.
And -
Stay away from spicy food. Stick
to bland meals during the duration of tonsillitis. Get plenty of rest,
even if you are not running a temperature. If you take care of yourself
during this time, you could recover within a week without having taken
yet another antibiotic course.
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