It’s getting to that time of year when a small trickle of patients walking into my surgery with minor, self-limiting illnesses gradually turns into a flood, peaking just before Christmas when the phrase ‘I want to be better by Christmas’ rings out all across the land. Perhaps the most common reason why patients choose to seek my advice in this regard is with a sore throat – sometimes if it has only been present for an hour or two! Most people have at least 2 to 3 sore throats each year and every winter around 9 million Britons experience the sore throat caused by seasonal colds and flu. It comes as a surprise to many people with a sore throat that in around a third of cases no cause can be found but the majority are completely harmless and usually pass within three to seven days without the need for medical treatment. Unfortunately in our time-greedy society this can be seen as unacceptable by some people who say ‘something has to be done about it’, by which they mean they want a course of antibiotics even though these will be useless in helping treat their viral infection!

The impact of sore throats can be staggering. Just under a million people seek medical attention every December for common cold symptoms, including sore throats, and one in 18 people with a sore throat consult their GP – this costs £60million per annum to the NHS just for GP consultations! Some 35 million days are lost from school or work each year due to sore throats and when I looked at Twitter on this subject there had been 315 twitter conversations on sore throats in the preceding 48 hours, with around 30 directly seeking or offering advice on how best to treat these.

If symptoms other than a sore throat are present, these can include a hoarse voice, mild cough, fever, headache, feel sick, feel tired, and the glands in your neck may swell. Medical attention should be sought if symptoms persist or are especially severe, if there is a history of past serious throat problems, if there is difficulty in swallowing or if you feel generally very unwell.

There are a number of ways of treating a sore throat but not treating one is a very serious option since most soon get better by themselves. Always drink plenty of warm fluids because mild dehydration may occur, particularly if you also have a fever, and dehydration can also make symptoms of headaches and tiredness worse. Take things easy if you are running a temperature, avoid cigarette smoke as this is irritant to the throat, and don’t share a toothbrush or eating and drinking utensils.

To help with any pain, headache or fever take paracetamol or ibuprofen on a regular basis( some people with certain conditions may not be able to take ibuprofen so read the packet label carefully). Although either paracetamol or ibuprofen will help, patients do seem to suggest to me that ibuprofen may be more effective than paracetamol at easing these symptoms. Paracetamol is usually the preferred first-line option for children. Gargles, lozenges, and sprays that you can buy at pharmacies and supermarkets can help soothe a sore throat but do not shorten the illness. I now recommend these as first-line treatment for symptomatic relief of a sore throat but usually suggest a spray rather than a lozenge since lozenges often numb the whole of the mouth rather than where it is needed in the throat. Lozenges can also take several minutes for all the active ingredients to reach the source of the pain whereas a spray works on contact in seconds. Ultra Chloraseptic is one such spray, available from pharmacies and large supermarkets without prescription and are also suitable for children aged 6 and over at a dose of one spray rather than the two or three used in adults.

Remember – most sore throats are self-limiting and can be easily treated with over the counter treatments, settling down over a few days. They can be miserable when present – I’m like a bear with a sore head, never mind a sore throat when I suffer from one – but simple measures can allow normal life to go on whilst nature does the hard work in getting them better.