How To Unblock Your Nose

Poor Breathing Habits Are Common When The Nose Is Congested

A clogged or narrow nose is usually an indication that breathing is not optimal. Once we start breathing through our nose, the erectile tissue in the nose will decrease in size and the inside of the nose will feel less crowded. Also the mucus production will be reduced.

Similarly, it is possible to reduce the size of swollen tonsils since they are part of our immune system. Enlarged tonsils are a sign that the immune system is overloaded. This could be due to inhaling through the mouth, which increases the amount of bacteria and inflammation in the throat, causing the immune system to work harder.

Mouth breathing is one of the main reasons why the nose becomes blocked or tight. Excessive breathing, the result of breathing through the mouth, leads to a lack of carbon dioxide . Narrowing the nasal passages by increasing mucus production and swelling the erectile tissue is simply our bodyâs defense mechanism trying to prevent excessive amounts of CO2 escaping. When we begin to improve our breathing habits, by breathing through the nose and keeping more CO2 in our body, our nose will naturally be less congested.

How To Unblock Nose Naturally Why Does This Work

This technique is actually also great for dealing with High Blood Pressure and Chronic Inflammation. Dont be fooled by its simplicity, holding your breath with no air in your lungs is a very ancient technique with amazing healing capacities.

Actually, theres a ton of scientific evidence demonstrating the benefits of such a simple technique. I talk about it a lot in my programs and weve already helped hundreds improve their lives tremendously with this one and other incredibly simple techniques.

I recommend you go through this free webinar to learn more on how to increase the quality of your life through simple breathing techniques:

As a side note, the nodding of the head doesnt really do much, its simply a little trick to keep your mind occupied so you can hold your breath longer to unblock nose naturally. The real trick is in holding your breath, with no air inside, for as long as possible.

High Levels Of Stress

Stress and anxiety affect your hormones, neurotransmitters, and immune system, which can lead to nasal congestion. Your first port of call is trying to deal with your stress rather than the congestion. Try meditation, exercise, and a healthier diet for a few weeks, and if youre still feeling anxious, talk to your doctor about your concerns.

Recommended Reading: What To Eat On Strep Throat

Use Menthol Ointment Or Oil

Essential oils like menthol dont unblock the nose, but the cooling sensation helps you feel like youre breathing more easily, explains Dr Ramskill.

You can dissolve a few drops of menthol, eucalyptus or camphor oil in a bath or a humidifier, or try a plug-in vapouriser. Another option is a vapour rub, which is an ointment you apply to your chest.

Take A Second For A Mini

Massages do wonders for the rest of our bodies, so why not try a mini-massage when you feel a “knot” of sinus pressure building in your head? According to massage therapist Heather Wibbels, you can pull fluid from the head with a few quick rubs.

Use your fingertips to push firmly against the notch of your collarbone repeatedly to get the fluid moving downwards. According to Wibbels, you’ll know the process is working when you feel a need to clear your throat and your ears might also suddenly open up when the pressure releases.

If this is uncomfortable, Wibbels also suggests a different method. Crossing your hands, you can make a “V” shape and use the same pumping motion on the sides of your neck to get the lymph fluid to release. Both this action and the fingertip pulses create suction in the lymphatic system, which vacuums the fluid residing in your sinuses downward and away from the head.

Read the Theory and Practice of Therapeutic Massage to learn more about therapeutic massage.

Read Also: How To Instantly Remove Blackheads From Nose

What You Have Learned

In this post, I have explained how to unblock your nose. We started by looking at different reasons for a blocked or stuffed up nose. Then you learned yogic methods to open your nostrils. You now know how to figure out why your nose is blocked and how to choose your approach accordingly. By combining my suggested techniques, you will enjoy your pranayama practise more and get more substantial benefits.

Gargling And Snorting Can Dislodge Mucous From The Back Of Your Nose

Instead of trying to blow the blockage out through the front, Ive had better luck dislodging it with gargling and sucking it back down my throat. It sounds odd, but keep reading.

This method involves snorting the rinse back up through your nose. Have you ever laughed while drinking and had the drink come back up through your nose? This is essentially what were trying to recreate here.

Heres the instructions:

Read Also: Ear Infection Over The Counter Cvs

My Rinse Mixture Includes Four Powerful Anti

Saline is great for the more casual nasal rinsing, but if youve got a chronically blocked nose you most likely need something more powerful. My mixture employs the shotgun method by including 4 powerful, commonly found anti-microbials that will clean all sorts of bacteria and fungus. Its also strong enough to dislodge and loosen really thick mucous as well.

