Major Sinus Congestion! Is it Primal Flu? How do I get rid of it? page

[dbauchle]

Hello all! I am farely new to this Primal process, but feel as though I have been following the plan pretty strictly. For Breakfast I have eggs and bacon or eggs and sausage. For lunch I have leftovers from dinner or a salad with cucumbers, a few nuts, and some avocados. For dinner I eat some sort of meat with veggies such as carrots, broccoli or cauliflower. Once in awhile I will add a piece of fruit or a few handfuls of pecans or walnuts for a snack. I have dark chocolate once a week and also at some shredded cheese to my eggs once in awhile. My question is yesterday I went to bed with alot of sinus congestion and woke up throughout the night having to take ibuprofen to get back to sleep. The sinus pressure feels better but I still have major sinus congestion and a slight headache. I thought this stuff was supposed to go away !?!?! Can anyone help me? I am a chronic sinus infection sufferer and I just want it to feel better so I can breathe!

Thanks for all your suggestions!!

[Uncephalized]

The Primal Blueprint is not a magic cure for everything. If you have a chronic medical condition the PB will probably help, but it might not fix it entirely. You sound like you are doing the diet pretty well--keep at it, but understand that it might not make you 100% all the time.

Also, how is your sleep in general? Are you taking vitamin D or getting LOTS of midday sun? How is your stress? Are you exercising at all? All of these things are part of the PB and they all affect immunity to some degree.

[MPM]

I would go see an ENT doctor.

It took a few weeks for my congestion subside. However, you might have some allergy or sinusitis going on.

[tplank]

As a chronic sinus sufferer, I feel your pain. I think the low-carb flu could be worsening things for you, though it did not for me.

I can recommend a few things to you. I was a basketcase ... steroid inhalers, decongestants, anti-histimines, sinus infections 2-3 a year. Before wheat elimination, I had improved a great deal by just chaning my regimine.

The most important step for me (strictly from the allergy perspective) was starting the use of saline nasal spray 2-3 times daily. I use OTC and prefer the kind with menthol if you can find it. Otherwise, the cheap generic stuff is what I use. I can not emphasize what a differnce this made for me.

When I get really bad, I have three things that I do. I use sugar free halls cough drops through the day to keep my sinuses open. That usually does the trick.

On rare occassions where the above isn't getting it done, I will do one benedryl (I actually would use generic) at night before bed. Only one...that is a half dose. And never more than two nights in a row. If it is bad like that, on an even rarer occasion (maybe once a year), after cleaning out with saline in the morning, I'll squirt one blast of Afrin.

The rare occassions truly are very rare for me. I haven't used pseudoephidrine in five or six years. I haven't had a sinus infection during that time. And I only take the medicine when I absolutely have to...and that is litterally an annual event.

I've only managed to covert a handful of people to my near zero drug regimine, but those who have pursued it have been happy they did.

[Uncephalized]

I really want to move somewhere close to the ocean. Sea air clears my sinuses out like nothing else does...

[Paleobird]

You mentioned cheese. Have you tried dropping the dairy from your diet? My sinuses cleared up right away when I did. Even if you are not full blown lactose intolerant in the digestive sense, it can still be enough of an irritant to create excess sinus mucus.

I am now experimenting with adding raw dairy back. I will see how that goes.