What can cause angina in the summer. Bad advice: how you can get a sore throat

What associations do you have when you hear the word "angina"? Probably, like most people: a severe sore throat, high fever, cold, winter ... Do you know that getting sick with a sore throat in the summer is as easy as in the cold season? Moreover, summer sore throats, as reported medical statistics, is by no means uncommon. Every year more and more more people refers to an ENT doctor with this problem in the summer.

Why does angina occur in the heat? How to protect yourself from a sore throat in the summer and treat it correctly? All these questions are answered by an otorhinolaryngologist the highest category, Candidate of Medical Sciences - Vladimir Mikhailovich Zaitsev.

Angina in the summer - why?

The causative agent of the disease, as in winter, is most often streptococcus bacteria, less often staphylococcus or pneumococcus - there is nothing new here. But in order for them to become active, certain factors favorable for infection are needed. Which? Let's tell now! If in the autumn-winter period the development of the disease can be attributed to cold and weakened immunity, then why does angina increasingly occur in summer?

In the heat, the skin and our mucous membranes heat up, metabolic processes intensify. All this leads to the fact that bacteria becomes more. The pathogenic microflora is literally raging - after all, the warmer it is, the better and more comfortable it is for it to multiply. And here the person himself "helps" - he will eat cold ice cream or drink ice water.

Our palatine tonsils, protecting the body, react to such a sharp hypothermia with an outbreak of tonsillitis. Also, the infection can enter the body from the outside, because tonsillitis is a disease with a high degree of contagiousness. In simple terms, it is highly contagious. Sometimes it is enough for someone nearby to sneeze.

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Why is it so easy to get a sore throat in the summer, when the days are hot, and the table is “breaking” from such healthy seasonal fruits and vegetables?

There are several predisposing factors:

Photo: from the personal archive of Vladimir Zaitsev

Air conditioners. In the summer they are everywhere - at home, at work, in stores. Everyone tries to escape the heat in this way. When a hot person enters an air-conditioned room, especially if the difference between the temperature outside the window and in the room is around 10 °, such changes are a real stress for the body. Under such conditions, it is difficult for the body to fight the infection, and the person becomes ill.
Ice cream and cold drinks. Admit it, who in the summer is not averse to pampering themselves with cooling drinks or all their favorite delicacy since childhood? But our tonsils are not in solidarity with you. During the heat, as already mentioned, our mucous membranes heat up, and the cold that has fallen on them causes hypothermia. It is very difficult for supercooled palatine tonsils to fight infection - the tonsils become inflamed, and sore throat occurs.
Summer travel and travel. In this case, the danger lies in the weakening of the immune system due to the long movement to the place of rest and acclimatization.
swimming in bodies of water after the body has become very hot under the sun. This is another reason for the sharp hypothermia.

In a special risk group are children, who sometimes find it difficult to explain why they need to limit themselves to ice cream or prolonged bathing in the heat.

Symptoms of summer sore throat

The first signs of a sore throat are very similar to those of a common cold. Therefore, when early symptoms of the disease appear, a person most often thinks that he has encountered a common cold, but not a sore throat. Accordingly, proper treatment is not carried out, the disease progresses and complications may appear. That is why summer sore throats are much more difficult.

It would seem that in the summer you can get sick with anything, but not with colds, such as tonsillitis. But it was not there!
For summer respiratory and infectious colds accounts for up to 20% of all ailments, including pneumonia and tonsillitis, which minor illnesses you won't take it. Recently, angina in the summer is not at all a rare case, and the course of the disease is more complicated. According to practicing doctors, this is our payment for comfortable living conditions.

It gets a little hotter for us - we immediately reach for the refrigerator with soft drinks, or we can turn on the air conditioner at a temperature much lower than the ambient temperature. And we do not strengthen our immunity, but on the contrary, due to an unbalanced diet, we bring it to work “in emergency mode”. Therefore, our body cannot resist either streptococci, or staphylococci and pneumococci in full.

Summer respiratory infections

If you make an approximate dossier on our enemy - summer sore throat - it will look like this:

The causative agent is pyogenic microbes, mainly streptococci.
The source of the disease is purulent ENT diseases, caries.
Distributors - patients with tonsillitis and healthy carriers of streptococcal infection.
The method of infection is airborne.
The degree of insidiousness is the ability to reproduce even on certain types of food.

Summer sore throats are always harder than winter ones, and this is explained very simply. In summer, we perceive such symptoms as a runny nose, cough, sore throat as passing by themselves and not requiring treatment. Therefore, the disease goes into a more complex stage, when serious measures are indispensable. Hence the protracted nature of the course of the disease and the possible development of complications. Moreover, in the summer, chlamydia, mycoplasma, legionella, etc. are connected to the main pathogens of angina.

However, not everyone is affected by this disease. To those whose the immune system reliable and resistant, no temperature fluctuations, no hypothermia and pathogens are not terrible.

Therefore, the only way not to get sick (to the attention of parents, as well as grandparents!) Is hardening, an active lifestyle, a healthy balanced diet for the child.

Causes of the disease

Some of the most common causes of angina in the summer are:

Summer travel. The chances of catching an infection increase as a result of the exchange of microflora between people, in addition, the child's immunity is weakened due to a long journey to a place of rest, as well as climate change;
Various infections oral cavity including caries. Timely measures to eliminate the infection will also prevent infection with a sore throat;
Sudden temperature changes. In the summer, children are more often than usual tempted to eat cold ice cream, or drink kvass from the refrigerator. A sharp temperature drop reduces the protective function of the mucous membrane of the throat, as a result of which the child's body becomes more susceptible to microbial attacks.
In addition, drinking carbonated water can lead to similar consequences.

