Natural sinus remedies

A search for natural sinus remedies – actually any sinus remedy, natural or unnatural – was what led me to the path of natural cures. It was a path that was to change my life dramatically.

Although I did not have cancer or some other major, life-threatening disease, I had pretty serious chronic sinus infection. For as long as I could remember, I woke up every morning with a blocked nose, and would sneeze for at least half and hour, sometimes an hour.

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Throughout the day, I would sneeze at the slightest excuse – dust in the air, change in temperature (such as when I entered or left an air-conditioned room) or when a girl wearing perfume walked past me. I was blowing my nose all day long and my hankerchief was constantly soaked wet.

And, I could never breathe through my nose, always through my mouth. In fact, I never felt what it was like to breathe through my nose until I was in my mid-30s.

Thus, my desire for some natural sinus remedies must have been strong, if not on the conscious level, then at least subconsciously.

Sinus polyps

One of the first steps in the seach for sinus infection treatment was, naturally, to see an ENT (ear, nose and throat) specialist. My mother had heard about this doctor who specialised in treating sinus infection and she took my brother and I – both of us had chronic sinus infection – to see the doctor.

I remember the doctor shoving cotton wool soaked with some sinus treatment medication up my nostrils. The sinus treatment medication had a stinging effect and it felt most uncomfortable.

I did not know what was going on then but, from what I understand now, I believe I was being treated for sinus polyps. My brother and I went for two or three treatment sessions. Our conditions improved slightly but soon went back to “normal”, meaning as bad as before.

Air ionisers

Next in my search for natural sinus remedies was an air ionizer. I cannot remember how I came across it, I think I saw it while walking around some shopping centre.

Anyway I bought one and it did help. I woke up sneezing less and, on those days when I forgot to switch it on the night before, I would be sneezing as usual. I felt it was only a partial solution. After a few years I somehow just stopped using it. The search for natural sinus remedies continued.

Many years later, I met someone in the business of selling anti-allergy products and he actually discourages the use of air ionizers. His reasoning is that ionizers charge air particles in the lungs with a negative charge but the lungs are positively charged. So we end up breathing in more dust.

It makes some sense, but it does not explain why I felt better while using it.

Yoga

During that time, in the early 1980s, I also took up yoga, not specifically to find natural sinus remedies but for general well-being.

Yoga proved frustrating for me. On the one hand, I took naturally to it. I could stretch and bend pretty well, I had no problems sitting in lotus position even before I took up yoga.

The frustrating part was that I could not do the yoga breathing exercises, because my nose was constantly blocked!

Ironically, it was this frustration that, indirectly, led to my breakthrough shortly after.

Learning yoga also got me acquainted with the neti pot, which is supposed to be yet another of the many effective natural sinus remedies.

This is a small pot, like a low teapot. You are supposed to fill it with water, preferably salt water, tilt your head, and use the neti pot to pour water into one nostril and let the water flow out through the other nostril. Then repeat for the other nostril. You are supposed to do this every morning.

Twice, with a break of over a decade in between, I tried to use the neti pot but failed. Either I did not learn to use it properly, or I am impatient, or... I just could not get myself into the routine of pouring water up my nose every morning..

Breakthrough – carrot juice AND DIETARY CHANGE

The breakthrough in my search for natural sinus remedies came in a totally unexpected way. I was not actively looking for any natural sinus remedies, but one day it just came.

In 1985 I was working as a journalist in The Business Times and one day, I interviewed a financial consultant for a story that I was working on. For some reason, we clicked well and, after the interview ended, we got to talking about various other things.

Somehow, our discussion turned to yoga, and I mentioned about being frustrated because my nose was perpetually blocked.

The financial consultant then pulled out a book, Raw Vegetable Juices, by Norman Walker, and lent it to me. This was my introduction to the concept of natural health and to the idea that food and diet affects our health.

The short story is that, after reading the book, I began to drink three to five mugs of carrot juice daily and my sinus congestion began to clear up.

I drank carrot juice until my skin turned orange but, according to the book, this was okay and to be expected, nothing to be alarmed about.

