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Your grandmother wasn’t just throwing old wives’ tales at you. Warm salt water is a hypertonic solution. Because it is considerably saltier than the cells in your inflamed throat, it literally pulls excess fluid right out of the swollen tissue. It acts like a biological sponge, reducing the severe puffiness that makes swallowing feel like eating razor blades. While it won’t actually kill the virus causing the infection, the warm water physically flushes out debris and loosens built-up mucus. It is pure chemistry, not magic.