Tonsillitis: treatment with folk remedies for chronic and structural forms of the disease

Treatment of tonsillitis with folk remedies is carried out in combination with conservative methods, including the prescription of medications, inhalations, rinses and physiotherapy. Traditional medicine in this case acts as an auxiliary therapy and is aimed at reducing or eliminating the symptoms of the disease.

Treatment of tonsillitis with folk remedies should complement drug therapy

If the patient does not improve after treatment, and relapses of the disease occur several times a year, they resort to tonsillectomy - tonsillectomy. It is also necessary in cases where, against the background of a long-term presence of a source of infection in the body, severe complications from the joints and heart are observed.

The palatine tonsils are part of the body's immune system and perform a protective function - they do not allow pathogenic organisms to enter through the air. However, with prolonged and/or frequent inflammatory processes in the pharynx, they lose their ability to resist pathogens and turn into a source of infection.

Palatine tonsils perform a protective function in the body

New acute tonsillitis (tonsillitis) can develop with frequent hypothermia, against the background of infection with staphylococci, streptococci, adenoviruses or fungal infections. If the patient is not provided with timely medical care, or repeated tonsillitis is recorded within a year, a diagnosis of chronic tonsillitis is made. Chronication of the inflammatory process is also caused by decreased immunity, improper or inadequate nutrition, and frequent viral infections.

The pathology occurs more often in children than in adults. To avoid tonsil removal, it is most important to promptly consult a pediatrician or pediatric ENT specialist for advice and begin treatment as quickly as possible. The earlier it is started, the higher the chances of permanently stopping the symptoms of the disease.

Wet cleaning in the apartment should be carried out regularly

Along with conservative methods, regular hardening, frequent ventilation and wet cleaning of the room where the child spends the most time are recommended.

Is it possible to cure tonsillitis using traditional methods at home?

In most cases, conservative treatment of the disease does not require the patient to remain in a hospital. Only when prescribing physical procedures does a visit to a doctor become necessary, since they require special equipment and trained personnel.

Often, the ENT prescribes the patient the necessary medications and a number of folk remedies as an auxiliary therapy. These include rinsing, inhalation, taking decoctions or infusions of herbs, homemade preparations from propolis, honey or vegetable juice.

It should be borne in mind that folk remedies are not used as monotherapy for chronic tonsillitis. Only in combination with other methods prescribed by an otolaryngologist can home treatment of pathology be effective.

The use of traditional medicine methods must be agreed with a doctor

Most often, treatment of tonsillitis with folk remedies is prescribed to children in uncomplicated cases and to patients with allergies to certain categories of drugs who need an effective alternative. During pregnancy, you should take herbal home remedies, like any medicine, with caution and only after consulting your doctor.

How to be treated correctly

Competent treatment of chronic tonsillitis includes a set of measures to eliminate infectious inflammation and deep sanitation (cleansing) of the tonsils. This is necessary to prevent relapses of the disease, suppress allergic and autoimmune processes, and restore the protective function of the pharyngeal lymphadenoid ring.

Common mistakes when treating tonsils:

• Only local medicine for sore throat is used, with the rejection of recommended systemic antibacterial therapy.
• The drug is selected by the patient independently, without taking into account the nature of inflammation, composition and sensitivity of the microflora.
• Drugs for the treatment of chronic tonsillitis are taken haphazardly, or instead of recommended medications, a folk remedy for the disease is used.
• Early cessation of treatment, therapy is completed soon after the sore throat subsides and other symptoms of exacerbation decrease.
• Avoidance of treatment between periods of exacerbation, refusal of proposed surgery.
• Late visit to the doctor, at the stage of complications.

This approach is the main reason for the protracted and complicated course of the disease and the formation of drug resistance in pathogens. Treatment of chronic tonsillitis in adults should be carried out comprehensively, under the supervision of a physician.

The most effective folk methods for treating chronic tonsillitis

Complex therapy of the disease includes the simultaneous use of several traditional medicines. Depending on the patient’s condition and the severity of the inflammatory process, the doctor selects the most effective recipes.

