Poor air quality along with sustained heat can lead to throat issues
According to the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, the Phoenix area has been under a High Pollution Advisory around 30 times since June 1.
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Do you have a scratchy throat that you can’t get rid of? Turns out, you’re not alone!
“Most people like you think, ‘Oh my goodness, I’m not sick, but I sound sick,’” Nurse Practitioner Samia Kadri with Banner Urgent Care said.
Air quality issues along with sustained heat and dust can all play a role into how we are feeling. Kadri says this causes more irritants to get into our airways like our throat, which can cause mucus production and might be causing you to clear your throat more often this summer.
“All the people around you don’t want to be around you because they think that you have some kind of contagious illness when you really have an irritated throat from pollution, the dryness from the heat, you know, we dehydrate a little bit more, and then obviously the dust if there’s a dust storm,” Kadri added.
According to the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, the Phoenix area has been under a High Pollution Advisory about 30 days since June 1. ADEQ says there’s also been more than 30 days this summer where ozone has exceeded national standards.
“If you’re asthmatic or you have, you know, any lung disorder or even heart disease, it’s worse because all those irritants can compromise your airway and your lungs,” Kadri said.
Kadri says there are things you can do at home to help soothe your throat, including drinking lots of water, gargling with warm salt water and drinking tea. She also says you can also “make your own little electrolyte drink” with coconut water, salt, sugar and lemon.
She says in this “lovely heat that we’re having, we definitely need some electrolytes with our water.”
She said to fill a cup with coconut water and then “just add a little salt, little sugar, squeeze some lemon into it. You know, you get your Vitamin C, and you have your salt and sugar, which replenish your intravascular space, and of course you have potassium and sodium and all the other electrolytes in the coconut water itself.”
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