Heres what you need:

Once you get a hold of these ingredients, just blend them together in a clean glass of clean drinking water and mix it well. It helps if the water is lukewarm but this isnt necessary.

Why each ingredient works:

Does Blowing Nose Make It Worse

In all but the most mild cases, blowing your nose almost always makes it worse. You not only push thick mucous forward from the back of the nose, you also irritate and inflame the narrow passages leading to the nose. In the end, you wind up with inflamed nostrils lined with thick mucous that is difficult to dislodge without nasal rinsing. Try using a Netti pot instead and sucking the blockage backwards rather rather than blowing it forward.

Also Check: Runny Nose One Side Only

Ask A Pharmacist About Treatment Options

If your blocked nose is really annoying or stubborn, there are over-the-counter treatments. Although these are readily available, speak to a pharmacist first to decide which one is best for you, says Dr Ramskill.

The following treatments are available as nasal sprays or tablets:

These are for short-term relief only, and usually help colds.

SteroidsThese are most helpful for allergies or relieving an ongoing blocked nose.

AntihistaminesThese can help ease allergy symptoms but some can cause drowsiness.

Its best to try decongestants first, but they can actually make things worse if you use them for more than a week, says Dr Ramskill. Steroid sprays are the next option and are fine for long-term use.

How To Unblock Your Stuffy Nose In 2 Minutes

âMy nose is blocked when Im laying downâ

This is more common than you think. People breathe just fine during the day but when theyâre about to hit the bed, they get a clogged, stuffy nose. And it happens with a scary consistency!

But why?

Beyond the fact that a lot of allergens, including dust mites, increase later in the day alongside histamine response, it also has to do with the way you breathe.

Nasal congestion can cause a lack of sleep, which will make the symptoms worse, creating a self-perpetuating cycle.

The long-term effects can lower your quality of life significantly. Opening up your upper airways is imperative to rejuvenate and oxygenate your cells.

Fortunately, thereâs a simple breathing technique that will unblock your nose in 2 minutes.

Don’t Miss: Mouth Breathers Vs Nose Breathers

What Causes Nasal Congestion

The most common causes of nasal congestion are:

• Infections: the common cold and other respiratory tract infections, including influenza and sinusitis.
• Allergies, including hay fever.

Other less common causes of nasal congestion include:

• Swollen adenoid glands.
• Foreign bodies in the nose.
• Rebound congestion after stopping decongestant medication.
• Tumours of the sinuses or inside of the nose.
• Side-effects of some medication.

What Tests Are Needed For Nasal Congestion

If you have nasal congestion, often you won’t need any tests. Your doctor can often determine the cause by asking questions about your symptoms and by examining you.

Sometimes, a referral to an ENT specialist is necessary. You may then have skin prick tests for allergy, or blood tests. The ENT specialist may also look further into the back of your nose with a flexible telescope . Very occasionally, a computerised tomography scan or a magnetic resonance imaging scan may be needed.

You May Like: How To Get Your Nose To Stop Running

Bad Breath Can Be Improved

It usually takes no more than a few days to change the habit of breathing through our mouth to breathing through our nose. However, it may take a little longer if the nose has been chronically congested for a long period of time,

When we have switched to nasal breathing, it will probably feel strange to breathe through the mouth again since the air will feel cold and dry and irritate the airways. Many people marvel at how it was even possible to breathe through the mouth before.

Bad breath may originate from mucus coming from the nose when it drips into the oral cavity. Nasal mucus is full of dead bacteria, which may cause bad breath. Hence, keeping the inside of your nose clean may improve bad breath.

Further down in the article you can read five easy tips on how to unblock a stuffy nose, but first some background fact.

When To Get Help

Hopefully, these home remedies for a stuffy nose can help you get some much-needed relief. However, in some cases, you may not experience any progress or recovery. Here are some things to keep in mind that may need medical attention:

• If your nose does not clear up for more than 5 days it may be a sign of something more serious
• If you find it very difficult to breathe
• If you have additional symptoms like green mucus, tightness in the chest and severe, coughing
• If your stuffy nose is accompanied by headaches, ear pain or facial pain, it may indicate something serious
• If you have a fever along with a stuffy nose and neither of them goes away despite home remedies and antipyretics

These symptoms may point towards a serious bacterial or viral infection, or some other root cause. Please be sure to inform your doctor or meet them at the earliest in case you have the above symptoms.

Read more about: 9 Best Foods to Ease Your Cough and Cold

Disclaimer: The information included at this site is for educational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for medical treatment by a health care professional. Because of unique individual needs, the reader should consult their physician to determine the appropriateness of the information for the readers situation.

