chronic nasal congestion - PaleoHacks.com

chronic nasal congestion

2010-12-23T15:35:30Z

so I have had pretty chronic nasal congestion for as long as I can remember (am in my early twenties).

I was hoping going mostly paleo* would clear it up, but to no avail.

In the interest of 80/20 and the pareto principle, etc., are there SPECIFIC foods/allergies that may be causing the congestion. i.e. do you have SPECIFIC foods/habits that you would eliminate (or add)?

Keep in mind (this gets a little gross):

it's not a ton of mucous or post nasal drip, just a consistent deep blockage. I can breathe through my nose, but sometimes its a little constricted.
my nose will clear up during any kind of prolonged or intense exercise, or sex :)
I know the obvious culprit here is dairy, but I can't say I notice a correlation in terms of dairy vs. non-dairy days and otherwise I would say I am VERY lactose tolerant (genetically northern european, experientially dairy just doesn't make me feel bad)...also again, the problem is not mucous production, but just a deep consistent blockage.
I have tried a neti-pot, and loved it, but the relief was only temporary and the blockage would often return later in the day
Doesn't really seem to change seasonally, either.

On a scale of 1-10 discomfort level, this is like a 3 maximum. I'm just curious because I've had it for most of my life.

*mostly paleo=occasional dairy consumption (cheese, milk), occasional to regular alcohol/beer consumption, and sporadic cheat days (i.e. pounding dominos thin crust with my friends on football sunday)...hahaha so maybe this isn't even 'mostly' paleo

Answer by Laura for chronic nasal congestion

2010-12-23T16:11:06Z

I have no answers, but I echo your question. I've had chronic congestion for about 30 years. Going off dairy for an entire month changed nothing.

Answer by Karen Key for chronic nasal congestion

2010-12-23T16:50:24Z

I want to recommend a practice and a book called Oil Pulling Therapy by Bruce Fife, who is well known for popularizing the health benefits of coconut and coconut oil. Honestly I cannot fully explain why oil pulling might work, but it has totally ended my 30+ years of chronic sinus congestion. It's amazing. Here's a link... http://www.coconutresearchcenter.org/article%20oil%20pulling.htm

Answer by Hikewithdog for chronic nasal congestion

2010-12-23T16:58:12Z

Could be something you're breathing, dust, mold, mites, aftershave, skin cream scent, soap scent, etc. Could be a different food intolerance than milk. Mine cleared up when I stopped drinking tea, which I never would have figured. Try eliminating different things and see what happens. Good luck.

Answer by bsunde for chronic nasal congestion

2010-12-23T18:18:52Z

I had a similar issue for many many years. Later I found out that I have a fairly intense dust mite allergy. Wrapping pillows and mattresses with allergen covers, keeping the place clean, and taking a nasal spray (mometasome, fluticasone) daily has helped immensely.

Answer by Vrimj for chronic nasal congestion

2010-12-23T18:23:20Z

Adding fermented food seems to help mine more then anything else. I use homebrewed kombuncha, but pickles or any other fermented food with active cultures would probably work.

Answer by Tim Rangitsch for chronic nasal congestion

2010-12-23T18:24:25Z

I asked a question along similar lines, maybe some help here:

http://paleohacks.com/questions/4663/resolving-mouth-breathing#axzz18xc9Uz4r

Answer by Cara for chronic nasal congestion

2010-12-23T18:52:43Z

Cut out milk & all grains. That should at least reduce it. Milk was the culprit for my chronic congestion. Good luck

Answer by Tom R. for chronic nasal congestion

2010-12-23T18:53:38Z

For me, if I have more than a beer, maybe two, I notice more congestion the next morning. It tends to go away pretty quickly. At times, I have played with dairy to try to put on a few pounds for workout purposes, immediate and prolonged congestion.

Answer by PrimalEric for chronic nasal congestion

2010-12-23T19:15:10Z

I used to have very similar symptoms before going paleo but paleo alone didn't fix it. What did the trick for me was fish oil. When I run out of fish oil the symptoms come back. I don't have easy access to grass-fed meat so these symptoms might be related to inflammation caused by the omega-6/omega-3 imbalance.

Answer by Phoenix for chronic nasal congestion

2010-12-23T21:54:03Z

I've concluded that wheat causes my congestion, and it's not a quick fix. If I don't have wheat for say a week, the congestion will still be there, maybe slightly less. It takes me at least a month of no wheat to clear the congestion, possibly more. It's as if my body needs a long time without such a poison to slowly reduce the symptom. It took me a while to figure this out, seeing as I have no other obvious symptoms when I eat wheat.

Answer by Soposie for chronic nasal congestion

2010-12-23T23:21:22Z

Eggs were the culprit for me.