But if you give the child to enjoy ice cream throughout the year, of course, without abusing it, then you can even harden the baby's neck, which will subsequently protect him from infection.

Symptoms of the disease

Angina in children in the summer can occur in different forms, the most common of which is .

The first symptom of an incipient illness may be a slight change in the child's voice. If you notice that the child has begun to hoarse, or the timbre of the voice has somehow changed, start treatment immediately.
Another important symptom is a sore throat, in which the baby even finds it difficult to swallow. Later, this symptom is accompanied by headaches, fever, up to 40 ° C, weakness, nausea, constant fatigue at which the child wants to lie down.

Treatment of summer sore throat

To answer the question of how to cure a sore throat in a child in the summer, you must first determine its type. Indeed, in addition to catarrhal, they also distinguish membranous-ulcerative, diphtheria and, differing in the type of pathogen and the degree of damage to the tonsils.

The easiest form is catarrhal tonsillitis, which, with timely treatment, goes away in 3-5 days. Other types are more dangerous and require longer treatment. Therefore, after detecting the first signs of the disease, immediately begin treatment. Jokes are bad with such an ailment, which, apart from heavy treatment can present and .

At the first stage, you need to apply frequent (every 30-40 minutes) gargling with herbs such as sage, chamomile, calendula. There is no need to be afraid if the child accidentally swallows the solution, it will not harm him, but only help. This procedure can be taught to a baby from the age of two. After rinsing, you need to ask the child to be silent for at least 5 minutes.

If, despite the started treatment, the child’s temperature persistently creeps up, call the doctor immediately. Such a course of the disease requires the introduction antibacterial drugs prescribed by the doctor.

Usually, an increase in temperature is accompanied by the appearance of yellow pustules on the tonsils (follicles up to 3 mm) with follicular angina or white-yellow plaque in the gaps between the tonsil lobes with lacunar angina.

Despite some differences, the treatment of these types of angina is identical and consists in abundant warm drinking, selection of an effective antibiotic, gargling, lubricating the tonsils with an antiseptic and bed rest.

All appointments are made by a doctor. At first, aspirin with caffeine is prescribed, as well as sulfa drugs. With a more severe course of the disease.

Do not try to prescribe them to your child yourself. The fact is that different drugs, designed to inhibit the painful microflora, react to one type of microbes. You won't guess! With the help of a scraping, the material of which is sent to a medical laboratory for research, the type of pathogen is detected, and the doctor, with full confidence in success, prescribes a certain type of antibiotics. The course of treatment is 10 days.

Pay great attention to the intake of plenty of fluids in case of angina. It should be warm, consisting of infusion sour fruit or berries. Drinking lemon tea, which can be made by simply squeezing the juice of a lemon into warm, slightly sweetened water, is also helpful. Hot tea is strictly prohibited, which provokes the inflammatory process of the mucous membrane of the throat.

In the treatment of summer sore throat, unlike winter-spring-autumn, excess heat is not used, for example, wrapping in a warm blanket, compresses on the neck (especially with purulent sore throat), etc.

The child must be kept in bed after the condition is relieved. It is this period that is dangerous in terms of subsequent complications. The disease itself exerts a strong burden on the body, and if you do not give it a rest in the time following recovery, it is often possible to provoke the onset pathological changes in cardiovascular, renal and musculoskeletal systems organism.

Well, you should limit your stay on the street and contact with other children in order to protect the baby from contracting another disease during a period of weakened immunity.

Prevention

After the end of the treatment of the disease, one should start restoring the functional abilities of the tonsils affected in the process of the disease. For this, appropriate procedures with a physiotherapeutic effect, such as ultrasonic, ultraviolet and laser procedures, will be optimal.
In addition, it would be useful to include in the recovery phase the intake of fortifying agents, such as vitamins, immunostimulants (with severely weakened immunity). True, now doctors are ambivalent about taking vitamin preparations, which, in their opinion, provoke allergic diseases, but in addition to vitamin-rich nutrition, an additional intake of vitamin C will still be useful.
The most important role of preventive methods is both in general and local hardening of the body.
Common ones include dousing, cold and hot shower, running barefoot in cold dew, in winter - in the snow, walking barefoot on small gravel pebbles in order to stimulate all organs and establish their proper functioning.

Caring grandparents are advised to forget about too much warm clothes, out of season, for a child. It is better to dress him a little less than as always, but then, with an active pastime, he will not sweat, which minimizes the chance of getting sick when the body is suddenly cooled and blown with a draft. Everything should have a measure.

It is better to regularly indulge your beloved grandson with a portion of ice cream, both in summer and in winter. This will help the neck harden and not be so sensitive to temperature changes.

However, preventive examination top respiratory tract and the oral cavity will help to identify possible problems, and with them the source of a permanent infection that provokes the disease.

If the child is observed, which does not reveal a positive trend in treatment, then it is better to sanitize the palatine tonsils, tonsillectomy. Recommendations for a radical approach also apply to sinusitis and gingivitis. Visit the dentist regularly to detect caries, which is also a source of infection in the mouth.