The pathology occurs more often in children than in adults. To avoid tonsil removal, it is most important to promptly consult a pediatrician or pediatric ENT specialist for advice and begin treatment as quickly as possible.

Rinse

To remove bacteria and their metabolic products from the tonsils, disinfect the surface and speed up the healing process, you should regularly gargle during the treatment period.

A soda-salt solution is often used for rinsing pride.

For this purpose, you can prepare the following products yourself:

• infusion of calendula and chamomile flowers: 10 g of raw materials are poured into a glass container, pour 1 liter of boiling water. After 20 minutes, the product should be filtered thoroughly. Gargle with the warm infusion 3-4 times a day, using 200 ml per procedure;
• soda-salt solution: 1 teaspoon each of salt and soda, pour 1 glass of warm water and add 2 drops of iodine. Gargle with the prepared solution 2-3 times a day for 10 days;
• Basil decoction: 10 g of garden basil is poured into 1 glass of water and boiled for 10 minutes over low heat. Then infuse for 40 minutes, filter and add 1 teaspoon of salt and vodka to the warm broth. Gargle with the product 3 times a day for no more than 4 days;
• decoction of a mixture of medicinal herbs: 2 tbsp. tablespoons of crushed sweet clover herb and marshmallow root are mixed with 1 tbsp. a spoonful of calendula flowers, chamomile, burdock root, anise seeds, raw thyme, wild mallow, St. John's wort and linden. Take 1 tbsp from the finished mixture. spoon and pour into 1 glass of hot water, put on low heat and boil for 5 minutes. Then infuse for 20 minutes and filter. Gargle with warm broth 3–5 times a day;
• decoction of chamomile, calendula and eucalyptus: from a collection containing an equal volume of each component, take 1 tbsp. spoon, pour 400 ml of hot water, put on low heat and boil for 5 minutes. The resulting product is infused for 20 minutes and then filtered thoroughly. Gargle with the prepared warm broth at least 3 times a day for 10 days.

How to deal with chronic tonsillitis?

How to deal with chronic tonsillitis?

An otolaryngologist of the highest category, director of the onColor medical cryology center, Doctor of Medical Sciences Vladimir Ivanovich KOCHENOV will help you understand this issue.

— Vladimir Ivanovich, if a person often has a sore throat, is this a sign of chronic tonsillitis?

— Chronic tonsillitis is an inflammation of the tonsils, exacerbations of which manifest themselves in the form of sore throats, always with high fever.

People often call any unpleasant sensation in the throat a sore throat, but this is not true. If the temperature is low and the pain is not severe, a person may not take sick leave and suffer from the disease on his feet. Most often, this signal is an exacerbation of pharyngitis.

— Why do the palatine tonsils become inflamed?

— The palatine tonsils are the largest accumulation of lymphoid tissue in the body, which plays an immunological role. Here, new microorganisms, viruses and other foreign agents are “studied”, ways to combat them are found, then this information is “stored” in the palatine tonsils throughout life. Thus, the tonsils are always at the forefront of the fight against infection, which is why they themselves often get sick, especially in young people.

— Can the problem of tonsillitis be solved by removing the tonsils?

— The number of tonsillectomies has decreased sharply compared to even the 70s. After all, the recommendation to remove the tonsils is quite akin to the advice to cut off a finger if you get a splinter.

When comparing groups of young people with and without tonsils removed in childhood, it turned out that those who underwent this intervention were shorter, more susceptible to colds, and less developed physically and even mentally. And adults without tonsils, the organ of immunity, always suffer from the inevitable pharyngitis and more often have cancer.

- How then to treat a sore throat?

- Today, any inflammation in the tonsils can be eliminated using new gentle treatment methods. Among them are cryotherapy, ultrasonic sterilizing cavitation, laser therapy, supplemented by traditional lavage of lacunae.

— Should I use antibiotics?

— Antibiotics cannot eliminate inflammation in the tonsils; this is a path to the development of fungal infection of the pharynx.