Answer by Arthur for chronic nasal congestion

2011-04-07T11:13:41Z

I've had the EXACT same symptoms for as long as I remember examining my health (that would be ~15 years; I'm 30 now). I'm Caucasian, body fat ~20%, exercise 2-3 times a week.

I experience stuffy nose in the morning, but not runny nose. My nose never runs (except when I get a cold, once or twice a year). What congests it is the lining (the turbinates), which swell for no clear reason.

Anyway, when I wake up, one nostril is always almost completely blocked, while the other is free. Which is blocked and which is free varies, probably depending on what side I sleep on.

During the day inside the office (where air is conditioned and everything is constant), the nostrils randomly get stuffed or free up. Same happens at home (no air conditioning). Allegedly I'm allergic to dust mites (based on two intradermal tests), but one skin prick test showed I was not allergic to anything.

Here what I've tried and hasn't worked

Complete change of environment. Moved from Eastern Europe to California (Bay Area).
Glutern-free diet for a year (I was mis-diagnosed with celiac disease, that's why I tried it)
Vegetarian diet for a few months. I'm also pretty sure I had a dairy elimination diet as well.
Eliminating egg or tea, as others suggested.
turbinate reduction surgery - for a few months I breathed better, but then things returned to usual.
Omnaris + Astelin/Patanase for a month, 2 puffs of each in each nostril once a day. Didn't do anything.

What works for twelve hours

Afrin no drip - amazingly effective, but the label says don't use for more than 2 days in a row.
A modified version of Afrin (Safeway generic nasal decongestant diluted with saline solution up to 85% of the bottle height) - works almost as well as Afrin, and a particular (respected) doctor told me that in this concentration, the solution can be used daily, and that his wife has been using that solution for 20 years just fine.

Here's what works for a few tens of minutes - maybe an hour

Exercising - 5 minutes of cardio frees up the nostrils.

Here's what works for a few minutes

Ricola candy
Halls mints
Similar candy/mints/breath fresheners

What I'm currently trying: Allergen immunotherapy: I've been taking allergy shots for dust mites and common trees (even though I did not test allergic to the trees) for almost 8 months. The results are small for now, but I've just reached the maintenance dose, and "Treatment needs to be continued for at least 3 years to achieve maximum effectiveness in immune desensitisation to the allergen".

Answer by Chickenosaurus Rex for chronic nasal congestion

2011-04-08T02:32:29Z

Have you been checked by a specialist? You could have an infection buried deep in your sinus cavities.

Answer by Christina for chronic nasal congestion

2012-03-15T08:25:28Z

I've suffered from severe nasal allergies/congestion/post-nasal drip, so bad that I was getting three allergen-immunotherapy shots each time I went in (at least once/week, sometimes three) and while this worked for a little while, it never fully solved the problem.

It wasn't until I removed grains/legumes from my diet (I never noticed a change when I experimented with adding/eliminating dairy--I tried this several times), that my symptoms got much better. But there was still something I was eating that would occasionally trigger an allergic reaction (stuffy/runny nose/sneezing). I began to pay strict attention to what I was eating, and I soon learned that it was citrus!

One day, I had an orange for dessert after lunch and ten minutes later, my nose was stuffy/itchy (so I took a mental note). My symptoms went away a little while later, but I had another orange after dinner (at work, not at home, so I was in a completely different environment) and again, my nose was stuffy/itchy ten minutes later. Once I realized it, and cut out citrus from my diet, my symptoms miraculously disappeared! After six months, I only occasionally have an allergic response when I cheat and have something with wheat/gluten in my diet (citrus doesn't even seem that bad anymore, at least not as bad as gluten/wheat). And I've completely stopped my allergen-immunotherapy shots with no ill-effect!

So perhaps keep a food-journal and take note of when you have a reaction...you could find something you never even considered as an allergen.

Answer by hhsuey for chronic nasal congestion

2012-10-15T06:02:05Z

I recommend getting allergy testing. They can test for allergic reactions to many common sources airborne and food allergens. Symptoms such as nasal congestion sometimes require multiple cumulative allergens to enlarge nasal turbinates enough that they impede your breathing. The cumulative effect of allergens is a reason why many people do not think they are allergic to any specific allergen such as pollen, dust, or mold because it really takes a combination of these (and possibly) in addition to a non-allergic environmental trigger such as changes in temperature, lack of humidity, or eating dairy. Also many people do not think they have allergies because their congestion is year-round. It may be possible that your reaction is not to pollen but to dust mites or mold which tend to stay year round given enough moisture in the air and lower temperatures. You can get an allergy test at a certified allergy clinic and many insurances cover testing.