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  • Sinus remedies

    When I get a cold it usually affects my sinuses really bad which sometimes becomes quite debilitating. Since quite a few people at my work place seem to have colds at the moment, I was just wondering if anyone has any remedies or recommendations for sinus trouble.
    Don't trouble trouble until trouble troubles you.

  • #2
    Well, usually when your sinus's are flaring up, in TCM, it is beleived that this an example of the lung channel (which opens into the nose) being obstructed by an exterior pathogen (ie the cold you had that started this whole thing).

    I'll give you 2 methods. The second one you can do on your own, the first is the quick and easy method that involves an herbal pharmacy.
    .
    It's a formula called Cang Er Zi Wan. Works great, dries out the sinuses, unlblocks the nose, and mildly releases wind cold damp exterior. However, Cang Er Zi is mildly toxic, and you should not take this formula for long periods of time. But it works great. Wan or Dan in this context means a pill, and Cang Er Zi Wan are little black teapills that look like beebees. It might also be called Cang Er Zi Tang (tang means formula), or if in powdered form, Cang Er Zi Sang. Go for Cang Er Zi Wan if you can find them though. Theres a company called Plum Flower which has a good reputation for quality and no shadiness in their formulas, you may be able to buy it on line. Its best to go to an herbalist to buy it, because then they can diagnose you and give you a different formula if another is more appropriate.

    The best way to treat the congestion is to treat the root of the problem and drive out the pathogen. This will not give you sinus releif as quickly as say, a glass of nyquil and a bottle of dry gin, but it is a more effective solution to the problem. Also, it doesn't fly well with the american work ethic, because when you realize that you're at work and you're getting sick YOU SHOULD GO HOME IMMEDIATLEY.

    The simplest way to deal with an exterior pathogen is to release the exterior. This is usually done by promoting sweating and sending the patient to bed. Exterior attacks are most commonly either wind cold or wind heat. In western terms, we tend to refer to all of them as simply "catching a cold". They usually manifest with obstruction of the sinuses, runny nose, sneezing, possibly coughing, stiff neck or shoulders, occipital headache, aversion to wind or drafts, aversion to hot or cold (depending on the pattern), and simultaneous chills and fever. With wind cold you will see a predominance of chills over fever, and vice versa with wind heat, but patient in both situations will still experience both phenomenon. However, many people with wind cold will probably not realize they are feverish since they are too busy being cold.

    Some people get all of those symptoms, some might only get one or two.

    So the way to treat this is to release the exterior. Anyone can do this rather simply at home, but if a patient is very deficient (recovering from chronic diseases or otherwise severely weakened) it should not be attempted. Say you have wind cold, and it's still on the exterior level. The idea now is to release that exterior pathogen by opening up the poors and sweating it out. So here's what you do.

    #1 Go home. Shut the windows in your bathroom and bedroom, get ready to go to bed.
    #2 Chop up some fresh ginger and green onions (scallions) thrown them in a large teacup and fill with hot water. You now have ginger and green onion tea. This is a diaphoretic which is used to release the exterior.
    #3 Go back to the bathroom with your tea and start the bathtub up. The water should be as hot as you can get it without burning yourself.
    #4 Sit in the tub of hot water with all the bathroom windows closed. Soak, drink your tea, and sweat. When your done go to bed. Go directly to bed. Do not pass go, do not enter the kitchen. Go directly to bed and wrap yourself in a good blanket. Make sure the windows are closed in your room and you dont have a fan or an air conditioner blowing in your face or on your neck.

    You'll feel much better when you wake up in the morning. Incidentally, the herbs one uses for wind heat are different (usually chyrsanthemum morifoli, or Ju Hua) but the principle is the same, if you dont have the herbs settle for just the hot bath and bed.

    IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO NOTE that this will only work when you are just begining to get sick. If the illness has moved inside and is presenting itself differently, not only will this not work, but can potentially weaken the patient as well.
    Show me a man who has forgotten words, so that I can have a word with him.

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    • #3
      Oh, and in personal experience, nothing works my for sinusitus quite as well as prolonged exposure to direct sunlight.

      Although Cang Er Zi Wan is damn effective too. Also, if you're stuck at work with a bunch of sick people, but you're not ill yet, there's a formula called jade wind screen (i forget the pinyin name) that will help prevent you from catching cold.
      Show me a man who has forgotten words, so that I can have a word with him.

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      • #4
        What do you think of Yin Chiao dao? I was originally told to take that for colds.
        practice wu de

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        • #5
          Thanks Dao. I've tried the sweating thing before but not with the herbs. It sounds like I might not have caught it in time in the past.

          Also when I suffer from sinusitis, I find I become very sensitive to light. I find it worsens the pain in my head, often around the occiptal area, and sometimes around the parietal area (did I spell that right?) Does that sound usual??
          Don't trouble trouble until trouble troubles you.

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          • #6
            Stylee, yeah that stuff usually works, but I rarely use it and can't remember the exact indications of that formula, so I'll try not to recommend it.

            Xiao, interesting. Are you sure its light thats making the pain worse and not a breeze or wind?

            Maybe you have some yin deficiency to complicate the pattern and the light aggravates it. The occiputal and parietal areas of the skull are often associated with the Gallbladder channel as it runs all over those areas. Do your ears ring? Do you get alternating sensations of hot and cold (one at a time, not simultaneous) when your sinusitus flares up? Do you have difficulty making decisions? Do you experience night sweats? Do you experience small visual disturbances like floating objects in the fluid of the eye or blurriness?