If your child has frequent sore throats, especially in summer, you, as parents, are obliged not to relax your attention and always bring the treatment to the end. To show strong aversion to soft drinks, hasty eating of ice cream, and to protect the baby from a long stay in an air-conditioned room, being in cold drafts.

That is, do not create stressful situations for the child yourself, but do not create greenhouse conditions either. Find the "golden mean" and your child will forever forget about angina.

It is generally accepted that outbreaks of acute respiratory diseases occur more often in cold weather. However, with the advent of warm weather, not all of them cease to be a threat. So, for example, it is more common just in spring and summer. Why this happens, how to recognize the disease and whether it can be prevented in the first warm days, MedAboutMe figured out.

Angina, or acute tonsillitis, is an inflammation of the lymphatic pharyngeal ring, often spreading only to the palatine tonsils. The disease is always infectious in nature, that is, it is caused by a specific pathogen. It can be caused by bacteria, viruses and even fungi. Therefore, the diagnosis of "tonsillitis" indicates the localization of the inflammatory process, but not the type of infection itself. For exact definition pathogen should be tested.

And yet, statistics show that most often beta-hemolytic group A leads to acute tonsillitis - this bacterium is found in 9 out of 10 patients with inflamed tonsils. Less likely to provoke the disease are staphylococci, pneumococci and other microbes.

Acute tonsillitis can be the result of infection with viruses. Among children, herpetic and enteroviral forms of angina are often found, but adenoviruses, Coxsackie viruses, influenza and others can also cause the disease. As a rule, viral forms proceed much easier than bacterial ones - the symptoms are not pronounced, there is no severe intoxication of the body. In addition, such tonsillitis disappears after 7-10 days without treatment, but streptococcal ones require antibiotic therapy.

To understand why angina is a common diagnosis in warm weather, you need to figure out how streptococcus behaves in the human body. This bacterium, like staphylococcus aureus, belongs to the conditionally pathogenic microflora. In fact, this means that it can live on mucous membranes and not cause disease. Studies show that among residents of large cities, the presence of streptococci and staphylococci in smears is a fairly common phenomenon, while such people are often completely clinically healthy.

Conditionally pathogenic microflora is dangerous only when a person's immunity is weakened. In this case, bacteria begin to multiply uncontrollably and lead to serious inflammation and purulent processes. Angina is characterized by just this type of development of the disease - the so-called endogenous infection, when under the influence of adverse factors the colony of opportunistic bacteria increases dramatically. And it is in the spring that such factors become much larger. So, the disease can be provoked by:

General hypothermia. The spring air is still not warm enough, so it can be hot in the sun during the day, and noticeably cool at night. In addition, during the day the weather can change dramatically. Not surprisingly, it is at this time that people often suffer from hypothermia.
Local exposure to cold. Local immunity, which protects the mucous membranes of the nasopharynx, can also suffer from cold. Angina can develop after too cold drinks or ice cream on a warm day.
Weakening of immunity after SARS. In early spring, the number of acute respiratory infections increases. viral diseases. Despite the fact that most of them are tolerated easily and without complications, the immune system still suffers and takes time to recover.
Avitaminosis. An insufficient amount of vegetables and fruits in the winter diet also affects the body's defenses.
allergic irritation mucous. It is in the spring that the peak of hay fever occurs - allergies to plant pollen.
chronic inflammation in the mouth, nasopharynx or respiratory tract. The impetus for a sore throat is often caries, poorly treated bronchitis or rhinitis.

Exogenous infection, in which the pathogen enters the body from outside, for example, from an infected person or objects, can also cause angina. But still in the spring, most cases of acute tonsillitis are the result of the activation of their conditionally pathogenic microflora.

Since spring is characterized by bacterial forms of acute tonsillitis, tonsillitis occurs with severe symptoms. Often there are follicular and lacunar forms, which in everyday life are called purulent tonsillitis. They are characterized by the following features:

A sharp deterioration in well-being, symptoms develop in a short time.
High temperature - up to 39-40 ° C.
Severe pain in the throat, which is aggravated by swallowing. Sometimes a person refuses to eat and drink, the pain is so strong.
Tonsils increase in size, turn red, become loose in appearance. Pustules appear on them in the form of small white and yellowish dots or plaque.
General intoxication of the body - headaches, weakness, aching joints.
Enlarged lymph nodes.

With such symptoms, it is imperative to consult a doctor and strictly follow his recommendations, do not refuse antibiotic therapy. staph infection, manifested in the form of angina, can give serious complications. In particular, lead to inflammatory processes in the heart (myocarditis), affect the kidneys and other organs. Rarely, staphylococcus aureus causes rheumatic fever, which ends with inflammation of the joints and the development of valvular defects. Therefore, if against the background of a sore throat or after it, a person has pain in the heart, it is imperative to consult a cardiologist.

The main causes of angina in the spring are not infection with an infection, but the state of the body and unfavorable conditions. external factors. Therefore, preventive measures can be quite effective in combating the disease. Doctors recommend following these guidelines:

Complete nutrition.

In the spring, the first greens and vegetables appear, these products must be included in the diet in sufficient quantities.

Frequent walks in the fresh air.

At the same time, you need to choose the right clothes and make sure not to sweat - wet skin is easily supercooled even with a slight spring wind.

hardening.

