Allergy & Sinus Relief

About a week or so ago, the left side of my head became congested.  My ear and my nose.  The right side was perfectly fine.  Go figure!  I wasn't running a fever, but I had a lot of congestion and knew this was a recipe for one humdinger of a sinus infection.  Rather than take an antibiotic as I've done for the past many years, I decided to suffer through it try a more natural way of curing myself.  Also, because I was dealing with the yeast infection from Hades (which I'm still dealing with, by the way), I didn't want to feed the yeast by adding an antibiotic to the mix.

Neti Pot, essential oil diffuser, and Nasonex to the rescue!

I used my Neti Pot daily, once in the morning and once in the evening.  If you've never used a Neti Pot, I highly recommend it.  It looks gross, but it really cleans our your nose like a charm.  It also flushes out all the allergens that have gotten lodged in the cilia in your nose.  (Cilia = nose hairs)  My eye doctor even recommends washing your eyebrows and eyelashes with Johnson's Baby Shampoo each day when you get home from work or doing any work outside to cut down on eye allergy problems.  I digress.

I used my little essential oil diffuser (pictured above) every night when I went to bed.  I set it on my nightstand and diffused the following blend in distilled water:

6 drops Rosemary
2 drops Eucalyptus
2 drops Tea Tree Oil
2 drops Lemon
2 drops Lavender
2 drops Peppermint

This has a very pleasant, relaxing smell. Diffusing this blend really helped me sleep well.  A couple of times I even put this blend in my Neti Pot with a salt packet and used it in my nose. Boy howdy does that clear you out and help you breathe!  Eucalyptus and peppermint are excellent decongestants on their own and combined they really pack a punch.  Lemon, Lavender, and Peppermint are a great combination for warding off allergies, too, by the way.  Two drops of each rubbed into the bottom of your feet twice a day helps decrease allergy symptoms.  You can apply them "neat", which means not diluted in a carrier oil. 

After using the Neti Pot, diffuser, and Nasonex trifecta for about 3 days, I was 90% better.  I was able to breathe and sleep throughout the night and wasn't blowing my nose non-stop at work during the day.