Topic: best sinus remedy?

[wannabridin]

hey guys.  i have some terrible sinuses right now.  it's a bunch of pressure behind my eyes and cheeks!  can't breathe out of one nostril, and that's the one that's running the most!  either way, physically i feel 100%, but this pressure is DRAGGING me down!!  tips?

i'm going to get some zycam an a neti pot or it's equivalent w/ saline solution and give that a shot, hear it works WONDERS!  coupled with some Zn supplements, i should be good asap!  other remedies for sinuses, post em up!!

[BobbyR]

I have struggled with this for years and i have had times when my ears clogged up for Months, even cutting open eardrum. For what you describe you will probably need Sudafed, not the stuff on the shelf, but the type you have to sign for. That will start to decongestant the Sinuses. Right now you have inflammation also, so Advil or similar anti inflammatory to knock that down, I use 3 tabs every 4 hours. Tylenol is not an anti inflammatory.  The trick is to get the stuff to flow out of the Sinuses. Steam can help a great deal. There is no magic bullet, it is a bunch of things working together.

Now if you have any condition that does not allow you to take these drugs, you will have to wolrk woth heat and staem and maybe a touch of Afrin nasal spray.

[BlindJoe]

antibiotics

[Bob Wessner]

How long have you been dealing with it? If a long time, have you seen a doctor? If only a matter of days, could be some sort of minor infection. If bacterial in origin, antibiotics might help. If viral, you might just have to deal with the symptoms until it goes away as antibiotics do nothing for viral infections.

[Duke McDukiedook]

Nasal irrigation.

[Inigo Montoya]

Neti pot!

[flybox1]

neti pot or it's equivalent w/ saline solution and give that a shot, hear it works WONDERS! 

+1

YEAH!
soak that saline in warm tapwater beforehand!

[domer]

temp solution... a shot of cuervo with the squeeze of half a lemon. clears me right up, when it comes back just repeat untill you cant feel your face anymore! although the side affects might be worse than the original symptoms, but that doesnt seem to bother my south of the border co-workers!

[wannabridin]

just got back from walgreens.  got a neti pot (on sale, wooo!!) and this "new" nasal spray called "Sinus Buster."  i'm by no means a hippie or a health nut, but if i can get something that's natural and non-habit-forming, then by all means, sign me up!  i also got a small bottle of Zn pills, heard from plenty these work well too, which i can believe since Zn is crucial to the delivery of certain antibodies and other pieces of the immune system puzzle!

the active ingredient in the nasal spray is "capsicum annuum 4x/5x (capsaicin)"  and the inactives are ascorbic acid, eucalyptol, purified water, rosemary extract, sea salt, vegetable glycerin.  to me this sounds a LOT nicer than the stuff in zycam!!  plus i've heard from a lot of people on here and elsewhere that swear that heat works!!  (spicy heat i mean!) 

to answer the questions, i just started feeling bad when i woke up yesterday, which got progressively worse throughout the day at work.  i left early and went home to take some sudafed.  i was drinking PLENTY of water all day yesterday too, which i'm sure helped!!  i went to bed early after a nice long hot shower and some nyquil.  got about 8 hours of sleep, still felt bad this morning, so i took more sudafed with breakfast.  i've gotten progressively BETTER throughout today, and my nostrils are more open.  maybe a placebo effect for GOING to walgreens??  :-D  oh well, i'm going to go ahead and eat lunch and take this other stuff, hopefully it'll help out a lot!!

what's that old saying from my mom??  "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure"

[Jerry Rxman Griffin aka MuthaF'er]

Depends on whether it is due to a cold like viral infection or a bacterial infection. Also to consider would be an allergy. Many of the symptoms are the same. Runny nose, nasal/sinus congestion/pressure, pain/headache, nasal/sinus discharge, fever, sneezing. If it is a cold it will be self limiting to perhaps 1 week. All you can do is help relieve/reduce the symptoms until it's run it's course. This could include antihistamines for runny nose/sneezing. Decongestants to help relieve nasal/sinus congestion and stuffiness. Pain relievers which also help reduce fever.

Things to consider when using these meds are drowsiness from antihistamines, increased blood pressure and sleeplessness with oral decongestants, and stomach distress with pain relievers. Non-sedating antihistamines such as Claritin and Zyrtec are available for day use. IMO they do not work as well for what you describe. Perhaps better left for continual daily allergy use but may be necessary due to work or potential dangerous activities. Benadryl is still the best but it causes the most drowsiness and that's why it is the most used sleep aid over the counter. As BobbyR has suggested, Sudafed is the best decongestant. It is still OTC but you have to purchase it AT the pharmacy counter and must present ID due to the fact that it is the main ingredient in methamphetamine. If there is a serious blood pressure situation it/all oral decongestants might best be avoided. An option would be a nasal spray like Afrin. Works great with little systemic absorption. What little gets absorbed distributes throughtout the entire body and is so dilute there should be no contraindications/bad effects. No sleep issues either like the potential with Sudafed. The safest would be Ocean/saline spray. The nasal irrigations/Neti pots use a saline solutions and will also flush the nose. As far as pain relievers/fever reducers I prefer Tylenol unless there is serious liver damage. Motrin or Aleve are 2 other options but may be contraindicated due to stomach distress. While these 2 are anti-inflammatories I do not agree with BobbyR pertaining to the anti-inflammatory properties in the nose/sinus. They relieve a different type of inflammation in condidtions such as osteoarthritis of joints, etc. Zinc products will NOT provide more immediate relief and are questionable as far as limiting the length/severity of a cold. How do you prove it actually shortens the duration/severity of a virus that you can not measure?!