A contrast shower and a cool drink will help strengthen the immune system and make the body less susceptible to hypothermia. For adults, doctors sometimes recommend resorption of pieces of ice even during the sore throat itself, this helps to reduce pain.

It is well known that angina most often visits us in spring and autumn. But recently, doctors have begun to characterize it as a seasonal summer disease. The head of the Department of Pathology of the Upper Respiratory Tracts of the Moscow Research Institute of the Ear, Throat, and Nose, Candidate of Medical Sciences Maxim Nikolayevich SHUBIN, will help us to understand the features of this disease in more detail.

The GROWTH of the incidence of tonsillitis in the summer is a kind of payment for comfort. How could we, 15 years ago, on a hot summer day, get an absolutely icy, frosted carbonated drink on any corner? Or powerful air conditioners that blow us deadly cold as soon as we enter a store or office? But if, after a 30-degree heat, you find yourself in conditions of + 18 °, then, without possessing good health, you can certainly get sick.

Is it angina?

HOWEVER, if you have a sore throat, a runny nose has begun - do not rush to conclude that this is a sore throat. With classic angina, there is no runny nose and cough. But necessarily - pronounced pain in the throat, fever, body aches, headache is possible. If, in addition, white or dirty gray raids were found in the throat, there is almost no doubt.

Angina should not be confused with diseases such as tonsillitis, pharyngitis or laryngitis. This is an independent acute infection, which affects the palatine, nasopharyngeal and lingual tonsils and is caused by opportunistic bacteria. These bacteria can always be present in the human body and attack it when it is weakened - for example, after hypothermia or physical overexertion. Unlike tonsillitis, pharyngitis and laryngitis are more often caused by viruses.

Acute tonsillitis (inflammation of the palatine tonsils) can be both a manifestation of a sore throat and an acute respiratory viral infection (ARVI). By the way, there is a misconception that angina often occurs in someone who suffers from chronic tonsillitis or pharyngitis. In fact, people with a completely healthy throat are equally ill with it.

The question is, why is it so important to distinguish one disease from another? The answer is simple - if you do not recognize a sore throat and limit yourself exclusively to gargling, then in other cases you can start the disease. If, on the contrary, the usual acute respiratory disease is mistaken for a sore throat and antibiotics are unreasonably prescribed, then this will lead to a decrease in immunity, the destruction of the beneficial microflora of the nasopharynx, the emergence of resistant, that is, resistant to this medicine, strains of bacteria.

In addition, you should not endure a sore throat on your legs like a banal cold - it is fraught with severe complications.

Is it easy to get infected?

There is a common misconception that in order to catch a sore throat, you need to get into close enough contact with the sick person - for example, kiss him on the lips. In fact, it is much easier to get a sore throat, because it is transmitted mainly by airborne droplets. And this means that the infection can spread even when talking at close range. You can not use common dishes, towels, pillowcases, handkerchiefs with the patient.

Therefore, if someone in your house falls ill, try to isolate him from others as much as possible - place him in a separate room (or at least fence off with a screen), provide personal utensils, towels, caring for the sick, do not be too lazy to wear a mask or at least gauze bandage.

Treating angina is a serious matter

The one who thinks that the main thing in the treatment of angina is to relieve a sore throat is MISTAKEN. No one argues that pain when swallowing and body aches are not pleasant sensations, so from the very first minutes you feel these symptoms, you can take some measures yourself. For example, use drugs based on paracetamol - Nurofen, Strepsils, Coldrex, which simultaneously relieve sore throat and lower the temperature. To remove toxins, you need to drink more - sweet tea with lemon, cranberry juice, warm fruit juice or compote. Your next step should be to call a doctor.

This must be done for several reasons. Firstly, such a formidable disease as diphtheria is well masked under the symptoms of angina. It should be detected as early as possible - after all, today almost none of the diphtheria patients die from suffocation, which can be neutralized with the help of modern means. The fatal outcome is almost always associated with the strongest intoxication, which immediately begins to affect the heart and kidneys. To detect diphtheria, there are many indirect clinical signs, but one hundred percent certainty gives only a special swab from the throat - on the Lefler bacillus.

Secondly, the doctor must prescribe serious treatment - in addition to sprays and lozenges. The causative agents of angina today are most often Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, hemolytic streptococcus and fungal infections are less common. This bacterial infection usually requires antibiotics.

It is very important to choose the right drug. A big problem all over the world and in our country is antibiotic resistance, that is, the emergence in the human body of strains of bacteria that are resistant to a number of antibiotics. The reason for this is the uncontrolled use of drugs. A person can decide to "drink" antibiotics himself, which in fact have no effect on the bacteria that caused the disease, or, having started treatment, finishes taking the drugs after 1-2 days, although in reality the treatment should last, as a rule, at least 5- 7 days.

Ideally, a throat swab should be taken before the doctor prescribes the medicine to find out exactly what type of bacteria is causing the disease and what drugs can neutralize their effect. In practice, it is practically impossible to do this, since there are no rapid tests with quick results in our clinics, and antibiotics must be prescribed in the very first hours of the disease. Therefore, various schemes of rational antibiotic therapy have now been developed, which allow influencing the main groups of bacteria that cause angina. The doctor needs 2-3 days to check the effectiveness of a particular drug, if there is no result, another drug should be immediately prescribed.

Staying alone with a sore throat is also not recommended because it is necessary to be examined - a urine and blood test, a cardiogram will show whether your "simple" disease has been complicated by such unpleasant ailments as infectious myocarditis, endocarditis, pyelonephritis, nephritis.