Daily and regular rinsing of the throat with decoctions of medicinal herbs, sometimes with the addition of hydrogen peroxide or antiseptics, is necessary.

Dietary supplements normalize the protective functions of the lymphoid tissue of the tonsils; they begin to protect themselves and the entire body from inflammation.

— What is the prevention of tonsillitis?

— Regular (every 3-5 years) preventive use of cryotherapy, a non-surgical treatment with ultra-low temperatures, a kind of local hardening of the throat, allows maintaining the body’s performance at the proper level throughout life.

Love, take care of your tonsils, take care of them and be healthy.

For your information

Sore throats often occur in people with difficulty breathing through their nose. If a person breathes through the mouth, the microbes contained in the air fall directly on the tonsils, the air is not warmed, not moistened and not cleared of dust. Therefore, it is very important to learn to breathe through your nose.

And in cases where this is difficult to achieve, for example, when doing physical work or running in the cold season, you can use a simple technique. To warm the air entering your mouth, you need to press the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth. Cold air flowing around the tongue will have time to warm up before it hits the tonsils.

Ekaterina QUEEN.

Recommendations for getting rid of chronic tonsillitis

• If the disease becomes acute, the body becomes poisoned. To remove harmful substances, you need to drink a lot of liquid throughout the day. These should not be sweet, carbonated, hot or cold drinks.
• Avoid eating spicy or hard foods to avoid irritation and damage to the throat.
• Maintain bed rest on exacerbation days.
• Follow a daily routine. Make sure you get enough sleep.
• Enemas, laxatives and sorbents will help remove allergy symptoms. Physician approval required.

Symptoms of the disease

Only an ENT doctor can diagnose chronic tonsillitis, but anyone who is sick can identify the characteristic symptoms of the disease. The main “indicative” sign is plugs in the tonsils, or tonsillitis plugs. These are purulent accumulations of white or brown color. They are formed as a result of deposits of bacterial waste products. They are joined by food debris and dead leukocytes. This whole “mixture” forms into plugs, which cause bad breath. This is the second hallmark sign of inflammation in the tonsils. In addition to the foul odor, plugs cause a sensation of a lump in the throat or the presence of a foreign body.

The tonsils themselves become swollen and enlarged during an exacerbation. You can see adhesions and scars on them. The patient complains of headaches. Body temperature stays at 37 - 37.5o. At this time, the patient feels increased fatigue, constant fatigue, and performance decreases. Pain in the lower back, heart, or joints may also occur. It would seem, what does the tonsils have to do with it? Inflammation of the tonsils very often leads to complications in these organs. Therefore, it is necessary to treat the tonsils!

Diagnosis and treatment

The first stage before treatment is correct diagnosis. You can accurately establish a diagnosis only by visiting an ENT doctor - not on your own, not at home at a family council, but only in an ENT clinic! At the initial appointment, the otorhinolaryngologist collects the patient’s medical history, assesses the condition of the palatine tonsils and pharynx, and conducts an endoscopic examination. If necessary, the patient is sent for a laboratory blood test and a throat swab to determine the causative agent of the disease and its sensitivity to antibacterial drugs. After confirming the diagnosis, the patient is offered a specific treatment regimen.

The disease can only be overcome with effective treatment. Tonsillitis can be treated using two methods - conservative and surgical. The most preferable method is the conservative method, since it allows you to remove plugs, relieve inflammation and preserve the tonsils. Conservative treatment includes medication, lavage of the tonsils and physiotherapeutic procedures. Conservative therapy does not require hospitalization of the patient. It involves treatment at home with a mandatory visit to an ENT doctor for rinsing the tonsils and physiotherapy. That is, home treatment alone is not enough.

Friends! Timely and correct treatment will ensure you a speedy recovery!

If procedures in the clinic along with treatment with home remedies do not bring the desired effect, and the affected tonsils can no longer perform their functions, a decision is made to remove them. The operation to remove the tonsils is called tonsillectomy. Direct indications for tonsillectomy are frequent sore throats (more than four per year), peritonsillar abscess, poor rheumatic test results, complications in other organs (kidneys, heart, joints).

