Sinusitis Remedies
Treating your sinusitis properly is important. The most effective sinusitis remedies will be a combination of things that are prescribed by your health professional and things you can do on your own to enhance and speed up treatment.
Some of the things you can do on your own are simple treatments that require nothing more than water. Some can be classified as natural or alternative remedies. Always be sure that any substance you use, natural or otherwise has been discussed with your health professional.
The goal in treatment of sinusitis is to kill the infection and open the blocked air spaces to allow for drainage. Modern medical treatment of your sinus infection will start with an antibiotic. This is the kill the infection part. A sinus infection is a bacterial infection. The only way to get rid of a bacterial infection is with antibiotics. Natural remedies can supplement this but there is no substitute for the proper antibiotic.
The second part of your medical treatment will most likely be a decongestant. Decongestants act by shrinking the swollen membranes in the airways and air spaces of your head and your nose. By shrinking these membranes the blockages should lessen and the areas should start to drain. This is the second part of the treatment goal to open the blocked air spaces and allow for drainage.
Decongestants can come in two forms, pills or sprays. The advantage to nasal sprays is that the effect is almost instantaneous. Within seconds the nasal passages usually open up.
Sprays have a major drawback. The drawback is known as the rebound effect. After using the spray for a number of days, when the treatment is through the swelling of the membrane can come back even worse than before. For this reason, sprays should be used for no more than a few days.
Oral decongestants (pills) do not have the same rebound effect. On the other hand they take longer to provide relief. Because they do not create rebound effect they can be taken longer than sprays.
The pill form of decongestants also has another drawback. Since pills are ingested, they affect the whole body and consequently can come with side effects. They can make you jittery, increase blood pressure and can cause insomnia.
Along with your prescribed medical treatments there are many things you can do to enhance and speed your recovery. The simplest ones involve water.
There are four things that will help you get better faster and feel better while you are healing that are all related to water. The easiest and simplest thing of all is to drink more water.
You want to make sure you stay hydrated. If you are dehydrated, your mucus will become thicker and it will be harder to drain. By hydrating, keeping yourself drinking water, you will keep the mucus thin and it will drain easier.
Rinse your nose. You can irrigate your nose with salt water. Actually this is an ancient Hindu practice called Netti. You may have heard of a Netti pot. Rinse your nose with salt water. You can use a dropper or a squeeze bottle or you can use a cup.
Use water and heat. Steam is a great way to keep your nasal passages moist. You can hold your head over a pot of boiling water and breathe in the steam. Be careful when you do this therapy that you are far enough away from the steam so you don’t burn yourself. Steam is very hot so it needs to mix with cooler air before you inhale it.
Use water and cold. You can use ice to hold over the area where you have pain. Your forehead for example. Ice water and a wash cloth can be used as a cold compress. You can use an ice bag or just a plastic bag with ice and some water will work also. Always be aware of how long you keep ice on an area. Pull it off occasionally and let some warmth return to the area. You don’t want to get frostbite!
An alternative treatment using the steam mentioned above is to add some natural substances to the boiling water. Adding a few drops of Eucalyptus oil in the boiling water has been used for a long time to ease sinus infections.
Tea has often been a popular remedy for sinus problems. It can help your nasal passages as you inhale the steam from the tea. It can help you stay hydrated if you use herbal non caffeinated tea. A number of herbal teas also have purported healing effects. Teas made with echinacea, mint and ginger are among those.
Finally there is no reason to have to bear the discomfort of sinusitis without some relief. Good old Tylenol, Advil or asprin can be very effective in lessoning the discomfort of your sinus problems.