Angina is insidious with consequences - suffice it to say that the main suppliers of rheumatism are patients with recurrent tonsillitis. Sometimes angina causes sinusitis, bronchitis, and other respiratory diseases. An untreated infection gives a recurrence of the disease, which in the future can provoke chronic tonsillitis. Finally, the most dangerous are local complications, inflammation of the tissues around the tonsils - paratonsillitis and parapharyngitis, the first sign of which is a sharp increase in pain on one side of the larynx, limited mobility of the masticatory muscles, and difficulty turning the head from side to side. Development of this dangerous complication occurs in a day, and sometimes in a matter of hours and requires prompt hospitalization and emergency measures, sometimes surgical.

Any infectious disease has a certain development - angina is no exception. If the next day after taking the antibiotic it became easier, this does not mean that weeks on sick leave enough for you. It must be remembered that most complications develop during the recovery period. The minimum treatment period is 10-12 days, and then hypothermia should not be allowed for another two weeks, physical activity. The desire to save a day or two for work will then be paid for by years of serious illnesses.

Independently and as prescribed by a doctor

ALREADY in the first hours of illness, you can use tableted antiseptics. You must choose what will help you, and the list of such drugs is long. For example, antibacterial, antifungal antiseptics with local anesthetic action - strepsils, sebidin, stopangin, drill, pharyngosept, antifungal and antiviral drug laripront, antibiotic local action, which affects staphylococci and streptococci, - gramicidin C, etc.

To this you can add rinsing using such medicines, as furacillin (1 tablet dissolved in a glass of water), an alcohol solution of chlorophyllipt (a teaspoon in a glass of water), rotokan (the same dosage), iodinol, throat lubrication agents - Lugol solution with glycerin, propolis with honey, oil solution chlorophyllipt, etc. Local preparations can be combined - for example, after 10 minutes after rinsing, dissolve one tablet.

As already mentioned, the choice of antibiotics is the exclusive business of the doctor. He can prescribe drugs from the penicillin group, such as oxacillin, ampicillin, smallpox, augmentin, flemoxin solutab, etc. In more complex cases, antibiotics of the macrolide group are prescribed - such as macropen, sumamed. Finally, antibiotics of the last group of choice are cephalosporins - cefosin, etc.

The doctor may also recommend one of the aerosol preparations, which are also local antiseptic and anti-inflammatory agents - joks, ingalipt, etc., antimicrobial drug hexoral, local antibiotic bioparox.

Another modern method effects on pathogenic bacteria are drugs that create additional immunity. Getting on the mucous membrane, they begin to produce antibodies to pathogens, this is ribomunil, staphylococcal bacteriophage, IRS-19.

Angina are different - they are all equally dangerous

DIFFERENTIATE several main varieties of angina, which in fact are different degrees of the same process. most mild form is catarrhal angina. It captures mainly the superficial region of the tonsils. Sore throat may not be accompanied high temperature, although there is a general malaise - poor appetite, chills, headache, feeling of weakness.

In contrast, lacunar angina immediately begins with a rise in temperature to significant values: 39 and even 40 °. The submandibular lymph nodes increase, salivation appears, the tonsils, when examined, are not only reddened and enlarged, but also with a coating.

With follicular angina, the parenchyma of the tonsils is damaged, on the edematous tonsils, yellow formations the size of a pinhead, like a "starry sky", are visible.

The throat, as we found out, is no different from other parts of the body, and in this sense, massage will also be useful for it. You can do this massage daily and especially before going out into the cold or after eating cold food. The main techniques are stroking and kneading.

1. Grab the neck with the whole palm, so that it is between the thumb and forefinger. Without changing the position of the hand, perform circular kneading movements with one, then the other hand.

2. Knead with four fingers of each hand in a circular motion, moving from the earlobe down the anterolateral part of the neck to the chest.

3. Massage of the posterolateral surface of the neck from the earlobe to the shoulder - right hand on the left and with the left hand on the right.

Finally, it is worth trying such a tool as a massage of the reflexogenic zones on the palms and soles of the feet. On the right and left foot, the zone responsible for the neck area is the same - at the base of the main phalanx thumb. You need to massage it in a circular motion thumb. In the palm of your hand, the zone we need is located on the thumb pad of both hands. How to find the required point? One option is this: divide the upper phalanx of the thumb into three parts (you can draw directly on the finger with a ballpoint pen). On the border of the first third, the eyes and eyebrows of a conditional human face will be located, and on the border of the second third, the mouth, this is the desired point responsible for the normal operation of the tonsils. You can influence this point by any means. acupressure. As one option, glue a grain of buckwheat or black pepper to your finger with a plaster and periodically press this area with the pad of your index finger.

Needless to say, the impact on the reflexogenic points should be long enough (5-10 minutes) and this should be done every day and preferably several times a day.

Power of nature

In addition to drug treatment you can take advice traditional medicine, in the piggy bank of which there are many recipes to help cope with the symptoms of this disease.

So, you can prepare decoctions for gargling from the following herbs:

Siberian elderberry (3-4 tablespoons of flowers pour a glass of boiling water and boil over low heat).

Blueberries (100 g of dry fruits pour 0.5 liters of water, boil until half of the water has evaporated).

Calendula (1 tablespoon pour a glass of boiling water, boil for 10 minutes).

