when your sinuses betray you.

I've had sinus infections for as long as I can remember.  It always starts the same way; the seasons change, something makes me sneeze uncontrollably for an entire day and the next morning I wake up with blurry vision and a head seemingly the weight of a friggin mountain.  Despite my attempts at regulating my diet (low gluten/corn, no dairy, no artificial sugars) I am still blessed every year with some kind of sneezy allergy that doesn't quit.  Most of the time I can head it off with a neti pot cleansing or just my amazing immune system but sometimes I'm not careful and it sneaks up on me.  Here are my tried and true strategies for minimizing symptoms, speeding up recovery and eliminating the dreaded anti-biotic.

#1 Neti the crap out of it.  I used to (re:still do) hate doing this.  It's uncomfortable, it's hard to get the hang of and it definitely is a pain in the ass to travel with.  However, if you're a sinus sufferer, this is the only thing you're definitely NOT doing.  Get it.  Boil the water before you do it (let it cool, obv) and mix in an anti-microbial like grapefruit seed extract.  Oh, you didn't know about that?  Yeah, talk about a powerful natural remedy.  This is your anti-biotic.  If you don't own a neti or don't want to, they do make a variety of nasal sprays with GSE in them.  Get one!

#2 Apple cider vinegar.  You already know it cures heart burn and an assortment of gut issues.  But this thins out the mucous currently occupying and throbbing in between your eyes and let's you expel it much easier.  This sounds disgusting, but you know you wanna expel.  You wanna expel forever.  Make a tonic; two tablespoons vinegar to a cup of water.  Chug it 2-3 times a day.

#3 Watch that diet.  No dairy, no sugar, big time vitamin rich foods.  Don't eat anything that can encourage the mucous, aka put down the pudding.  Load up on your bromelin, vitamin A, C and K aka get on dem GREENS.

Here's to your health, and more importantly, here's to being able to see and hear clearly all season long without the mucous monkey on your back.  Ewwww, mucous monkey.