Antibiotics suck. I don't go on them unless absolutely necessary, and I have discovered over the last few years they really aren't necessary for the things we most commonly have them prescribed for- sinus infections and colds. And guess who conquered both a cold and sinus infection without antibiotics? This gal!
After a few days of misery, I am starting to feel more human. Wednesday I actually got kicked out of work, my supervisor told me not to come back from my lunch break. Granted, I was planning on taking a three hour lunch break anyway, to minimize my time at the office, but thankfully the schedule worked out that some of my coworkers could pitch in and cover the front desk for me in the evening. It was much needed and appreciated, and since I have Thursdays off, it gave me a good long chunk of time to just sit and get well.
So, I'm sitting in front of TV on Thursday watching a Real Housewives of Orange County (because trash TV does, in fact, cure colds) and started feeling those tell tale signs of a sinus infection. One look in the Kleenex and my suspicions were confirmed, my cold had caused a sinus infection. As miserable as I was feeling it was very tempting to go to the clinic down the street and have someone prescribe me some drugs, but I decided I was going to try to beat it myself. Without any antibiotics or other meds- or leaving the house, for that matter. I had already done some research online the night before for remedies for my hacking cough, and I combined that with my previous knowledge of what can work to get the "gunk" out.
Now, I already shared in my previous post about the remedies I use to boost my immune system to prevent and treat colds, but I needed more than the teas and supplements. I needed some hard core natural medicine to fight this one. As I said, Wednesday night I looked up natural cough remedies online and found some interesting ones. What I settled on that night was also because it said it would help me sleep (it's hard to sleep when you feel like you need to cough non-stop): vodka and honey. Yup, you mix a teaspoon of vodka with a tablespoon of honey and drink it. Like I needed an excuse for vodka, right??? At first, because of the vodka, I actually coughed a bit more, but after about three minutes the coughing calmed almost completely. I couldn't believe it worked that well! My guess is, that like antihistamines that are contained in many anti-cough medicines, the alcohol helps your body to relax which will naturally cause you to cough less. Of course, not wanting to drink all day long I switched the the more traditional concotion of the juice of half a lemon mixed with some honey the next day, and for me that was really effective. I liked the taste of the lemon and honey mixture, so sometimes I just drank it to taste it more.
For the sinus infection I had to get a little more creative. I immediately started doing my sinus rinses and added the powder from one probiotic capsule in with the salt packet. I use the NeilMed Nasal Wash because, unlike the NetiPot, it uses pressure to clean the "gunk" out of your head whereas the NetiPot only uses gravity. To me, the traditional Netipot is a complete and total waste of time. Anyway, adding the probiotic to the wash is key to attacking the infection. The healthy "bugs" kill the infection and rebalance the flora in your sinus cavities which works while the sinus rinse packet loosens and clears the gunk. Although normally I would only do the sinus rinse once a day, combating a sinus infection while dealing with a cold made me bump it to twice a day.
To really kick the cold and infection I decided to steam with garlic- which is a natural anti-bacterial and anti-fungal agent- and some eucalyptus oil. I have steamed with eucalyptus before, but this was the first time I added in the garlic. I took one clove and broke it slightly to release the oils and put it and a few drops of eucalyptus in my little facial steamer contraption I have (pictured above). Because it uses such a small amount of water in the steamer I probably could have used less garlic in retrospect. Two times on Thursday I steamed and it made a huge difference! After the first garlic/eucalpytus steam I could feel my sinuses clearing quickly, and I started to feel a lot better. The second time I steamed I could tell how well the first one worked because I could actually feel the garlic burning a little in my airway, whereas the first time I could hardly tell I was breathing in the steam. That garlic really kicked my cold's behind!
Word of warning on the garlic though that I found out the hard way. It can burn your skin! Make sure to moisturize your face before and after you steam with it, and wash with a gentle cleanser in between. The burn feels kind of like the second day of a sunburn, real raw and chapped. Not fun!
Since Thursday, I have kept up with the sinus rinses and have used the lemon and honey mixture frequently for the coughing. Honey, by the way, also has some anti-fungal properties to it, I believe, and the acid of the lemon will break up mucus. The one day of garlic steaming seemed to be adequate. Green gunk is gone and everything is yellow or clear now. Plus, I haven't had a sinus headache since I did the garlic steam on Thursday! Even better, last night I started to regain my sense of smell and taste now that my cold is almost cleared. Regained my smell after eating my really spicy Tomatillo-Orange salsa (see previous post). The hubby and I were watching a movie and eating the salsa, and about twenty minutes after eating it I could smell everything again!
The one other natural remedy I added in was to take a supplement we sell at work called Sinuplex from Metagenics. It helps with lung and sinus function and is basically the natural version of Mucinex/Guafenesin. I find Sinuplex more enjoyable to take than Mucinex not just because it's natural stuff, but also because it doesn't make my nose run quite as uncontrollably.
Today I haven't had the body shaking coughs and my nose is behaving itself much better. I'm hoping that tomorrow I'll be 100% again and the coughing will be gone!
PS Obligatory "I'm not a doctor" statement in case this post comes up on google searches. This is my personal experience, nothing more, consult your holistic healthcare practitioner, yaddah yaddah yaddah.
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