Chamomile (same cooking method).

Gargle with infusions:

Garlic (100 g of chopped cloves pour 100 ml of warm water, leave for 4 hours).

Plantain (4 crushed dry or fresh leaves pour a glass of boiling water, leave for half an hour).

Inside you can use infusions of herbs:

Anise ordinary (pour a teaspoon of fruits with a glass of boiling water, leave for 20 minutes).

Medicinal sage (4 teaspoons of crushed leaves, brew with 2 cups of boiling water, leave for 30 minutes).

The juice of plants will also come in handy:

Bulb onion - for oral administration (1 teaspoon 3-4 times a day).

Beets - for gargling.

Before use, decoctions and infusions must, of course, be filtered. After gargling, inhaling onion and garlic vapors, it is better not to eat anything for an hour in order to allow the active substances to act on the mucous membrane. It is necessary to be treated with traditional medicine regularly throughout the day, otherwise there will be no effect. For example, you need to gargle every 2-3 hours, inhale the vapors of crushed garlic or chopped onions - 5-6 times a day. Chew lemon peels or pieces of propolis the same number of times (1 g per reception), after 3-4 hours dissolve in the mouth with a teaspoon of honey, etc. There is another time-tested remedy for sore throats - kombucha. It should be drunk in a glass twice a day, starting from the acute period, and then for 4-6 weeks as a preventive measure.

Often underestimated is such a simple thing as the formation of heat in the neck area - for this purpose, an ordinary woolen scarf can be wound around the throat. As home remedy You can use homemade warm compresses. The simplest is alcohol (using vodka or half-diluted alcohol), in addition, you can make a combined compress, for example, from 2 parts of honey, 1 part of aloe juice and 3 parts of vodka. Suitable for a compress and ordinary vegetable oil (can be mixed with honey). The cooking technique is as follows - moisten or grease a linen or cotton fabric with one of the indicated means and wrap it around the neck, capturing the area submandibular lymph nodes. Wrap with polyethylene on top, then with a layer of cotton wool or just a woolen scarf and secure with a pin. Do not leave a compress, especially alcohol, for more than an hour and a half. During the day, the procedure can be repeated again.

I don't want to get sick!

Even a single illness with angina can have a serious negative impact on certain organs. What can we say about those cases when tonsillitis follow one after another - it happens that a person suffers several tonsillitis during the year. Even if this ailment bothers you once a year, the question arises of its serious prevention.

On the ONE hand, it’s not so difficult to protect yourself from a sore throat - you don’t need to arrange competitions for the speed of eating ice cream, it’s better to eat it a little melted at all. You should not drink, especially in the heat, strongly chilled sparkling water, you should not sit directly under the air conditioner, working "in the cold", and finally, sweating, drafts should be avoided. Of course, you should take care of the general strengthening of the body, which includes hardening (including local - throat), good nutrition, seasonal vitamin therapy, regular walks in the fresh air. But it happens that all these means are not enough - moreover, any attempt to harden the body leads to illness. In this case, we are talking about a tangible decrease in immunity, which, at the first order of pathogenic bacteria, gives them boundaries.

In this situation, it is worth doing a decisive sanitation of the main "suppliers" of the pathogenic flora. You need to visit a dentist and eliminate all foci of caries, others possible diseases oral cavity (gingivitis, periodontitis). Seriously deal with the tonsils, in order not only to reduce the amount of pathogenic flora, but also, if possible, to regenerate the tissues of the tonsils, to restore their normal functioning. To do this, of course, you need to contact a doctor, an ENT specialist who will tell you a program of action. He may take a swab from the larynx to find out if the number of bacteria that settle on your mucous membrane exceeds the norm. If necessary, he will prescribe a course of antibiotics or phages that will deliver a targeted blow to those varieties of bacteria that, quite possibly, most often attack your body. Next, you may need a local effect on the mucosa with the help of lavages with antibiotics, alcohol solutions, iodine-containing drugs, biologically active substances. In some cases, a course of energy exposure using electrophoresis, UHF, microwave, laser therapy, etc. is suitable. If necessary, it will be necessary to eliminate problems of the upper respiratory tract that can provoke the disease (adenoiditis, chronic rhinitis sinusitis, deviated septum). Helps some preventive treatment already mentioned drugs-immunomodulators.

In addition to this treatment, like it or not, it is necessary to introduce hardening elements. Let it not be ice douches, but just everyday wiping the torso or only the neck area with warm, and then slightly cool water, over time, you can add to this procedure dousing the legs with water of the same temperature.

If, in an effort to strengthen the hands, we perform exercises to develop upper limbs, then special exercises will help in strengthening the throat in the same way. Good, firstly, any load on the muscles of the neck. There are observations that in persons suffering from frequent tonsillitis, the mobility of the craniocervical joint is difficult. Physical exercises not only improve blood circulation throughout the larynx, but also restore mobility cervical. Secondly, we need "physical exercise" for the larynx, which would help the processes of regeneration of the mucosa.

Here is an approximate set of exercises for this case

Circular movements of the head in one direction and the other.

Head tilts from side to side.

Put your elbow on the table, clench your hand into a fist and prop your chin with it. Press your chin on your fist, at the same time feeling the tension of the muscles of the larynx.

Exercises performed by the tongue

Keeping your mouth closed, press the entire surface of the tongue into the palate - 1 movement per second. Do this for a minute. Relax and repeat the exercise if you wish.

