Top 10 Best Practices to Protect Your Throat in Winter

1. Opt for Warm Beverages

One of the unhealthy habits for keeping the throat warm in winter is drinking cold water or using cold beverage products.

Being lazy to drink water is not a good habit, as our bodies are composed of 75% water. Drinking water is very good for the normal development of the body. Inadequate water supply can make the throat lining dry and prone to irritation.

Therefore, you should supplement more water for the body, it is better to limit using cold drinks and instead opt for warm beverages.

2. Use Honey and Ginger to Protect Your Throat

Winter is a season where you're more susceptible to sore throats, flu, and colds. The excessively low temperatures weaken your immune system. Alongside other preventive measures, it's advisable to include plenty of garlic in your daily meals or even consume it raw for better results.

Garlic contains allicin, a compound known for its ability to combat viruses and bacteria in the body. It's highly beneficial for your health, acting as a natural antibiotic that strengthens your body's antibacterial defenses, alleviates coughs, reduces phlegm, eases breathing, clears nasal congestion, and enhances your immunity, helping you ward off winter illnesses.

The human body is a unified entity, a complex system composed of interconnected organs. The ears, nose, and throat are interconnected just like the sinuses are connected to the nose, the throat is connected to the ears, and the Eustachian tube connects to the throat. If the nose catches a cold, it can easily lead to a runny nose.

Therefore, protecting the nose is also a way to protect the throat. It's best that on chilly days when you're out, you should definitely wear a mask to keep your nose warm and to avoid inhaling smoke or spreading viruses and bacteria from one person to another. Wearing a mask properly allows you to go out with peace of mind without worrying about respiratory illnesses.

Winter is a season conducive to bacterial growth and also a time when the body's immunity is weakened. Therefore, don't let dust, cigarette smoke, exhaust fumes... be one of the factors causing throat pain.

Moreover, if you have a history of sore throats, cigarette smoke and dust can exacerbate your condition. Hence, you should limit exposure to areas with dust and smoke. If necessary, it's better to protect yourself by wearing a mask as mentioned above.

Actually, not only during winter but at all times of the year, alcoholic beverages are detrimental to health. Excessive consumption can weaken the body's immune system, making it more susceptible to infectious diseases when exposed to bacteria and viruses. Overconsumption of alcohol can impair the function of white blood cells, which play a crucial role in fighting infections. This becomes more pronounced during winter, a season known for harsh temperatures that favor the proliferation of disease-causing microorganisms.

Abusing alcohol and other alcoholic beverages can irritate the mucous membrane in the throat, leading to increased mucus secretion. Additionally, alcohol consumption can also lead to increased phlegm production in the throat. Prolonged exposure to these conditions can result in inflammation and swelling of the mucous membrane.

Scientifically proven, when you sleep, your body temperature decreases, making you more susceptible to catching a cold if the room temperature isn't warm enough. Therefore, to protect your health, it's essential to keep your body warm while sleeping. Especially on freezing days, you need to use blankets and keep warm areas that are prone to catching a cold, such as the throat.

Many people, fearing a recurrence of throat inflammation, often prepare a thin, small silk scarf to cover their throat while sleeping. Additionally, your feet are also an area you shouldn't let get cold. You can wear socks or apply a little camphor oil to the soles of your feet.