If your problem drags on and on you may have to consider visiting a prescriber for an antibiotic to treat a bacterial infection. I'd give it 2 weeks minimum before deciding on this course of action. Another issue would be a fever. Fever is one of the body's response to help fight the problem. Generally a fever that is up and down is viral. That's probably a good thing. Leave it alone. A fever that gets high, say 104, and stays high or goes higher is generally a sign of a bacterial infection and needs an antibiotic.

These are just a few things, as a practitioner, I can suggest. Now I'll take off my white jacket. A couple other things have been suggested. Good hot steamy showers will probably help clear out the old nose, and one of my personal favorites which comes with black wax on the top and is 130.1 proof - Booker's whiskey on ice.

Chances are it will clear up on it's own either in 1 week or 7 days, whichever comes frst. Treat those symptoms in the mean time.

[Markcb750]

I have tried a lot of things both prescription and over the counter.

Nothing works for me better then saline solution, the aerosol not the spray.


No headaches, little congestion, no drugs!

[kslrr]

My wife finds that sex helps clear her sinuses and headaches.

[bucky katt]

saline solution spray. get it at any pharmacy

[number13]

Keep an eye on that sinus infection. I had
the exact same thing over x-mas and it
developed into pleurisy. That really sucked

[keiths]

I fought sinus headaches for years, using sinus medicines, antibiotics, and allergy medicine but nothing worked completely until I tried the Neti pot. I've been headache free for almost two years. I use it about once a month now. It really works. I sleep better, my sense of taste and smell is better, and my indigestion is much improved.

[bender01]

Hydrogen peroxide! dab it on a q-tip and gently sniff a few dips in each nasal cavity.. Gently wait 30 seconds and blow out. I fill my ears too for a few minutes to also stop the creeping crud. Be careful gargling it!

[Alan F.]

I've had my first sinus infection free year in recent memory!  I've been doing the stereotypical dad thing, gargling with hot saltwater every morning.  And I've been consuming mass quantities of soup with 10 or 12 shakes of habinero sauce stirred in, between the two I've been running pretty clean.

If anyone hasn't tried Mucinex yet, go for it.  You won't notice it doing anything until you begin to feel normal again. The 12 hour stuff is great but only works for about 9 hours... And always take Advil or Motrin since most congestion is due to swelling. 

[Jerry Rxman Griffin aka MuthaF'er]

I've had my first sinus infection free year in recent memory!  I've been doing the stereotypical dad thing, gargling with hot saltwater every morning.  And I've been consuming mass quantities of soup with 10 or 12 shakes of habinero sauce stirred in, between the two I've been running pretty clean.

If anyone hasn't tried Mucinex yet, go for it.  You won't notice it doing anything until you begin to feel normal again. The 12 hour stuff is great but only works for about 9 hours... And always take Advil or Motrin since most congestion is due to swelling. 

Again, Advil or Motrin will NOT relieve this type of swelling. It works as an anti-inflammatory to reduce joint type swelling. In addition, they are good pain and fever reducers.
This is why I have RPh after my name.

[m00ntan]

Pseudoephedrine is what you want to use.  I've used this stuff since third grade in 1968.  It was the ingredient that put Contact time release capsules on the map.  You will not have a breathing problem.  Unfortunately, it's locked up because somebody likes to extract it and make methamphetamine.  Last time I found it was in Zyrtec-D, the version you have to ask for.  

from wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudophedrine
"Pseudoephedrine shrinks swollen nasal mucous membranes."

[Alan F.]

Yeah the drug companies seem to be messing with formulas that have worked great for years, There was a Sudafed variant that worked perfectly, I used it for two seasons before they changed it entirely, now it's useless to me. 

Thanks Jerry, I'll read down for a better education....(An old MD I knew always told us to go with advil or motrin...)
-A

[SD750F]

I have found the quickest way for me to get rid of a bad sinus headache is to take a flight in my plane. As soon as I reach about 3000 feet above the ground all is gone. And when I return to the field I am good until the next weather system with large pressure excursion moves in...

[bucky katt]

thats a good idea....................too bad i dont fly, not ever not for any reason.

[coldright]

the active ingredient in the nasal spray is "capsicum annuum 4x/5x (capsaicin)"  and the inactives are ascorbic acid, eucalyptol, purified water, rosemary extract, sea salt, vegetable glycerin.  to me this sounds a LOT nicer than the stuff in zycam!!  plus i've heard from a lot of people on here and elsewhere that swear that heat works!!  (spicy heat i mean!) 

Let me know how capsicum in your nostrils works.   Just the thought of putting pepper cream in my mucous membranes makes me want to cry.  Ouch.  Who thought up such an awful treatment... perhaps it's a much lower concentrate than the stuff they make for shingles.

[wannabridin]

the capsicum spray works great!  it's not quite as good as zicam, but zicam always left me feeling woozy and loopy afterwards, ya know just not right!  the pepper stuff opens me up and i feel fine afterwards!  now the neti pot works well too, i feel great today compared to yesterday!  i've been taking 2 sudafed (the 30 mg pills) and some zinc and a multivitamin and so that's hopefully working.  a lot of the pressure is gone, just a little runny nose and stuff...