The mouth is closed, the tip of the tongue is on the alveoli of the upper palate (tubercles behind the teeth). Pull the root of the tongue to the tonsils, feeling a touch on them. The pace is the same as in the previous exercise, or slightly lower.

The famous "lion pose" is an exercise borrowed from yoga. Sit on your heels, keeping your back straight. Place your palms on your knees, fingers together. Exhale through your nose, at the same time open your mouth as wide as possible, stick out your tongue and try to reach your chin with the tip of it. In this case, you need to lean forward a little and spread your fingers - like a lion that has released its claws. Stay in this position for as long as you can hold your breath, then return to the starting position and breathe calmly. In yoga, such an exercise is done with a huge number of repetitions, but for the prevention of throat diseases, it will be enough for us 5-6 times in one go. However, during the day it will be necessary to make several such visits - as they say, the more the better.

It is well known that angina most often visits us in spring and autumn. But recently, doctors have begun to characterize it as a seasonal summer disease. The head of the Department of Pathology of the Upper Respiratory Tracts of the Moscow Research Institute of the Ear, Throat, and Nose, Candidate of Medical Sciences, will help us to understand the features of this disease in more detail. Maxim Nikolaevich SHUBIN.

Is it angina?

HOWEVER, if you have a sore throat, a runny nose has begun - do not rush to conclude that this is a sore throat. With classic angina, there is no runny nose and cough. But it is necessary - pronounced sore throat, fever, body aches, a headache is possible. If, in addition, white or dirty gray raids were found in the throat, there is almost no doubt.

Angina should not be confused with diseases such as tonsillitis, pharyngitis or laryngitis. This is an independent acute infectious disease that affects the palatine, nasopharyngeal and lingual tonsils and is caused by opportunistic bacteria. These bacteria can always be present in the human body and attack it when it is weakened - for example, after hypothermia or physical overexertion. Unlike tonsillitis, pharyngitis and laryngitis are more often caused by viruses.

In addition, you should not endure a sore throat on your legs like a banal cold - it is fraught with severe complications.

Is it easy to get infected?

Treating angina is a serious matter

This must be done for several reasons. Firstly, such a formidable disease as diphtheria is well masked under the symptoms of angina. It should be detected as early as possible - after all, today almost none of the diphtheria patients die from suffocation, which can be neutralized with the help of modern means. The fatal outcome is almost always associated with the strongest intoxication, which immediately begins to affect the heart and kidneys. To detect diphtheria, there are many indirect clinical signs, but only a special swab from the throat gives one hundred percent certainty - for Lefler's bacillus.

Angina is insidious with consequences - suffice it to say that the main suppliers of rheumatism are patients with recurrent tonsillitis. Sometimes angina causes sinusitis, bronchitis, and other respiratory diseases. An untreated infection gives a recurrence of the disease, which in the future can provoke chronic tonsillitis. Finally, the most dangerous are local complications, inflammation of the tissues around the tonsils - paratonsillitis and parapharyngitis, the first sign of which is a sharp increase in pain on one side of the larynx, limited mobility of the masticatory muscles, and difficulty turning the head from side to side. The development of this dangerous complication occurs in a day, and sometimes in a matter of hours, and requires prompt hospitalization and emergency measures, sometimes surgical.

Any infectious disease has a certain development - angina is no exception. If the next day after taking the antibiotic it became easier, this does not mean that a week on the sick leave is enough for you. It must be remembered that most complications develop during the recovery period. The minimum treatment period is 10-12 days, and then for another two weeks hypothermia and physical exertion should not be allowed. The desire to save a day or two for work will then be paid for by years of serious illnesses.

Independently and as prescribed by a doctor

ALREADY in the first hours of illness, you can use tableted antiseptics. You must choose what will help you, and the list of such drugs is long. For example, antibacterial, antifungal antiseptics with local anesthetic action - strepsils, sebidin, stopangin, drill, pharyngosept, antifungal and antiviral drug laripront, local antibiotic that affects staphylococci and streptococci - gramicidin C, etc.

To this, you can add rinsing using drugs such as furacillin (dissolve 1 tablet in a glass of water), an alcohol solution of chlorophyllipt (a teaspoon per glass of water), rotokan (the same dosage), iodinol, throat lubrication agents - Lugol's solution with glycerin, propolis with honey, an oil solution of chlorophyllipt, etc. Topical preparations can be combined - for example, after 10 minutes after rinsing, dissolve one tablet.

The doctor may also recommend one of the aerosol preparations, which are also local antiseptic and anti-inflammatory drugs - joks, inhalipt, etc., the antimicrobial drug hexoral, the local antibiotic bioparox.

Another modern method of influencing pathogenic bacteria is drugs that create additional immunity. Getting on the mucous membrane, they begin to produce antibodies to pathogens, this is ribomunil, staphylococcal bacteriophage, IRS-19.

Angina are different - they are all equally dangerous

DIFFERENTIATE several main varieties of angina, which in fact are different degrees of the same process. The mildest form is catarrhal angina. It captures mainly the superficial region of the tonsils. A sore throat may not be accompanied by a high temperature, although a general malaise is felt - poor appetite, chills, headache, feeling of weakness.

With follicular angina, the parenchyma of the tonsils is damaged, on the edematous tonsils, yellow formations the size of a pinhead, like a "starry sky", are visible.