This is the main mistake of many patients who believe that they can cope with the disease at home without additional outpatient procedures and manipulations.

Drug therapy for chronic tonsillitis.

To treat inflammation of the tonsils at home, the following are prescribed:

• antibacterial drugs (“Augmentin”, “Azithromycin”, etc.) - taken during an exacerbation in a dosage determined by an ENT doctor. The course of treatment cannot be interrupted. It is necessary to take the medicine for exactly the number of days recommended by the otorhinolaryngologist!
• probiotics - drugs for restoring intestinal microflora, eliminating the effects of taking antibiotics;
• anti-inflammatory sprays (“Hexoral”, “Tantum Verde”, “Inhalipt”, etc.);
• antihistamines that relieve swelling of the tonsils;
• antiseptic preparations for treating the tonsils (“Miramistin”, “Furacilin”, “Chlorophyllipt”);
• homeopathic medicines (for example, Tonsilotren);
• immunostimulating drugs (for example, Imudon).

All these medications help cope with exacerbation of chronic tonsillitis and relieve symptoms at home. Drug treatment can be supplemented with traditional medicine recipes, which also help get rid of local symptoms of the disease.

Where does tonsillitis come from?

Nobody wants to get sick, of course. Therefore, a reasonable question arises: what provokes chronic inflammation of the tonsils?

The most important and common cause is untreated tonsillitis.

Patients come to us who, when the first symptoms of a sore throat appeared, believed that they could cure the disease at home: they prescribed medications to themselves, some chose unconventional methods of treatment, others simply did nothing, firmly believing that it would go away on its own. But a sore throat does not go away on its own. Pathogenic microorganisms take root in the tonsils, periodically making themselves known by the manifestation of unpleasant symptoms - this is how the chronic form develops.

Other factors provoking the disease may include:

• chronic diseases of the nasopharynx, ears or oral cavity - for example, during an exacerbation of chronic sinusitis, infectious purulent masses can easily reach the surface of the tonsils, acting as a catalyst for new inflammation;
• a decrease in the protective functions of the tonsils, when their internal reserves are not enough to cope with a large number of pathogens; as a result, viruses and bacteria accumulate in the thickness of the tonsil and actively multiply there;
• unfavorable working and living conditions - polluted, dusty air, the presence of harmful substances in the inhaled air - all this is another reason for the development of inflammation and the appearance of purulent plugs in the tonsils;
• heredity - if one of the parents has this diagnosis in their anamnesis, then with a high probability the disease will be passed on to the child; therefore, an important point when planning a pregnancy is to undergo a full course of treatment for tonsillitis in an ENT clinic;
• bad habits - smoking and alcohol abuse reduce immunity and provoke an exacerbation of the disease;
• emotional overstrain, prolonged exposure to stressful conditions - it’s not for nothing that they say that all diseases are caused by nerves; chronic tonsillitis is another confirmation of this;
• non-compliance with the work and rest regime: overwork, lack of sleep, lack of a clear regime - a step towards chronic inflammation.

In order to begin treatment of the disease in a timely manner, it is necessary to be able to recognize the first signs of the disease.

Causes of chronic inflammation of the tonsils

Inflammation in the tonsils in an adult or child is caused by streptococcus and staphylococcus bacteria, which begin to actively multiply and take root in the lacunae of the tonsils, poisoning the body with the products of their vital activity.

The causes of infection entering the tonsils may be:

• past infectious diseases;
• chronic diseases of the nose and paranasal sinuses (rhinitis, sinusitis);
• pharyngitis;
• dental diseases (caries);
• deviated nasal septum;
• nasal polyps;
• overgrown adenoid vegetations in a child;
• stress;
• allergic reactions;
• reduced immunity.

One of the most common causes of chronic inflammation is improperly treated or undertreated acute tonsillitis - a sore throat we all know.

Therefore, it is extremely important to begin treating the disease in the early stages, and treatment of tonsils in adults and children should initially be carried out by a competent otolaryngologist.