Recommended Reading: Best Medicine To Dry Up Runny Nose

Inflammation & Irritation Cause Colds

Before you attempt to cure your stuffy nose and pressurized head, it’s good to know what’s causing you such discomfort.

Image by William Brawley/Flickr

According to WebMD, when our heads fill with fluid and blockages are created, affecting our breathing, hearing, and mental clarity, it all begins in the nose. When we feel stuffed up, it’s likely that the membranes inside our nose are inflamed and irritated. In response to whatever it is that flooded our lymphatic system with fluid, our nasal passages start producing increased amounts of mucus as they try to flush out the source of irritation.

Don’t Miss:5 Natural Ways to Remove a Crick in Your Neck

So, when you need to clear your sinuses, it’s important to remember that they’re already inflamed. This means it’s crucial to keep them lubricated and moist rather than to eliminate the mucus and dry everything out. Your runny, snotty nose needs that moisture.

When we turn to nose-clearing cold and allergy remedies, we often look for pills that can make all that mucus disappear. Those same pills can dry out the sinuses and create more pain. Instead of going straight to the medicine bottle, you can first try to move the fluid out of the head using acupressure.

Causes Of A Stuffy Nose

Regardless of the reasons for your congested nose, there are ways to get relief. So, dont let yourself down. Lets get deep into the factors that trigger cold and eventually lead to the stuffed up nose.

1.Viral Infections

The common cold or seasonal cold is due to a viral infection. There are several viruses that can cause a common cold, with the rhinovirus being the most common one. However, viral infections are the most common causes of a stuffy nose.

Moreover, a common cold might even breed sneezing, cough, and sore throat.

2. Allergic Rhinitis

As stated by Medical News Today, this is a very common and normal condition that has been diagnosed for around 40 to 60 million people in the United States according to the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology.

Allergic Rhinitis happens when the bodys immunity overreacts and sometimes because of having a family history of allergies. Besides a stuffy nose, symptoms of allergic rhinitis may include sneezing, itchy eyes, and a runny nose.

3. Pregnancy Rhinitis

During pregnancy, theres an increase of hormones which include progesterone and estrogen. The amplifying hormones along with an increase in blood flow causes the mucus membranes to swell in the nose. Thus pregnancy affects many parts of the body, including nose with symptoms such as stuffy nose and sneezing.

4. Occupational Rhinitis

Symptoms of occupational rhinitis are stuffy nose, itchy eyes, and coughing.

5. Atrophic Rhinitis

Don’t Miss: Allergy Medicine For Stuffy Nose

How Can I Unblock My Nose Fast

If your nose is blocked due to infection, you need to first clear the mucous blocking your nose then clean out the infected areas to reduce inflammation and prevent more mucous from forming in the future. Try using a strong nasal rinse as well as gargling and antimicrobial solution in the back of your throat. This might dislodge the mucous and give you fast relief.

Discover Some Easy Ways To Soothe Your Blocked Nose

At various points in our lives we all experience the frustration and discomfort of a blocked nose. To help you out during this time, and to help you sort the issue out quickly, here are a few suggestions that will help ease congestion. With this advice youll be back to your old self in no time!

Dr. Jen Tan

Don’t Miss: Soar Throat And Runny Nose

What Exercises Can I Do To Unblock My Nose

Breathing Exercise to Clear a Blocked Nose

Exercise Count Your Steps

One way to free a blocked nose permanently is to increase the amount of CO2 in the body. This can primarily be done in two ways through physical activity and by reducing the breathing volume. The best way to reduce the respiratory volume is to close our mouth and extend the exhalation. When we move our body and at the same time reduce our breathing, the amount of CO2 in our body is increased, which relieves the blocked nose.

• Walk, jog or ride a bike while you count the number of steps/pedal pushes you take on inhalation and the number of steps/pedal pushes you take on exhalation. Since prolonged exhalation promotes relaxation, the goal of the exercise is to take more steps/pedal pushes on exhalation than on inhalation.
• Keep your mouth closed during the whole exercise so that breathing only occurs in and out through the nose. During a transition period you could also use nasal strips, like Breathe Right®, to widen the nostrils.
• Find a rhythm that works for you, for example, two or three steps/pedal pushes on inhalation and four, five or six on exhalation.
• The number of steps/pedal pushes may vary during your training session depending on your daily fitness level, speed, whether you are going uphill or downhill, and if you want to push yourself or take it easy.

Even though it is not a big deal since the headache usually disappear when you slow down and start to take fewer steps on the exhale, I advice you to take is easy.

Read Also: Acid Reflux Burning Throat Relief