Nasal congestion is a problem for many! A doctor may diagnose “rhinitis”, and prescribe drugs. But there are better, natural remedies.
Image from Wikimedia Commons, courtesy of AnA oMeLeTe from Faro, Portugal
Contents
My Story
In my 30’s, I began to experience sore throats after going out for a run. A doctor diagnosed “rhinitis”. (Nasal congestion was coating the top of my throat with mucus, and open-mouth breathing was drying it out, causing the throat to become sore.)
It was a good diagnosis. But his “remedy” was codeine and antibiotics — another case where the knee-jerk reaction was to prescribe drugs, without concern for their long term consequences, or whether they were actually working on the (totally unidentified) cause of the problem.
In this case, as in so many others, the prescribed drugs were managing symptoms, and at the same time causing long-term side effects, without addressing the underlying issue.
Following the doctor’s recommendations then, would have produced a lifetime of slowly deteriorating health as the underlying problem continued producing symptoms, the symptoms were addressed by drugs, and the drugs would have increasingly negative side effects over time!
But, as it turns out, there are much better, natural remedies that actually do address the cause of the problem.
The Humming Solution
Here’s a study that suggests strong humming can fix it:
Strong humming for one hour daily to terminate chronic rhinosinusitis in four days:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16406689/
Nutritional Solution
As someone who experienced this very problem earlier in my life, I can also explain the nutritional remedies that worked for me:
- No dairy for a day or two (short-term solution)
Dairy products contain casein–a thick ropy protein that is a thousand times more prevalent in cow’s milk than human breast milk. It doesn’t digest well, and it clogs up the sinuses. Eliminating dairy for a couple of days gives your sinuses a chance to clear up. - Gluten-free diet (long-term solution)
The enzymes needed to digest milk products are secreted in the folds of the intestine. That lining is destroyed by gluten. (Like casein, gluten doesn’t break down easily. But in this case a strong immune system sees it as a “foreign invader”, and dispatches antibodies to break it up. When the antibodies attack, they cause collateral damage on the intestinal walls, which degrades enzyme production over time.)
Learn more: What’s Wrong with Wheat?
The Nutritional Protocol
- Cut back dairy intake when you notice congestion.
When you resume eating dairy, congestion happens rapidly, at first. That’s where the second step comes in… - Eliminate gluten from your diet (no wheat, rye, or barley).
It takes 2-4 years for the intestinal lining to repair itself, depending on how long you’ve been ingesting gluten. (For me, it was 3-5 times a day for 30 years, so it took a good 4 years to recover decent intestinal function.)
Over time, you should notice that congestion happens less rapidly, and that higher volumes of dairy products can be tolerated before it does occur.
Note:
I find that I still tolerate raw-milk and goat-milk cheese better than other forms of dairy. I’m particularly fond of Swiss Emmentaler–which, if it has that name, is guaranteed to be a raw-milk cheese.
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