Are you the one with the hoarse nose that makes people feel far away from you? Is the cost of Kleenex affecting your bottom line?
You and Jane are almost identical. They both went to the same school, ate the same bad foods, and grew up in similar homes. They both loved dogs and slept with them. You even traded shoes and cosmetics. Jane has rarely had a cold. She says that the only time she saw a doctor was for baby shots. Why is there such a difference?
It turns out that Jane was nursed according to the old world way of continuing at least until her teeth come in. Your mother probably had to work and she bottle-fed you very early. Also, your mother was more modern and she started giving you table food too early; foods started too early can cause allergies. Plus, her mom had the best health insurance, and early on, she took him to Dr. Jones, who, to be on the safe side, prescribed the latest antibiotic at almost every visit. Jane’s mother believed in tea, lemon, honey, and bed rest.
What we know today is that too many antibiotics for children can disrupt the normal immune response; instead of the good white blood cells and immunoglobulins, we have a type of allergic reaction, even asthma!
We discovered this when, before the fall of the Berlin wall, children in West Germany received antibiotics with every cold; East German children did not. West German children got asthma.
But what can you do today? Your nose is raw, stuffy, runny and you can feel this thick goop going down your throat. You also worry about your breathing. The answer is your nasal cilia.
In the healthy nose there are millions of tiny cilia that act like paddles. These paddles propel bacteria, pollen, and dirt from your nose to the back of your throat. There they are swallowed and dissolve in stomach acid. People who don’t have chronic sinusitis have cilia that move precisely, in rhythm, to flush out bacteria. If they don’t, you may have a sinus infection because the bacteria stay in place and multiply.
Once upon a time, there was a list of products that slowed down, impeded or stopped the movement of nasal cilia. Unfortunately, many products can disrupt the normal movement of cilia, including diesel exhaust and scented lipsticks.
Today a new chemical is produced almost every day that can affect your cilia. If you are using a new product and it causes excessive sneezing and coughing, it is probably affecting your nasal function.
Unfortunately, although companies are required to test their new product for toxicity, if it will kill you, they do not test the effect on nasal and thoracic cilia. This is why you need to make sure your cilia are working at full speed and effectively.
Once your cilia are damaged, your nose burns, you sneeze, your nasal airways become congested, and you lose sleep. Then you start to have a thick yellow discharge and eventually there is sinus pain. These are signs of deterioration of the cilia. The sooner you get them moving again to remove bacteria, pollen, and dust, the less change there will be in your sinus cavities. Humming, tea, and pulsatile nasal/sinus irrigation are used to restore the important nasal cilia.
What exactly does pulsatile irrigation do? Pulsating saline at a frequency that maximizes cilia movement is a common approach. As the nose is flushed with saline, through one nostril and the other, that pulse wave frequency “harmonizes” and vibrates the nasal tissue to restore good movement. For example, the Hydro Pulse is “tuned” to maximize cilia movement. The pulsing action acts to physically remove bacteria and pollen as well. The action of the massage removes obsolete lymphatic products and brings in fresh blood, which is also therapeutic. For any illness, relaxation is beneficial. Pleasant pulse wave is relaxing for many people and helps them relax for better healing. However, caution is needed. Irrigator instructions indicate a stream of less than an inch in height. But there are machines that project with extreme force; these can damage the nose. High pressure can force infected material from the nose into the ear. The high pressure “bumps the cilia” instead of gently shaking them back to their normal speed. Again, the stream needs to be adjusted to be less than an inch high. Anything higher is too much.
Remember Jane, who didn’t get post-nasal drip? She probably has good normal gut bacteria that help make immune products because she didn’t take too many antibiotics. For you, taking yogurt and probiotics is important to boost your immunity.
Other factors are sleeping well. Try setting your sleep clock to have a complex set of steps: brush your hair, brush your teeth, take a warm bath, oil your face, etc. The more steps you take to relax and look forward to sleep, the tighter your sleep clock will be. Go to bed with a teddy bear? Absolutely, if you travel a lot, that can help you sleep in different time zones. I prescribe this for men too!
Although your nasal problem may be due to an allergy, checking the pollen calendar can tell you if your sneezing is due to flowering oak trees. Then you may want to use pulsatile irrigation to remove the pollen and IgE in the nose that combines with the pollen to clog up the nose. In the later stages of acute allergy, the nasal cilia are damaged and must be restored.
Do you remember that your grandmother told you to drink tea, lemon and honey, in addition to chicken soup? Scientists today have discovered that both contain chemicals that can restore the movement of cilia and help your immunity!
I hope this speech about you vs Jane helps. He is not the only one with sinus problems. Fortunately, he can be as free of sinuses and postnasal drip as Jane is.