Talk:Pharyngitis

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Betadine is sold in Finland, but I think it is not suitable for gargles! Ioidine compounds can cause serious thyroid problems, when swallowed! 195.163.176.146 06:30, 5 February 2007 (UTC)


This previously very much a Wikipedia:Stub:Subhasish Basu.

  • I have split viral from bacterial, placing the more common viral first.
  • I have placed treatment above the causes, as together with the prior introduction this seems to set out the range of causes and self-help measures, so forming a nice low-level start to the article.
  • Salt-water gargles are often suggested in articles, but seems little evidence that provide anything other than temporary relief (and can be dangerous if swallowed by young chidren).
  • Virus I have tried to expand out and provide links, this still looks a little sparse so any contributions welcome :-)
  • In particular I have tried add structure to streptococcal symptoms and complications and provided links to the evidence on the role of antibiotics - the Cochrane meta-analysis looked at 26 studies covering 12,669 cases.

David Ruben 19:54, 26 July 2005 (UTC)


Added information on Betadine and TCP gargles, but I don't know if these are available outside the UK. 138.250.16.16 13:56, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

Betadine throat gargle is available in Australia as well - tastes horrid, but it is quite effective.


Will scraping off the bacteria (with a spoon) on the back of the throat help?--@ije

That's a joke, right? I'm going to be unable to sleep tonight with images of spoons scraping away at the flesh at the back of the throat...--62.136.136.85 21:21, 5 February 2007 (UTC)


Am I the only one that thinks that when it says "There have been some studies that show ingesting a solution high in protein can have a profound relieving effect on sore throats..." there needs to be some example given? Right now it sounds like some kind of sexual innuendo. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.183.29.100 (talk • contribs) 19:52, 19 April 2007

That's why its tagged as needing a citation - I can't find any obvious hit at PubMed to verify this and with the tag having been unanswered since February, time to delete the apparent nonsense. David Ruben Talk 23:31, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

I think that iodine should not be mentioned on this page; there is no evidence that it reduces duration of infection and no rationale for its use in symptom relief. ben 09:23, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Voice loss/change?

I am by no means whatsoever at all any kind of knowledgeable person when it comes to... things like this, but I have had a sore throat for a while now and my voice has gone deeper and more... pasty when my throat has been worse. --62.136.136.85 21:19, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Relation with smoking?

Can someone please add something about the relation of smoking with sore throats. I get it all the time :( --ExE 16:11, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Tobacco smoking weakens the immune system, probably having the most effect on the respiratory system, though I have no idea of the exact mechanisms behind it. The relationship should definitely be mentioned in the article, if an appropriate citation can be found. Richard001 19:58, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Relationship with colds

