I've had problems with my throat for about 2 1/2 years now. It's often itchy in the morning and sometimes hurts. I think there are a number of factors contributing to this.

An ENT specialist told me where it gets worse at night while I'm sleeping, that's breathing related. Particularly, I broke my nose when I was younger and one nostril is smaller than the other. I had a quick surgery for this in December (I'm not sure what the surgery was called, I had the surgery done in Korea) and I was on meds for a while and started cleaning my nose out daily with a saline solution. As soon as I was out of meds and stopped cleaning out my nose daily, the throat problems started creeping back into my life.

A few of the diet/lifestyle suggestions my ENT specialist gave me were:
Avoid spicy foods
Avoid salty foods
Avoid powdered foods/drinks
Keep the air at home warm
Don't wear clothes that are tight on the waist
Avoid caffeine
Don't drink steep teas

ALL of those suggestions I have found to be helpful and I particularly have throat problems when I eat really salty foods, or when the house is under 72 degrees F at night.

I smoked cigars and from pipes for a while (for less than a year) but I often rinsed and gargled with a salt water to get rid of the smell. Always overdoing things, I used a lot of salt in the water when I used to do this. That's when I started having throat problems and I think that was what initially set my throat issues off.

There are some main factors that have given me trouble with my throat, and I find that without them my life is a lot better:
Allergies (dust, pollen, grass, animal hair)
Salty foods
Spicy foods
Cold air
Cold foods or liquids
Mouth washes with alchohol
Tea
Yellow dust (yellow sand from china that blew into Korea- I don't live in Korea any more)

Some steps I have taken to ease my throat problems are:
Rinsing out my nose with a saline solution
Keeping the house at 72 degrees at night
Using an air purifier
Warming up my water and milk before drinking them
Wear a dust mask while mowing the lawn or doing anything that gives off fumes or dust
Good oral hygeine
Cleaning off anything that has a lot of dust or animal hair

When my conditions are more serious sometimes I:
Sleep with my head under the covers
Wear a dust mask at home
Sleep with a dust mask on
Take over the counter allergy pills
Try soothing drinks like fruit shakes or honey water
Wear a scarf at home and when I sleep

Today my throat was really bad from some salty food I had last night. I tried some lemon oil with my honey water and I think I've found what I've been looking for. Honey water with lemon seems to be really soothing.

I hope my post can be helpful to anybody with any conditions similar to mine (hopefully not as severe or chronic). I've found that with the precautions I've taken my throat problems have started fading in severity and frequency, but they haven't disappeared.

If anybody has any advice on other steps I should take, or has any feedback on my condition, please leave a message. I would hate to have this condition for the rest of my life (though hopefully it wouldn't come to that), so any input would be greatly appreciated.