            Do you get headaches alot or are they just associated with the sinusitus? And what kind of pain does your light sensitivity cause? Is it a stifling, full sensation or a sharp stabbing sensation? Or perhaps more of a dull throb? Is the pain limited to specific points or is it spread out through the area you mentioned? And does the site of the pain move around?

            Well that's enough internet diagnosis for a few minutes. Answer those questions and maybe we'll move on to what your tongue looks like
            Show me a man who has forgotten words, so that I can have a word with him.

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            • #7
              I'm sure it's the light, sometimes bright indoor lighting affects me, only when suffering with my sinuses mind. The pain is more of a dull throb throughout the areas mentioned. My balance is also sometimes affected, usually first thing in the morning. It must be quite a comedic scene to see me getting out of bed and then falling over the other way!!!!

              I don't think my ears ring from memory, I always seem to feel very hot with my sinuses. My decision making has never been affected so far - unless you count one marothon binge on tequila 5 years ago!

              My vision has never been impared, no floating objects or bluriness.
              The head pain feels like a vice is just gripping the skull - sorry but that's the best way I can think of to describe it.

              Luckily I only suffer these symptoms with my sinusitis - otherwise I would consider myself quite a healthy person.

              Oh I almost forgot, a local chinese doctor says that my body is very hot, would this be an excess of yang or insufficient yin? Perhaps that would tie in with your thought of yin deficiency complicating the problem?

              Thanks for your time Doctor Dao ( hmmm, name for a bond villain perhaps )
              Don't trouble trouble until trouble troubles you.

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              • #8
                haha, with the direction the bond movies are taking these days, i wouldn't be suprised... dr. dao uses a giant cosmic mirror sattelite to deflect all of the yin energy away from the earth, resulting in widespread war and unexplained deaths... unless bond stops him, of course....

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                • #9
                  Stop giving the film makers bad ideas, there are enough out there as it is!
                  Don't trouble trouble until trouble troubles you.

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                  • #10
                    Yeah, the heat could be excess or deficient. There's one way to figure it out though, yin deficiency presents differently from excess heat. A patient with excess heat may have a fever all day long while a yin xu patient with fever will likely have a low grade fever which gets worse in the afternoon or evening. Patients with shi(excess) heat may have a red face, while xu(deficient) heat patients usually get "malar flush" redness on certain parts of the face, as if wearing blush, while the rest of the of the face is pale. Also, yin deficent patients often manifest "five center heat" which is heat on the palms of the hands, soles of the feet, and face. Yin xu patients also often experience night sweats, and depending on which organs are effected, xu heat can cause insomnia as well.

                    Also, excess heat often manifests with a red tongue which has a yellowish coat on it (or grey, or black if the heat is severe, but you won't see that in patients who arent close to terminal). Deficient heat tongue is usually red tongue body with little or no coat, because the yin xu has dried up the fluids that would make a coat. Cracks and missing patches in the tongue coat can also signify milder yin deficiency, for example a crack down the midline of the tongue extending to the tip can be heart yin xu, while patches where the tongue coat has peeled off signify stomach yin xu.

                    In general though, as far as tongues go, red body with dry scanty coat or no coat=yin xu heat, red body with medium to thick yellow coat=excess heat.

                    I'll refrain from getting into pulses. Tongues are easy to explain, but until you feel what a thready pulse feels like, it won't do you much good to talk about it.
                    Show me a man who has forgotten words, so that I can have a word with him.

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                    • #11
                      Well, I'm very fair skinned, and with the slightest bit of exersion I tend to go red in the face (all over). I've always had bad skin too. But the chinese doctor gave me some herbal pills to take and I have to say they ave really helped. I don't know if they actually help reduce the heat? I think the tablet is called ANCHUANG.
                      Don't trouble trouble until trouble troubles you.

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                      • #12
                        Do you get red marks on your skin when someone scratches you?
                        Experienced Community organizer. Yeah, let's choose him to run the free world. It will be historic. What could possibly go wrong...

                        "You're just a jaded cynical mother****er...." Jeffpeg

                        (more comments in my User Profile)
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                        • #13
                          Herbs can do wonders, keep taking them as prescribed.
                          Show me a man who has forgotten words, so that I can have a word with him.

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                          • #14
                            Thanks Dao.

                            Yes, I get red marks when someone scratches me. Sometimes when running I'll get an itch on my leg. When I finish I look at where I've scratched and it looks like I've been attacked b a psychopathic kitten!
                            Don't trouble trouble until trouble troubles you.

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                            • #15
                              Sounds like you've got dermatographia, which I suspected. It's a condition brought on basically, by hyperactive mast cells; they release histamine when they get irritated, such as with minor skin trauma. I haven't gotten around to talking about sinusitis yet, and I will, but, you might find a good antihistamine, such as Allegra or Clarinex, to work well with respect to both the sinusitis and the dermatographia.

                              More on sinusitis soon. It's late.
                              Experienced Community organizer. Yeah, let's choose him to run the free world. It will be historic. What could possibly go wrong...

                              "You're just a jaded cynical mother****er...." Jeffpeg

                              (more comments in my User Profile)
                              russbo.com


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