Find Relief from Sinus Infections Naturally

Yes- acupuncture is VERY helpful. I'm a chronic sinus sufferer and to some extent just have to live with it. BUT when it gets really bad, I see my acupuncturist 2 or 3 times over a week and the problem is much alleviated. There are good and bad acupuncturists so get a recommendation....

Hi Valeria - Since that was an old post (2007), the person may not respond. Olbas actually has an inhalant that you can get at any health food store that sells Olbas oil. It's very similar in style to the Vicks inhalant (it's a little tube with an opening that you put up one nostril and breathe deeply) - except Olbas has a different blend of oils (more natural). If you can't find it, you can also put a couple of drops of Olbas oil on a piece of tissue, cup it around your nose and breathe deeply (I do this sometimes when I fly to avoid congestion). Good luck! Bess

How many drops of each oil do you use and what is the carrier oil used?

The Air Conditioner (AC) theory is completely correct. I work in the HVAC industry and can tell you I learned a lot about health during my training. For example on the west coast we use large heat exchangers called cooling towers. The work by running water down a veined surface and pass air over it to evaporate water like a giant air humidifier. At the bottom of the tower is a large (500-1000 gal.) basin of water. Anytime you have a large pool of stagnant water exposed to atmosphere and moving air, bacteria, mold, and viruses will accumulate. And one species begets the other. Mold carry bacteria, bacteria carry viruses. So on occasion these tanks must be cleaned. It's is emptied of all water and refilled with a biocide of extreme toxicity. The reason being if anyone catches a breathe of the dried mold, you WILL get Legionnaires Disease. Care must be taken when designing the air duct system for the building to keep the air intake vents away from the cooling tower. Otherwise the entire building could be infected. Which has happened, btw. Conditioned air also is very dry. Most buildings rehummidify the air to a relative humidity of 40-50%. I always run a cool mist humidifier in my home with my AC during the summer. During winter, the air will naturally be dry. Cold air is denser. Think of squeezing a sponge. There just isn't room for the moisture. Then when the air is heated again and pumped into your home, is is even dryer. There is room for the moisture, and it is going to get it one way or another. It will pull it right thru your skin. So run a warm mist humidifier in the winter with your heater. Be careful not to over do it. That can cause mold issues. If you see condensate on your windows, it's time to turn off the humidifier.

I Just had to add my two cents re Air Conditioning filters. My mother lived in this very expensive, assisted living facility in Florida for 5 years. I only saw them change filters once and it was disgusting all the debris. As a result she was sick constantly with frequent URIs and ended up in the ER 3 times. Moved her to another facility less expensive without all the entertainment frills etc. But filters were mandatorily changed every 3 months. It has been 4 years and she has not been sick once since she has moved there and she will be 90 this April. So this was certainly an eye opening experience for me. Check those AC filters often!!!!

i had sinus infections that would last months & went thru month long treatments from the doctors with antibiotics, to no avail. I thought I was resigned to live with it the rest of my life.... My brother in law gave me a bottle of angstrom silver 600ppm (angstrom is like collidal, but smaller particles, with no fillers, etc. ), and a bottle of ascorbic acid & a bottle of black elderberry syrup. I treated myself with a spoonful of each, several times a day, for 2 days & by the 3rd day, I could breathe & quit coughing. Have been sinusitus free since. Now I just take a shot or two a day of the silver & feeling fine. Thanks brett!!

A vibrator works wonders to drain sinuses! Lying comfortably with your head propped up a bit, use a small handheld vibrator on your nose (the type that comes with multiple tips, I. E. For scalp, etc. I use the bulbous tip, but you could experiment), using the highest or most deeply vibrating setting your nose can stand. I start on the boniest part of the nose first and soon move to the cartiledge underneath that, following the "most tickle. " In other words, move the vibrator around from place to place (a few millimeters at a time), until you find the most ticklish spot. I press a bit, as this seems to help me find the ticklish spot. The most ticklish spot will move as the vibrations cause the sinus fluid to drain from one cavity to another. You might start to hear strange whirring and clicking sounds coming from your sinus cavities. I always do. Keep finding the most ticklish spot. After about twenty minutes, I start sneezing and the fluid starts draining. Once this starts you are well on your way! Go online and find a diagram of the sinuses. Try holding the vibrator on those sinus cavities on your face at the sides of your nose too. I have had success there. I have not had success with the cavities above the eyebrows, but do try there too. It is a slow process. It usually takes me an hour to complete a session. Sneeze, snort, swallow... , sneeze, snort, swallow... Etc. After about 25 sneezes, my sinuses are drained. What a relief.

