Countless Bottles of Antibiotics
If you are prone to sinus infections then you may be like me where you have racked up a rhythm of 1-2 rounds of antibiotics a year for your biyearly sinus infections you get when it is cold or hay-fever season. That was me for at least 10 years.
Antibiotics have their place. But I have come to realize their place is to prevent serious infection that could lead to death. Not to prevent a possible problem that could possibly lead to a bigger problem which then could lead to death if untreated. But I believed that if it was an ear infection or sinus infection that you needed antibiotics. That is what every doctor I had gone to in my life seemed to suggest.
The Damage on My Health For Mere Allergies
Then I sat in my Naturopath’s office reading the results of my labs and discovered that micro-biome was not only minute in amount but also in diversity. The consequences could last a life time. It was time to rebuild this precious ecosystem so vital to my health that I had napalmed countless times over the course of my life.
So last month, when my cold didn’t go away after 2 weeks, then 3 weeks…and finally started filling my tissues with a thick, yellow mucous when I blew my nose throughout the day, I was concerned.
I had prided myself in not even having sinus infection symptoms in over 3 years after a major change in my diet. My doctor had suggested that my yearly sinus infections were probably due to allergies untreated, not viruses gone bacterial. She suggested I address my food allergies and see what happened. Sure enough– after eliminating wheat and dairy from my diet, those bi-yearly “colds” that turned into upper respiratory infections that sent me for that bottle of napalm went away. She was right.
The Cold That Wouldn’t Go Away
But here I was, 3 years later with 21-day “cold” that just wouldn’t go away and another sinus infection. I felt so humbled. No way I could brag anymore. I had got one and I was still eating right. But when sinus infection symptoms hit, I knew that no matter what, that I was going to do what it took to get rid of it without antibiotics. I did not work so hard for 3 years to rebuild my gut to just destroy it for some yellow snot and some ear pain.
So I started praying and thinking. What could be the source of my sinus issues? If I could figure out the source, then maybe I could resolve it. And what other avenues could I explore to get healed after my usual go-tos were not working? Colloidal silver. Elderberry. Calcium citrate. Fish oils. None of it was making my cold go away like they usually did.
Then I pondered the possibility of an allergy.
Could I be allergic to something that I’m not usually around? I was not eating dairy or wheat so that couldn’t be the issue. I considered the bottle of St. John’s Wort I had started taking a couple of weeks prior.
But then my housekeeper texted me and asked me when I was going to get our floors installed. We had ripped them out the week I got sick and had been walking around on the crumbling, dust-creating mortar the previous owners had layered on the floor underneath to float the floor we ripped out. Complicated? Yes. But there is one key word in there that hit me. Dust.
I’m allergic to dust. And that mortar floor was a dust-emiting machine.
Could I be reacting to the floors? Yes! They got ripped out the week I started to feel sick.
I had found the source.
The steps to healing would now be four-fold:
- Minimize Exposure to Allergen
- Balance the Mircrobiome in my Nasal Cavity
- Reduce Inflammation that had spread to my ears
- Reduce Immune Response to Allergen
Fighting the Sinus Infection By Addressing the Allergen and Fighting the Bacteria
Now it was time to get my body to stop freaking out and longer, and heal what could be an infection from the 3 weeks worth of congestion I had been struggling with.
I started wearing a surgical mask in the house to minimize my exposure to the allergen and started working harder at finding a flooring guy to install our floors. This is still in the works, but the allergen will be gone soon.
I fought the bad bacteria with probiotics. But not the way you might think : )
I actually rinsed my nasal cavity with a Neti-pot using warm distilled water, a saline packet, and a pencil-eraser amount of Histaminx, which is a pro-biotic blend from Seeking health that includes only bacteria that lowers histamine levels in addition to balancing flora:
- Bifidobacterium infantis
- Bifidobacterium bifidum
- Bifidobacterium longum
- Bifidobacterium lactis
- Bifidobacterium breve
- Lactobacillus salvarius
- Lactobacillus plantarum
I knew we had beneficial bacteria in our mouths, throat, skin, and nasal cavity and that perhaps I was imbalanced there as well, which was preventing my body from fighting any staph or other nasty bacteria on and in my body. I also began chewing on dental probiotics and brushing my teeth a couple times a day with probiotic toothpaste. I found an incredible brand that uses a blend that specifically fights staph which is the number one cause of sinus infections. I’ll write another blog on the other benefits later but this toothpaste is the bomb.
Reduce Immune Response to Allergens
I started spraying Flonase in my nostrils to open up my euchastian tubes which had started to close up again causing my ear pain and pressure from the allergy. I learned about this from my last doctor visit 3 years ago when I was struggling with ear pain and hearing loss and had learned about my food allergies.
I started to feel better, but needed to do one more thing to deal with the sinus issues.
The final step that combined with the above has completely eliminated my sinus infection symptoms and has helped my body fight the allergic response to these floors is a combination of 4-5 supplements I found all in one bottle called Breathe-X. I am now walking around my dusty house WITHOUT a surgical mask, not taking an antihistamine, and feeling great. I took 3 pills just once a day and that seems to be enough for me. If I skipped a day, I started to feel the congestion return.
BreatheX is made of some key ingredients that help your body naturally stop freaking out when around allergens and keep the nasal cavity healthy:
- Quercetin– a flavanol from plants that helps Mast-cells stop producing histamine and also acts as a powerful antioxidant.
- Bromelain– natural anti-inflammatory and helps maintain healthy nasal mucous
- Vitamin C- heals wounds and builds immune system by helping balance histamine production.
- Citrus Bioflavanoids-helps support blood vessels and healthy immune response.
- Nettle – supports healthy immune function.
Ridding The Allergen
Of course this was only a temporary solution until my floors were replaced. We had the floors finally replaced 2 weeks ago and within 48 hours of the floors being replaced, my symptoms were 100 percent gone. No more supplements needed. And never once did I use antibiotics even though all symptoms pointed to a nasal infection!
So if you find yourself having difficulty getting rid of a cold, my suggestion is to first rule out an unknown allergy. Allergies typically cause most people to take 3-4 weeks to get over a cold virus which usually lasts only 7-10 days. But if the allergen doesn’t go away, the “cold” can last longer.
Mama Guts 