Winning the Sinusitis Battle

What makes for headaches, bad breath, and a nasally voice? It’s sinusitis, and more than 37 million Americans suffer from it at least once each year.

As Tess likes to say, with her nose wrinkled: eeew.

Sadly, the prevalence of sinusitis has soared in the last decade due to more pollution, allergenic foods, and higher-than-ever resistance to antibiotics.

Learn more about your poor overworked sinuses and how you can help them keep bad guys out of your lungs and the rest of your body.

First things first.  Your sinuses are those little cavities around your nose and eyes with important jobs such as:

• Insulating sensitive structures - like dental roots and eyes from rapid temperature fluctuations in the nasal cavity. Did you know that sinuses also help keep your facial structures separate (so your food doesn’t migrate into your eyes, heh heh).
• Giving resonance to your voice - ever notice how odd your voice sounds when you’re stuffy?).
• Buoying up your noggin' - when your sinuses are clear, it's easy to hold your head high; when your sinuses are full, your head might feel like a big bowling ball that you're lugging around).
• Filtering and moistening the air you breathe - your sinuses first filter irritating dust and harmful bacteria out through hard-working cilia, and then your sinuses flush waste out in sludgy mucus (ugly colors when humans are not well). Finally, healthy sinuses send clean, humidified air is to your lungs.

How Sinuses Work -- And Stop Working

Sinuses are lined with a moist, thin layer of tissue called a mucus membrane. Mucus membranes help moisten air as you breathe so you don't dry out.

Mucus membranes also make mucus (duh), that sticky stuff in your nose. Mucus traps dust and germs before they can go on to disrupt cellular health.

Unfortunately, villains like viral infections, allergens, and pollutants damage sinus linings, leading to inflammation and pain.

As sinus linings gets inflamed, your nasal pathways become constricted and even blocked, which disrupts removal of bacteria in nasal passages.

Unfortunately, each of your sinuses has only one small opening -- and they are tiny -- making them easy to block with a icky, sticky mucus.

So begins a sinus infection. Alas, sinus infections can then cause ear infections, headaches, dental pain, etc. 

How to Keep Your Sinuses Flowing Smoothly

Critical to healthy sinuses is reducing inflammation in the nasal cavity.

For some, this means staying away from culprit foods and allergens; for others, it means a humidifier or fishing out mold sources in the home; for others still, it means rejuvenating the immune system.

Dietary Precautions and Recommendations

Most sinus enemies won't come as a shock to our fair members. The two highest on the list are sugar and dairy products. Sugar feeds bad guys like bacteria, and dairy is hard to digest and spurs your system to produce excess mucus.

Sinus sufferers should also completely avoid:

• Fried foods

• Starchy foods

• White sugar

• White flour

• White rice

• Pies

• Cakes

• Strong spices

• Meat and meat products

Instead, try fresh fruits and vegetables, as they help alkalize and oxygenate your system, thus making it harder for bacteria, viruses, and fungi to nestle in and make trouble.

A diet rich in natural vitamin A has also been touted as a great defense against sinus problems. Vitamin A is known as "membrane conditioner" and helps build healthy mucus membranes in the head and throat.

Some valuable dietary sources of vitamin A are egg yolks, pumpkins, carrots, leafy vegetables, tomatoes, mangoes and papayas.

Supplements to Soothe Sinus Woes

Since sinus troubles result mostly from irritation, clogs, and nasty little invading organisms, addressing any of those problems can help bring you sinus relief. Here are some tips:

Vitamin C - Perhaps most important is vitamin C, which helps protect all your cells from damage, is considered a strong antihistamine, supports collagen production, and keeps you nasal membranes (and skin) smooth and healthy.

For any infection, the recommendation is to take vitamin C in multiple grams multiple times during the day until you hit "bowel tolerance" (er, that would be a full flush of your bowels). You then back down to a level of vitamin C below which you achieved bowel tolerance. 

Quercetin – This antioxidant is very helpful for allergies, as it helps cell membranes become less reactive to allergens and foreign invaders (quercetin also provides an antihistamine effect). Quercetin also helps your body excrete unwanted wastes.

Elderberry – This herb enhances immune function by boosting production of proteins acting as messengers in the immune system. Elderberry extract has also  demonstrated anti-viral activity; when in vitro, elderberry extract inhibited the replication of a number of strains of influenza in cell cultures.

Vitamin E – A basic antioxidant, vitamin E is good for smooth skin, which means smooth, non-irritated nasal and sinus passage ways.

Enzymes - Your pancreas is probably working a little too hard to digest your meals if you're over 50.  Supplemental enzymes support efficient digestion in the stomach, which leads to fewer food allergies and insults to the gut.

Probiotics - If sinuses are plugged and not able to filter out bad bacteria, adding friendly bacteria or probiotics back into the gut is critical to any good immune system  restoration project.

Apple Cider Vinegar, Neti Pots, and Other Natural Remedies

Normally Tess keeps her sinuses in good working order by nixing wheat and sugar, taking plenty of vitamin C, and rinsing her sinuses out with a Neti Pot.

Last month, however, she fell smack dab on her face on the ice.   Pretty immediately, the trauma created a lot of swelling in and around her sinuses and led to a sinus infection.

After several days of fluids and plenty of supplements, she developed a nasty cough that kept her from getting much rest, and Tess started to wonder whether the dreaded antibiotics were indeed called for.

Desperation led Tess to learn more (on a sinus health forum). She read the tales of many skeptics who had become true believers and given up antibiotics for good.

Tess decided to give the foul-tasting elixir a try. Despite the fact that apple cider vinegar smells like stinky feet to Tess, she has become a big believer in its ability to clear up clogged, inflamed sinuses. 

The recipe Tess used involves a mere 2 tablespoons of vinegar and 16 ounces of water. She says that a little honey helps the taste.

Teri actually had to resort to sinus surgery last year to remove numerous little polyps obstructing her airways. A Co-op member told her about the Grossan HP100 Hydro Pulse Nasal/Sinus Irrigator, which she now uses religiously twice a day with a mixture of 3t sea salt and 1t baking soda per 32oz RO water. Teri has yet to have a problem since!

If you have a favorite home remedy for relieving sinus congestion and pain, drop a line to this kat and I promise to share with all of our fair members. ^..^

Cindy's Blog: Hydrochloric Acid, Leukemia Cell Suicide, Weight Loss Foods

Since her return from the Hippocrates Health Institute, Cindy has been blogging on all her great learning:

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Cindy recently met a lovely woman named Almari who has leukemia and is scheduled for a bone marrow transplant in early February. 

Leukemia headlines now catch Cindy's attention much more easily.  On December 22nd, a press release from the American Association for Cancer Research reported:

"An extract from grape seeds forces laboratory leukemia cells to commit cell suicide, according to researchers from the University of Kentucky. They found that within 24 hours, 76 percent of leukemia cells had died after being exposed to the extract."

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Cindy recently listened to an esthetician explain that a good facial helps lymph nodes in the neck and around the collarbone remove cellular waste from breast tissue and explain why women who get facials have less incidence of breast cancer.

More on facials, breast health, and lymphatic drainage...

Macro Greens Vegan Bars & Weight Loss Foods

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Trouble is it's been difficult for her to find snack foods that contain no dairy, wheat, soy, eggs or almonds.

One weekend, however, she found the Macro Greens raw food bars marketed as a "raw antioxidant super food" and "all natural energy" food.

She found in Macro Greens a whole lot of impressive ingredients like spirulina, chlorella, and barley grass powder, red raspberry powder, ginger, licorice root powder and so much more.

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