After nose surgery, I contacted sinus infection. After 2 years and six doctor specialist, no cure. Lost of sleep, waking up with mucus in my mouth. Hacking all the time, cause I could never clear my throat and sinus headaches all the time, just frustrated me. I sent for 3 herbal extracts (thyme, clove, cinimon)to cure my postnasal drip, I took a chance. I put six drops of each in a container and set it by my bed side. In one week I was healed.

When a air conditioner is running, it removes almost all the humidity in the room. The air conditioner coil gets so cold that it draws in moisture from the air. Similar to how a cold drink will sweat on a hot day. I think the absence of all this humidity dries out the nasal cavity and makes you more prone to infection.

I had the great results with Tomato Tea. Kicked my nasty sinus infection in record time! However, it's important to continue to take it when symptoms return to prevent your sinus congestion from coming back. I had to make about 4 or 5 over a course of 3 days (and I took the ACV too over a course of 5 days) before I was fully cured. Hope this helps! Jennifer

WORKED TEMPORARILY

I started reading this site this afternoon after a month of awful sinus problems, following a nasty cold. I've taken Prednisone, pseudoephadrile (?) and anitbiotics, some days felt better and some days worse. Would think it was getting better and then the next, like today, wake up with the right hand side of my face puffed out and unable to go to work due to the pressure in my head and face.

Well thank you Earth Clinic and all your writers. I went and got some ingredients this afternoon, made tomato tea and the apple cider vinegar mix. The relief was instant!! I was able to de-dust the entire house this evening, vacuum under beds etc etc. I wasn't able to get off the sette this morning. It's 6 hours since I took the first batch of tea and ACV, can just feel the headache coming back, so having more ACV before bed. I am 'looking forward' to trying the oil pulling in the morning and crossing my fingers that the misery may be over soon!

Oh, wow. The povodine idoine post might be the best tip on the whole site.

I have been using salt/baking soda sinus rinse for years, but never with the "miraculous" success others reported. There was even a couple of times when I felt like the rinse helped push the infection further up and further in. To combat this I have at separate times added either tincture of iodine or Lugol's in it -- very, very little because it has a nuclear sting -- which seemed to work and has helped in severe infections, but still nothing spectacular.

Over the last two or three days I have been building up to a full-blown sinus infection and came here to study the recommendations again when I came across this tip and realized that even though I have tried iodine, I have never tried *povidone* iodine, which is much less irritating to tissue and widely used in wound healing preparations.

I don't actually have any Betadine on hand except for some prepackaged surgical wipes a friend gave me (like wet wipes for your hands, but with betadine instead) but since I'd only need a few drops to try I figured that was enough. I knew the very first snort would tell me all I needed to know. So today when praparing the rinse I was going to do anyway, I tipped a few drops of water into the wipe packet, and then tipped the diluted betadine from the wipe packet into my sinus rinse bottle, added the water and salt/baking soda mix as usual, and had at it.

Oh. My. Gosh. It didn't sting a bit. And what's more, the building inflammation and congestion I'd had when I started was entirely gone by the time I mixed the second rinse only minutes later. (I usually do two rinses at a time. ) When I did the second rinse, instead of meeting the usual resistance from all the inflammation, the water ran out as fast as it ran in! And now, twenty minutes later, the relief is lasting just fine.

