How To Manage The Symptoms of A Sinus Infection
4 Comments Published by Brandon June 11th, 2007 in Health & Fitness Tips, Tips and AdviceOne of several fun genetic traits I’ve inherited is sinus problems. I grew-up with many ear infection related problems, and still to this day have frequent sinus problems and allergies. My mom has actually had one of the sinus surgeries performed to help with sinus problems, and I think I’m getting closer and closer to going down that path myself as my occurance of getting sinus infections is ever increasing.
Given my high frequency of sinus infections, I’ve personally found a pretty good regiment for handling the various symptoms associated with them. I’m not a doctor by any means, so you might want to run this by your doctor for your particular case. Anyhow, here’s what I use to manage the symptoms of short term sinus infections:
- Sudafed 24 Hour – You’ll probably have to ask your pharmacist for them since they are usually behind the counter, but they do actually last 23-24 hours. Helps keep your sinuses from getting too congested, and I have never noticed them making me drowsy. You’ll want to read all of the precautions as this medication is not for everyone, and may even keep you up.
- Ibuprofen – Ibuprofen works well any time you need to reduce swelling and pain. This helps calm down irritated sinuses, and also keeps your sore throat at bay. If you use a decongestant other than the aforementioned Sudafed 24 Hour, make sure it doesn’t already provide ibuprofen as many do.
- Lots of hot tea – Keeping hydrated is important to make sure the mucus stays thin and doesn’t keep building-up in your sinuses. Hot liquids are supposed to be the best thing for this purpose, and I’ve read that you should avoid cold things (ice cream, chilled beverages, etc). It will also make your sinus infection worse if you don’t keep hydrated, so if you don’t like hot tea, be sure to drink plenty of water or other liquid, and consume liquid-rich food items like soup which are low in sodium and don’t contain MSG.
As always, your mileage may vary, but I thought I’d post what seems to work well for me. Keep in mind this will only help with symptoms– you need to manage a sinus infection with your doctor with antibiotics and other similar treatments to actually end the infection.
Do you have any other suggestions on how to keep the symptoms from a sinus infection at bay?
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I have pretty bas sinuses, and use a few different things to help me cope when I get a full blown sinus infection. Besides Ibuprofen I also take lots of vitamins (even if it is just a placebo effect), hot showers and most critically nasal wash. I’ve used neti pots, but found them to be frustrating to use because of the odd angle. Instead I use a product called SaltAire Sinus which has a built-in pump, so much easier to use. It helps me so much when my sinuses get bad.
I have been suffering from sinus infection for more than 10 years without even knowing it until my ENT specialist diagnosed the condition.
I have been instructed by him to conduct nasal irrigation daily with the help of a syringe and a solution formed by mixing sodium bicarbonate powder and water. This is an excellent and proven home remedy for sinus infection treatment and will eradicate the problem faced with using a neti pot.
In fact, you can use some sinus infection herbs to complement nasal flushes as another alternative natural cure for sinus infection. Antibiotics can only help to treat an acute and chronic cases of sinus infection. When we have a mild case of sinus infection, I do not advocate taking antibiotics as this practice will affect our own body’s natural immune system to become dependent on drugs to fight infection.
I agree with Anthony – just your run of the mill saline spray has helped me over the years. As well, I have found some essential oils to be very helpful, including pine and Eucalyptus. These can be used directly, gentle inhaling – but also put a few drops in a pot of hot water, cover your head with a towel and just breathe and relax.
If you want a simple way to terminate a sinus infection, I found some stuff that kills fungus and bacteria that you really ought to try. The antibiotics don’t kill the fungus and you need to kill both. This stuff does. You just spray it in your nose and WOW, it got rid of my nasty sinus infection in about a week. I had tried antibiotics that were specifically prescribed for my sinusitis and I also tried a neti pot (yuk) but just couldn’t get this sinus infection to quit. So I did a search and found this stuff (Sinus Relief) from Nature’s Rite. The only problem is that you have to spray it every 30 minutes. I thought, hey, what the heck, it’s worth a try and every 30 minutes isn’t too bad. I was really surprised how well it worked so I bought their sinus support too. It’s been a good moisturizer with calendula and aloe. It’s herbal ya know. I like herbal stuff. So anyway, you should try this for your sinusitis. It won’t make you have a yeast infection after-words like some antibiotics do.