Professional Health Blog

Let’s see my collection of the most effective and safe external and internal sinus home remedies:

The best and may be the most simple natural cure for sinus infection is the old folk medicine:

APPLE CIDER VINEGAR.

Mix 1-2 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar in a glass of water and gulp the mixture at once. Use it 3-4 times a day for 4-6 days. Improvement occurs often in 1 hour, latest in 1 day. If you don’t notice any ease of the sinus infection after 2 days, stop taking the remedy.

People often have problems with the taste of Apple Cider Vinegar, so here you have a few tips to benefit the taste of the remedy:

give to the water-apple cider vinegar mixture 1 tsp honey
mix Apple Cider Vinegar in apple juice (instead of water)
mix Apple Cider Vinegar in herbal tea

If your stomach is sensitive to vinegar and feels upset after drinking the remedy give 1/4 tsp baking soda to the Apple Cider Vinegar mixture.

When your sinus problem is recurrent or chronic keep using the Apple Cider Vinegar mixture (1 tbsp vinegar, 1-2 times a day) regularly e.g. 3 times a week, but not on a daily basis.

WARNING! Your teeth don’t like this acidic drink (may decay sooner), so rinse your mouth with tap water after drinking the remedy.

Another simple possibility is opening the Apple Cider Vinegar bottle and just inhale (through your nose) the vapour coming out of it. It is able to open up the sinus passages immediately. Don’t overuse it, the acidic vapour may damage the mucus membrane.

Most of the people desire warm onto the congested sinus area. You may use a hot-water bottle, an infrared lamp, a warm flannel or simple blow warm air from a hair-drier.

HOT COMPRESSES and POULTICES

To encourage drainage of mucus apply hot compresses or poultices to your sinuses. They are really old home remedies used by our grandmothers for sinus infection. You may use different aromatic oils (e.g.eucalyptus oil) in hot water, but the best natural cures are using GINGER (Zingiber officinalis) or black MUSTARD (Brassica nigra). Both stimulate the circulation strongly and help decongest stuffy nasal passages.

HOT COMPRESS with GINGER (Zingiber officinalis): First of all make a strong ginger tea:

put 2 teaspoonfuls ginger root powder or finely chopped fresh root to a cup of water,
bring it to the boil and
simmer for 10 minutes.

Soak a thick cotton washcloth in the hot ginger tea and place it over your painful sinuses, being careful not to burn yourself.
Rewet the cloth when it cools and reapply for a total of ten minutes.
Repeat the treatment several times a day as desired.

POULTICE with GINGER:

give to the water-apple cider vinegar mixture 1 tsp honey
mix Apple Cider Vinegar in apple juice (instead of water)
mix Apple Cider Vinegar in herbal tea

If your stomach is sensitive to vinegar and feels upset after drinking the remedy give 1/4 tsp baking soda to the Apple Cider Vinegar mixture.

When your sinus problem is recurrent or chronic keep using the Apple Cider Vinegar mixture (1 tbsp vinegar, 1-2 times a day) regularly e.g. 3 times a week, but not on a daily basis.

WARNING! Your teeth don’t like this acidic drink (may decay sooner), so rinse your mouth with tap water after drinking the remedy.

Another simple possibility is opening the Apple Cider Vinegar bottle and just inhale (through your nose) the vapour coming out of it. It is able to open up the sinus passages immediately. Don’t overuse it, the acidic vapour may damage the mucus membrane.

Most of the people desire warm onto the congested sinus area. You may use a hot-water bottle, an infrared lamp, a warm flannel or simple blow warm air from a hair-drier.

HOT COMPRESSES and POULTICES

To encourage drainage of mucus apply hot compresses or poultices to your sinuses. They are really old home remedies used by our grandmothers for sinus infection. You may use different aromatic oils (e.g.eucalyptus oil) in hot water, but the best natural cures are using GINGER (Zingiber officinalis) or black MUSTARD (Brassica nigra). Both stimulate the circulation strongly and help decongest stuffy nasal passages.

HOT COMPRESS with GINGER (Zingiber officinalis): First of all make a strong ginger tea:
put 2 teaspoonfuls ginger root powder or finely chopped fresh root to a cup of water,
bring it to the boil and
simmer for 10 minutes.