1. Grab the neck with the whole palm, so that it is between the thumb and forefinger. Without changing the position of the hand, perform circular kneading movements with one, then the other hand.

2. Knead with four fingers of each hand in a circular motion, moving from the earlobe down the anterolateral part of the neck to the chest.

3. Massage of the posterolateral surface of the neck from the earlobe to the shoulder - with the right hand on the left, and with the left hand - on the right.

Finally, it is worth trying such a tool as a massage of the reflexogenic zones on the palms and soles of the feet. On the right and left foot, the zone responsible for the neck area is located in the same way - at the base of the main phalanx of the thumb. You need to massage it with circular movements of the thumb. In the palm of your hand, the zone we need is located on the thumb pad of both hands. How to find the required point? One option is this: divide the upper phalanx of the thumb into three parts (you can draw directly on the finger with a ballpoint pen). On the border of the first third, the eyes and eyebrows of a conditional human face will be located, and on the border of the second third, the mouth, this is the desired point responsible for the normal operation of the tonsils. You can influence this point with any methods of acupressure. As one option, glue a grain of buckwheat or black pepper to your finger with a plaster and periodically press this area with the pad of your index finger.

Needless to say, the impact on the reflexogenic points should be long enough (5-10 minutes) and this should be done every day and preferably several times a day.

Power of nature

IN ADDITION to drug treatment, you can use the advice of traditional medicine, in the piggy bank of which there are many recipes to help cope with the symptoms of this disease.

So, you can prepare decoctions for gargling from the following herbs:

Siberian elderberry (3-4 tablespoons of flowers pour a glass of boiling water and boil over low heat).

Blueberries (100 g of dry fruits pour 0.5 liters of water, boil until half of the water has evaporated).

Calendula (1 tablespoon pour a glass of boiling water, boil for 10 minutes).

Chamomile (same cooking method).

Gargle with infusions:

Garlic (100 g of chopped cloves pour 100 ml of warm water, leave for 4 hours).

Plantain (4 crushed dry or fresh leaves pour a glass of boiling water, leave for half an hour).

Inside you can use infusions of herbs:

Anise ordinary (pour a teaspoon of fruits with a glass of boiling water, leave for 20 minutes).

Medicinal sage (4 teaspoons of crushed leaves, brew with 2 cups of boiling water, leave for 30 minutes).

The juice of plants will also come in handy:

Bulb onion - for oral administration (1 teaspoon 3-4 times a day).

Beets - for gargling.

Often underestimated is such a simple thing as the formation of heat in the neck area - for this purpose, an ordinary woolen scarf can be wound around the throat. Homemade warm compresses can be used as a home remedy. The simplest is alcohol (using vodka or half-diluted alcohol), in addition, you can make a combined compress, for example, from 2 parts of honey, 1 part of aloe juice and 3 parts of vodka. Suitable for a compress and ordinary vegetable oil (can be mixed with honey). The preparation technique is as follows - moisten or lubricate linen or cotton fabric with one of the indicated means and wrap it around the neck, capturing the area of the submandibular lymph nodes. Wrap with polyethylene on top, then with a layer of cotton wool or just a woolen scarf and secure with a pin. Do not leave a compress, especially alcohol, for more than an hour and a half. During the day, the procedure can be repeated again.

I don't want to get sick!

In this situation, it is worth doing a decisive sanitation of the main "suppliers" of the pathogenic flora. You need to visit a dentist and eliminate all foci of caries, other possible diseases of the oral cavity (gingivitis, periodontitis). Seriously deal with the tonsils, in order not only to reduce the amount of pathogenic flora, but also, if possible, to regenerate the tissues of the tonsils, to restore their normal functioning. To do this, of course, you need to contact a doctor, an ENT specialist who will tell you a program of action. He may take a swab from the larynx to find out if the number of bacteria that settle on your mucous membrane exceeds the norm. If necessary, he will prescribe a course of antibiotics or phages that will deliver a targeted blow to those varieties of bacteria that, quite possibly, most often attack your body. Next, you may need a local effect on the mucosa with the help of lavages with antibiotics, alcohol solutions, iodine-containing drugs, biologically active substances. In some cases, a course of energy exposure using electrophoresis, UHF, microwave, laser therapy, etc. is suitable. If necessary, it will be necessary to eliminate problems of the upper respiratory tract that can provoke the disease (adenoiditis, chronic rhinitis, sinusitis, deviated nasal septum). Some are helped by prophylactic treatment with the already mentioned immunomodulating drugs.

If, in an effort to strengthen the hands, we perform exercises for the development of the upper limbs, then special exercises will help in strengthening the throat in the same way. Good, firstly, any load on the muscles of the neck. There are observations that in persons suffering from frequent tonsillitis, the mobility of the craniocervical joint is difficult. Physical exercises will not only improve blood circulation throughout the larynx, but also restore the mobility of the cervical region. Secondly, we need "physical exercise" for the larynx, which would help the processes of regeneration of the mucosa.

Here is an approximate set of exercises for this case

Circular movements of the head in one direction and the other.

Head tilts from side to side.

Put your elbow on the table, clench your hand into a fist and prop your chin with it. Press your chin on your fist, at the same time feeling the tension of the muscles of the larynx.

Exercises performed by the tongue

Keeping your mouth closed, press the entire surface of the tongue into the palate - 1 movement per second. Do this for a minute. Relax and repeat the exercise if you wish.