For a week and a half now, I've been dealing with a URI (upper respiratory infection, or in lay terms, a cold). The particular virus I have is a lingering one, and the cough could potentially last for weeks. Oy. So I've been doing my very best to deal with my symptoms. The more I learn about health and pathology, the more I realize that unless they become life threatining, the awful symptoms are the best way for our bodies to fight diseases. As unpleasant and irritating as they are, phlegm and mucous have their place, as do fevers. So what's a girl to do when she feels disgusting and wants relief but still wants to let her body do what it needs to do?
I don't have a great answer, but I have managed to get through this cold with minimal OTC medications. For the first time in my life, I managed without decongestant or analgesics. I found that using a neti pot twice a day with a solution of salt water kept my nasal passages unblocked, and sinus pressure to a minimum, which is nothing short of a miracle - especially since I'm prone to sinus infections. Unfortunately, my cough wasn't as easy to take care of. It had been waking me up every night, so I tried both an over the counter cough medicine (a drastic measure, as far as I'm concerned), which has worked very well for me in the past, and an herbal cough remedy perscribed to me by a naturopath. Neither of them seemed to have any effect, and I still wasn't sleeping through the night. The one thing I found that helped the most was a steam inhalation with a blend of eucaliptis, peppermint, and juniper essential oils (which also happens to be wonderful for the skin), and I'll be using that remedy any time I get sick in the future - it helps with the sinuses as well as the lungs. In addition, I took an herbal formula meant to boost the immune system, which may or may not have helped, but I'm pretty sure it didn't hurt. I'm still not feeling perfect, but I'm pretty happy with the results of my natural remedies.
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Yay you! I'm a firm believer in jala neti, and since I have been doing it every day, I have not had my usual 1-2 sinus infections per year...in fact, no sinus infections at all. Let's see, that would be over 2 years now.
ReplyDeleteI had been using a perscription nasal spray to stave off the sinus infections, but I switched to the neti pot about 6 months ago, and it has worked just as well as the perscription. Plus, I'm not putting unnecessary chemicals into my body, and I only have to pay for salt, which is way cheaper, given I don't have perscription insurance. It's amazing just how much we convince ourselves that we need something fancy and synthetic when natural remedies are often just as good, if not better.
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