Soak a thick cotton washcloth in the hot ginger tea and place it over your painful sinuses, being careful not to burn yourself.
Rewet the cloth when it cools and reapply for a total of ten minutes.
Repeat the treatment several times a day as desired.

POULTICE with GINGER:

Mix 140g dried ginger powder with a little hot water until you have a paste.
Sandwich the paste between two layers of gauze or spread on a handkerchief
and place the poultice over the sinus area as hot as bearable.
Leave it on for a few minutes, maximum 5 minutes until comfortable. It may redden the skin and cause a feeling of burning, so remove the poultice if it is uncomfortable.

POULTICE with black MUSTARD (Brassica nigra):

Black mustard has a stronger effect than ginger, stimulating local blood circulation and mildly irritating the skin. Be careful not to overstimulate and burn your skin!

Mix 120g freshly ground black mustard seeds with warm water to form a thick paste.
Spread the paste on a piece of linen cloth.
Cover the skin of the treated sinus area with a gauze or handkerchief.
Apply the cloth with the paste on the gauze covered skin and
remove after 1 minute.
You may repeat this treatment 2 times a day.

The skin my be reddened by this treatment, which can be eased by applying olive oil afterwards.

Ayurvedic Treatment of Nasal Irrigation and Neti Pot

HOT STEAM INHALATION

Steam inhalation is an excellent natural cure to relieve sinus congestion and painful sinus pressure. It thins the mucus so that it can be expelled.

How to do a safe and effective steam inhalation?

Place hot water (500ml-1litre) into a bowl and set the bowl on a steady surface (not on your knee or on a bed). The bowl should be filled about one-third full with hot water.
Put a towel over your head and over the bowl, lean forward, close your eyes and inhale the vapours deeply through your nose for about a minute.
Do not put your face too close to the steam, as this could burn your skin.
Repeat this inhalation several times a day if required.
You may inhale simple the water steam, but if you prefer you can use saline solution or different essential oils in the water or herbal teas.

Inhalation of saline solution: give 1tbsp sea salt to 500ml water, bring it to boil, pour the hot salt water in a basin and inhale the salty vapours for a couple minutes.
Inhalation of essential oils: add 2 drops of eucalyptus oil, 2 drops of peppermint oil and 2 drops pine oil to the hot water and inhale the aromatic vapours deeply for about 1-2 minutes.
Inhalation with herbal tea: make a chamomile tea with some ginger and sniff the rising steam for 5-10 minutes.

Sinus Homeopathic Remedies

In addition to all this external treatments you can take immune boosting supplements, like:

Echinacea (Echinacea angustifolia or purpurea) tincture or capsules (up to 600mg daily)
Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) tincture or capsules (up to 100mg daily) (Don’t use if you are pregnant!)
Grapefruit Seed Extract (Citrus paradisi)
Olive Leef (Olea europea) capsules
fresh chopped garlic (Allium sativum) (1-2 cloves a day)

Just find out which of them suits you and helps the most.

Beside all this you may sip a decongestant Elder Flower (Sambucus nigra) herbal tea with a pinch of powdered cayenne pepper. Pour a cup of boiling water onto 2 teaspoonfuls of the dried or fresh elder blossoms, leave to infuse for 10 minutes. Strain and drink hot with some cayenne pepper 3 times a day.

DIET TIPS

Limit intake of followings, since they promote mucus formation and/or swelling of nasal and sinus membranes:

cow’s milk and cow dairy products
ice-cream
alcoholic beverages
refined wheat products
sugar
citrus fruits, especially orange juice

There is a wide range of foods promoting drainage of mucus: like horseradish, garlic, onion, pineapple, ginger, chilli pepper, cayenne pepper or origanum. One of the best is freshly grated horseradish, eat and sniff it daily. Drink plenty of pineapple juice it is healing.

Acute sinusitis must be cured within 3 weeks. If it lasts longer it becomes chronic. Seek advice if sinus pain persists for more than a couple of weeks or if you get repeated attacks.

In rare cases sinus infection can spread to the eyes or brain, causing serious complications. Call your doctor immediately if you feel pain in your eyes or have paralysis or they turn red.

Christina Tasnadi is a medical doctor, a homeopathic doctor and an expert of home remedies. Christina’s Home Remedies www.christinas-home-remedies.com/