This is definitely a keeper, and not just because of povidone iodine's ease on the tissues and nasal mucosa. I have long had troubles with yeastiness, and am convinced that a lot of my sinus troubles are due to yeast... And as it happens, povidone iodine is active against fungi as well as bacteria. (I don't know about viruses, sorry. ) And if I had to place a bet, I'd say the near miraculous relief I got today was because it hit the yeast as well as whatever bacteria was trying to get a hold up in there.

Thank you so much for posting this little tip. The only thing I would add is that whoever tries it needs to make sure that they are using POVIDONE iodine (Betadine solution or its generic equivalent) and not tincture of iodine, or even a Betadine lotion/cream/cleanser/scrub, because it's not the same thing and there are a lot of products labeled Betadine. The ingredients in Betadine Solution are Povidone-Iodine 10%, Pareth 25-9, Purified Water, and Sodium Hydroxide, and that's it. If you put some other form of iodine in your nasal rinse, I'm going to bet that you come away sincerely wishing you hadn't, because I've tried them all and never found one that didn't sting like a mother until this.

Thank you again for posting this!!!

Well there is enough from high end doctors and scientist air conditioners do cause sinus problems in a lot. Spewing mold spores, viral parisites, ect. the cooling unit is a toxin waste site. Repairman who do not handle correct can get very sick. Most don't know the connection 40 years ago I learned this and avoid like a plague and that's what it is. My sinus do still get infection of course my cures have been1- 2tbl sp ACV in large water 3x day, good results. 2- baking soda 1tsp in warm water and nettie pot and 1tsp in large water 3x day. Good results 3- 1tsp food grade activated charcoal in glass of water 3x day good results. At 70 I've never used pharmacuticals as they all weaken the immune system and most likely cause something else to go wrong. Let's face it, if they get you well, they make make no money.

Add 1 teaspoon turmeric in 1 cup of hot water. Take twice in a day for complete wash out of sinus infection. This is unbelievable results.

I remember having a sinis infection and toothache at the same time. My tooth was killing me I told the denist to pull that sucker. He said wait let's do an x ray. What happened was my tooth's root went through my sinus canal and with a sinus infection that's the reason my tooth was killing me. Thank God I had a good dentist because it was one of my lower jaw teeth which I used a lot chewing my food. I got rid of my sinus infection and bam no toothache.

The best thing I ever did to stop my sinus infections and a lot of other problems was when I bought a machine called IONCLEANSE. Living on a horse farm for over 50 years my body was full of toxins. That machine is a God send. It detoxed my body and along with it all my health and pain problems. I even had asthma and after about 10 treatments I have never had asthma agian and no more sinus problems either. It's been over 4 years problem free.

Sinus Infections: My grandfather was an herbalist during the early 1900's. His remedy, which I've always found effective, was to boil a large sliced onion with a tablespoon of coarse salt and enough ACV to cover. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer got 20-30 minutes. Breathing these vapors will sting a bit but is helpful. After cooking you can use 1-2 Tbs of this in warm water to drink or simple sip the straight concoction once cooled. It keeps well for a few weeks when refrigerated. Onion juice contains a natural antibiotic which compliments the mucolytic effect of the vinegar.

CURING DIFFICULT or STUBBORN SINUS INFECTIONS...

If antibiotics and/or the below-listed home remedies are not curing your sinus infection, you need to take a look at your diet and eliminate all mucus-forming/thickening foods or drinks. Milk, citrus, spicy foods, wheat, cheese, etc. are usually the culprits. Try eliminating them from your diet for a few days.

Then try all of the following:

* Grapefruit Seed Extract -- your sinus infection may disappear after a couple of days of grapefruit seed extract. We like the drops, but be forewarned -- they taste terrible!! Also, never take them on an empty stomach (especially first thing in the morning).

* Drink apple cider vinegar throughout the day in large glasses of water (ACV thins mucus).

* Let the water from a hot shower spray onto your face, especially the forehead and nose. While still in the shower, clear/blow out as much mucus from your sinuses as possible. Do this several times a day.

* Try Oil Pulling, a fabulous remedy from India which alleviates Sinus Congestion within about 10-15 minutes.