My Chinese sinseh (Traditional Chinese Medicine physician) did not agree with such natural sinus remedies, however and kept advising me to stop the carrot juice.

Anyway, I persisted. After about three months, I would say about 90 percent of my sinus congestion had cleared. I was only sneezing occasionally. I was beginning to breathe (partially) through my nostrils...

This is the part of my story about natural sinus remedies that many people remember. But it is NOT the full story.

The equally important part of my natural sinus remedies story was that I began to modify my diet. Among other things, I

• Stopped taking milk, yoghurt, ice-cream and other dairy products
  
  
• Switched from white bread to wholemeal and also began to take brown rice, wholemeal noodles and other wholemeal products
  
  
• Greatly reduced my intake of meat
  
  
• Greatly reduced my intake of white sugar and products containing sugar
  
  
• Began to eat lots more vegetables and fruits, including salads and fruit breakfasts or lunches.

Apart from having my sinus congestion clear up, I experienced an unexpected benefit – I stopped falling ill so easily. Previously, I was catching the flu every two to four weeks. I was constantly visiting the doctors, and constantly taking antibiotics, antihistimines, cough mixtures and other medication.

But since the day the financial consultant lent me that book, I stopped seeing the doctors and taking medicines completely. As I write this, it is coming to 21 years and I have not taken a single pharmaceutical drug since that day,

Downside to raw foods diet

But, as I was to discover later, taking plenty of salads, fruits and fruit juices on a regular basis was not exactly a good thing. I developed a skin rash that would not go away for months.

Once, I ate a salad on a cold, rainy night – believing that salads were “healthy” – and woke up in the middle of the night with asthma.

It was only when I studied macrobitics that I understood why. I will discuss this in another article.

Meanwhile, if you wish to try the above natural sinus remedies, I suggest you do it only as a short-term measure, until your chronic sinus infection clears.

The first few dietary changes mentioned above are okay – cut down or cut out dairy, refined foods, white sugar and meat. Just be careful about adopting a diet of raw salads, fruits and fruit / vegetable juices as a long term, daily routine.

Natural sinus remedies with lotus root

My study of macrobiotics meanwhile led me to learn about other natural sinus remedies, particularly remedies using lotus root.

The lotus root, with its holes inside, is said to resemble the lungs. It has similar energy to the lungs and, in traditional Chinese / East Asian medicine, is used to strengthen or tonify the lungs.

One simple macrobiotic remedy to remove mucus and phelgm is lotus root tea:

1. Take one section lotus root, washed and scrubbed but do not peel off the skin.
2. Grate the root and squeeze out the juice.
3. Add equal amount water, eg 1/2 cup juice with 1/2 cup water.
4. Add one pinch sea salt
5. Bring to the boil and simmer 5 minutes
6. Add a few drops ginger juice, squeezed from grated ginger.

This remedy is good for coughs and clearing phelgm, as well as for generally removing mucus from the body and strengthening the lungs.

Macrobiotic and natural food stores may sell a powdered version of lotus root and you can make a tea by adding water and boiling for a few minutes. The powdered version, however, does not taste good compared with the fresh version, which is delicious!

Natural sinus remedies – Lotus plaster

This is possibly the most effective among natural sinus remedies, except that it is quite troublesome. I have not done it myself, but I know a few people who have and they report amazing results.

1. Grate a fair amount of lotus root, about 2 sections
2. Add approximately 10 percent natural, unbleached flour
3. Add about 5 percent grated ginger
4. Mix well to form a plaster. Apply this plaster over the central forehead and sides of the nose. You may tie a cloth lightly over the area to keep the plaster in place. Leave it for 4 hours or longer. Best to go to sleep with it.
5. Keep applying this plaster every night.

Depending on your condition, you may need to apply this plaster for 3 or 4 nights, or even more than a week, before a sinus discharge begins.

Once the discharge begins, you will get an incredible amount of "junk" coming out of your nostrils, including hard solid matter which is supposed to have been mucus deposits that have hardened over the years.

I have not tried this yet but those who have say they feel much lighter and clearer after that. Even their thinking becomes clearer!