Stuffy nose question

I suggest you start looking at what you're eating. Are you eating a lot of prepared foods? (Frozen entrees, fast food, desserts, snacks plastic bags, etc.) Are you eating a lot of the same thing because it tastes good and neglecting healthy foods?

If there is no mucous, you could still be having a reaction that is not technically considered an allergy, but is a food reaction nonetheless. Keep a food log and a sleep log and start doing an elimination diet.

For instance, stop eating all dairy for two weeks. No creamer, no ice cream, milk, cheese, etc. Log the results of your sleep and compare that with what you didn't eat. If that eliminates your nasal problems, start introducing just cheeses. If it comes back, you know cheeses are the problem. If cheeses are okay, stop eating cheese and re-introduce ice-cream. If that is okay, stop eating ice cream and reintroduce milk and cream. Narrow down the focus of the reaction in this way.

Next: Gluten
Anything that has wheat in it, just stop it. Read the labels. Oats, Barley, Rye, anything labeled 'ancient wheat relative'. Pasta, cake, baked goods, pizza, lazagna, all of that. If it says just 'flour', chances are it's wheat flour - not rice flour. Try omitting that for two weeks. You may want to try narrowing the focus on your reactions here too. However, with gluten, most of the time, the reaction will be across the board.

Next: Corn
Anything with high-fructose corn syrup - like coca-cola or pepsi. You should eliminate this from your diet anyway. This stuff actually embodies NEGATIVE nutrition. Corn chips, tortillas and corn on the cob can all be nutritious, but stop them too. This one is very hard to test because so many prepared foods in the US have some corn derivative. You end up having to make your own food, and probably not take aspirin since there's probably corn starch in that, but you'll be eating healthy.

Next: Nightshades
Anything with tomatoes, potatoes, green/red peppers, eggplant, paprika, tobacco, tomatillo. (Black pepper, next to the salt, is not part of this family so it's okay.) This needs to be three weeks because it takes longer to show results than some other foods.

Next: Your favorite comfort food base
Chocolate, coffee, sugar, citrus, the allium family (onion/garlic), whatever...
Same regimen.

Others to consider:
Soy products, Red meat, fish, poultry, pork, food preservatives in prepared foods, etc.

Rice is often the last thing to test because it is considered hypoallergenic. Almost nobody reacts to rice.

This may seem like a PITA, but we don't eat seasonally in this society anymore, so it's harder to tell what our bodies have a harder time metabolizing. Yes, you could continue taking the quick and easy "band-aid" drugs that merely mask the problem, or you can eliminate whatever food is causing your ill health altogether. Plus, it's not like you're having to fast. You're just eliminating one thing or one category from your diet.

If you find out what you're eating is damaging you, you can avoid those foods and sleep better.

I suspect there are many more people out there with food reactions than realize it. Doctors don't tell them to look at what they're eating because the doctors themselves are not required to have more than a rudimentary understanding of nutrition. Most have had one or fewer classes in nutrition. Instead they tell us to medicate and prescribe the latest drug. Medication isn't always the answer.

Nobody wants to give up chocolate or pizza. But consider - only a generation ago, these were celebration foods, eaten sparingly as an occasional treat. Today, any child with a dollar can go and buy something at the grocery store that tastes delicious but offers absolutely no nutritional value. It's unlikely your grandmother would have recognized it as food. Sensible home-cooked food really tastes good. Your body will remember that when you start eating it again.

OutaSync wrote:Gary,

Can you fit a Breathe Right strip under your mask? I tried that the other night when I was so stuffed up from working outdoors that I couldn't breathe at all through my nose. Unfortunately, the plastic strips broke loose from the tape during the night and caused my Activa to leak, waking me up. I had to remove the strip, but by that time my nose was clear enough to breathe on my own.

It's worth a shot. They are expensive to use every night, but so worth it to be able to breathe.

Bev

Hi Bev,

I have been using the Breathe Right strips for some time now. Some times they work and sometimes they don't. If any one wants to know if the would work for them or not, all you have to do is take your thumb and index finger and pull open your nostril (on both sides) and inhale. If that helps then they would work, if the air flow is the same, it probably would not work. For me it sometimes helps and sometimes not.

Gary