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Steroids Might Relieve Sore Throat Pain

• Steroid for relief of sore throat
• steroids in exudative pharyngitis for pain relief
• Why to feel pain?

Steroid for relief of sore throat

Benjamin D. Gordon, M.D., 1 Sep 2009 9:05 PM EST

Competing interests: None declared

The first line of defense against infection is the inflammatory response. Why give an anti-inflammatory when the old-fashioned teatment of a shot of whiskey in a cup of hot tea works very well. So do direct pharyngeal sprays. I am the fourth physician in my family. Someone in our family has been in the practice of medicine for 102 years. When I started 58 years ago, I was told I would be able to help people they had had to watch die; but some things they did worked. Why not continue to use these? For example, we've been treating Herpes Simplex with Compound Tincture of Benzoin q 12 h for over 100 years. Works very well. As the old commercial said:" Try it. You'll like it."

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steroids in exudative pharyngitis for pain relief

Diane Miessler, ED, 2 Jan 2010 11:08 AM EST

Competing interests: None declared

This begs the question: would INHALED steroids also work? And as Dr. Gordon asks, above, what about undermining the inflammatory response? I assume the outcomes of infection management were the same, but the abstract doesn't say.

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Why to feel pain?

Rafael Mialski, Universidade Federal do Paraná - Brazil, 9 Jan 2010 9:57 AM EST

Competing interests: None declared

I agree with Dr. Gordon, that inflammatory response is our first line defense. But, if it brings pain, we should defeat it. Nowadays, it´s inadmissible let our patients feel pain. We´ll eliminate the bacterias using antibiotics, so we don´t need the inflammatory response working too much.

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