Can something be said of the relationship between colds/influenza and pharyngitis? From my personal experience, and I assume it is the same for almost everyone else, colds and sore throats go hand in hand. Is this because the same virus is causing both symptoms, or does the presence of one weaken the bodies defenses in other areas, making it very easy for one to strike when the other is present? Richard001 07:54, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Interesting point, but lets move influenza out of this as it really is qualitatively and quantitatively different illness to what most people state as "having the flu" when they really mean "having a cold".
Nasal congestion and irritation (coryza) do often present at the same time as a sore throat. Indeed the presence of a simultaneous cold as a presenting pharyngitis pretty much guarantees that the patient has a viral infection (90% of sore throats) as generally a bacterial pharyngitis does not present with coryza.
I always have taken this to be one single illness (viral infection) presenting with a number of symptoms (runny nose, nasal irritation causing sneezing, temperature, sore throat, mild headache, mild generalised ache or tiredness), rather than different modes of illness (eg as bacterial tonsillitis is different from a bacterial urinary tract infection).
Given that common self-limiting illnesses generally do not require conventional medicines (or they have little overall effect in recovery time), the area is ripe for speculation, pseudoscience and alternative medicine wishful thinking (hmmm there opens up a large can of worms), so ideas of weakened immunity are not I think based on any hard evidence as far as I am aware (HIV/AIDS is quite different from having a cold where the gums & tonsils will happily continue to fight off the host of normal oral bacteria, and the gut continues to prevent any number of nasty anaerobic bacteria - i.e. people with a cold do not enerally get bowel-based septicaemia. Furthermore the evidence is that people can cope with multiple vaccinations at a single time).
Instead I always gathered that the cold virus went not for "the nose" but rather "upper respiratory tract epithelium", i.e. the nose, throat and upper airways. Hence a "cold virus" will generally affect the nose and the throat.
What is needed here is of course some external source that we may research this from and cite & verify the information (rather than my half-remembered medical school lectures or acquired wisdom of clinical practice). So searching on PubMed for terms “Pharyngitis Coryza” gives many studies on which antibiotics are used, but little that seems to look specifically at the frequency of specific symptoms or combination of presentations.:
  • "Understanding the symptoms of the common cold and influenza." PMID 16253889 informs us that "The mechanisms of symptoms of sore throat, rhinorrhoea, sneezing, nasal congestion, cough, watery eyes, and sinus pain are discussed, since these mechanisms are not dealt with in any detail in standard medical textbooks." - unfortunately full article is not freely available online.
  • Interesting study on which viruses are involved (and that seems make little difference to symptoms) comes from "Frequency and natural history of rhinovirus infections in adults during autumn." PMID 9350748 (full PDF).
  • “Rhinovirus infection of the normal human airway." PMID 7551410 is the article I think we seek as it gives in the abstract the sequence of viral infection, the chemicals released and the resulting symptoms – i.e. indicating that a viral cold may have sore throat as part of the same infection & illness process.
Hope this helps, how much needs be put into the articles I am unsure. Obviously a "cold" is not the same as a "sore throat", the former is an illness category (an illness due to one of a number of viruses), the latter is really more of a symptom (which may be due to a virus, bacteria, or tonsillitis or indeed a referred pain from tooth or ear problems) David Ruben Talk 18:39, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Image suggestion

A similar shot of a healthy throat would provide a useful comparison for those not used to seeing the well-lit backs of throats. --Dweller 15:41, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Symptomatic Treatments

popsicles? peppermint candy? yogurt? Surely these are the result of someone's idea of a joke.—G716 <T·C> 04:25, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

Milk seems to work well. I suspect yogurt would too. ⇌Elektron 11:22, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

I am going to add Chloroseptic style sprays here.Pink-thunderbolt (talk) 03:16, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Cayenne pepper as a treatment

The Wiki article about Cayenne pepper suggests that it could be effective in treating this condition. Even though there appears to be no scientific proof for that claim there are numerous anecdotal reports to be found on the Internet (e.g. on earthclinic.com) which point in that direction. So it would probably be useful to list it along the other household remedies. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.175.91.160 (talk) 00:39, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

theoretically since Cayenne peppers contain capsaicin, a substance P depletor used to treat different types of pain, I would say this treatment is logical... albeit it would probably burn the throat significantly... and may cause choking due to inspiration... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.150.134.2 (talk) 05:47, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Re: Above two topics

This is all touchy feely pseudoscience rubbish. I recommend we stick with legitimate medical findings not herbal remedies, if any of this witchdoctery drivel worked we wouldn't have the medical industry, we'd turn to shaman everytime we got a disease. Jachin (talk) 19:51, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Sore Throats caused by Screaming

I've noticed there isn't anything relating the cause of this on the Pharyngitis page. I am interested in why this happens. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.7.32.177 (talk) 19:06, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Lemon or Lime juice is for symptomatic relief... no benefit in killing off throat bacteria...

This statement, "Swallowing a couple teaspoons of raw lemon or lime juice several times a day may help destroy microorganisms in bacteria-related throat infections." needs to have a source... As a health care professional, this doesn't even make sense... even if the acidity could kill off the bacteria, it would not have enough contact time to do so... and if you could kill off any, it would be likely that you would kill off other bacteria which had colonized the throat... in turn hurting the patient even further by allowing the infectious organism or ANOTHER infectious organism to move in and claim the free space.

I will be monitoring this for the next few days and then will make changes unless a source can be provided. It sounds like a home made remedy without any basis in medicine. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.150.134.2 (talk) 05:41, 31 May 2008 (UTC)