I would expect a hot liquid (coffee or tea) to irritate a sore throat, but it makes it feel better. How does this happen?
I don’t know, but a hot bath makes the whole body feel better too. Maybe it expands the blood vessels and increase circulation?
An educated guess with my minor medical knowledge…
the esophagus and stomache and other organs contain a thin mucous membrane on them, to keep things from irritating thejm. When you have a sore throat, the bacteria destroies this layer as well as formed pustules on the surface of the esophogus. Liquid covers these raw exposed parts temporarily, like the muscus membrane would…
Again this is just a guess.
Voted Biggest Smartass by all you beautiful people!
You always use violence. I should’ve ordered glutinous rice chicken.
How hot is hot? Clearly—not TOO hot. That, alone, would be just how it happens.
I think the idea that hot water increases circulation is a good one. Here are some more ideas:
Hot water is better at washing away excess phlegm than cool water.
The esophagus can stand some pretty hot stuff - maybe hotter than the nasty organisms can stand. Hot tea, after all, is quite a lot hotter than skin temperature, and still substantially hotter than “interior skin” like the pharynx (I wouldn’t expect the pharynx to be fully body temperature).
The point is, it might be sort of like a “temporary fever”, roasting all the nasty bacteria, or at least washing them down into the stomach where hydrochloric acid should make short work of them.
Actually, washing bacteria down into the stomach is one of the points of postnasal drip. Is that right? I think your sinuses go on overdrive trying to wash pus and active bacteria off of the tender, relatively vulnerable membranes. Chicken soup or the like would probably accelerate this process.
I think Boris B is on the right track there. This may be more tangential than I take it to be but here it is.
I worked at a McDonald’s for a couple years before I went to college and at least once a week some klutz would spill a bunch of liquefied fry grease all over the floor when cleaning the vats after hours. So we had to clean the damn stuff up. It congealed pretty quickly paper towels weren’t the answer. The managers, epigones of clear thinking that they were, would get a bucket of cold or room temp water and scrub the dickens out of the floor. Didn’t work too well. So I trotted out a bucket of hot water (with soap) and the stuff came right off.
Such it would be, I think, with throat mucus. The viri and bacteria are irritating the cilia, the throat produces mucus to keep 'em out, and we chug tea and TheraFlu to loosen it up and wash it clean.
All I wanna do is to thank you, even though I don’t know who you are…
I spoke with my friend who is a EMT and he said it’s this reason it increases the circulation! just thought Id tell you it’s this simple reason not none of them more scientific reasons!
:smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack:
It’s been 15 years since this question was asked. Thanks for stopping by and finally giving us a good (I think?) answer.