Sleep / Anxiety / Congestion

KundaliniLinguini, modified 8 Years ago at 1/13/16 7:39 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 1/13/16 7:39 AM

Sleep / Anxiety / Congestion

Posts: 39 Join Date: 1/9/16 Recent Posts
Have you ever heard of a relationship between stuffy sinuses and anxiety?

My nose is almost always stuffed up. Occasionally I will use "afrin" when my nose is really stuffed up and have the best night's sleep of my life and wake up so refreshed and relaxed.

I think the main reason why my nose gets stuffy is probably acid reflux. My dad had "post nasal drip" which I think I also have.

I know if I just lost weight and ate healthier it would improve so much. But it's also a catch 22 in that feeling tired and shitty leads to poor choices.

In the meantime is there something simple I could do or take to improve my breathing and reduce stuffiness? I know the long term solution is involved. Just asking to see if there is something helpful and simple I am missing.

BTW, I do have sleep apnea and use a CPAP machine. It only helps a little.
C P M, modified 8 Years ago at 1/13/16 8:31 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 1/13/16 8:27 AM

RE: Sleep / Anxiety / Congestion

Posts: 218 Join Date: 5/23/13 Recent Posts
Hi

I have similar issues as you do. I have had problems with nasal congestion the majority of my life, and I also have sleep apnea (and use CPAP).

For the nasal congestion, the cause for me is allergies. I was tested and found to be allergic to house dust and dust mites. I received allergy shots for many years.

However, I have had issues with nasal congestion. A couple of things I've done that were effective are:
  • nasal irrigation – needs to be done fairly regularly (daily)
  • a steroid nasal spray, such as Avamys nasal spray (fluticasone), this needs a prescription. When I did this I didn't need nasal irrigation.
In the last couple of years though, I haven't had a problem with nasal congestion, so I don't do any treatment. I do think that this may be due to meditation. When meditating, I can feel my sinuses opening up, sometimes I can feel/hear clicks related to opening, and there is a direct correlation between this and how deeply concentrated I get. So, from this experience, I do think there is a link between stress/anxiety and nasal congestion.
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Psi, modified 8 Years ago at 1/13/16 9:22 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 1/13/16 9:22 AM

RE: Sleep / Anxiety / Congestion

Posts: 1099 Join Date: 11/22/13 Recent Posts
KundaliniLinguini:
Have you ever heard of a relationship between stuffy sinuses and anxiety?

My nose is almost always stuffed up. Occasionally I will use "afrin" when my nose is really stuffed up and have the best night's sleep of my life and wake up so refreshed and relaxed.

Most people do not like to hear this, but I have noticed a definite link between dairy products, mucus, and congestion. The mind likes to crave and cling to things, especially pleasant tastes. Eliminate dairy products, eliminate mucus.  This may not be true for everybody in every instance.  It seems there is always an exception to the rule.  There are studies that say dairy does not create mucus, etc.  

But....  All i can say is , try it for seven days, see if the sinuses throat , etc. clear up.  Then go back to dairy and see what happens.  One can easily investigate this for themselves.  For me, it worked, I have eliminated most all dairy from my diet for years and years, and have clear clean nasal passages on both sides almost all the time.  This was not always the case.  About a year or so ago I started drinking Whey protein powder supplements, guess what?  Mucus came back, I stopped, but it did take a while for me to make the connection, finished the container.  And , after a few days, everything cleared back up again.

Also, when I have milk chocolate, I notice stuff comes back, have to clear throat, etc.

http://www.naturalnews.com/002707_Robert_Cohen_cows_milk.html

But, whatever anyone does, I would not switch to a bunch of Soy crap either...

Fer what its worth...

Psi

C P M, modified 8 Years ago at 1/13/16 9:55 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 1/13/16 9:55 AM

RE: Sleep / Anxiety / Congestion

Posts: 218 Join Date: 5/23/13 Recent Posts
It's interesting that when I first went for allergy testing (a long time ago), the physician encouraged me to do a test and eliminate both dairy and wheat from my diet in order to determine if I was sensitive to these foods.  I was a teenager, and tried for a little while, but in my situation at the time, it seemed impossible to eliminate these foods so I gave up.
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Psi, modified 8 Years ago at 1/13/16 10:17 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 1/13/16 10:17 AM

RE: Sleep / Anxiety / Congestion

Posts: 1099 Join Date: 11/22/13 Recent Posts
C P M:
It's interesting that when I first went for allergy testing (a long time ago), the physician encouraged me to do a test and eliminate both dairy and wheat from my diet in order to determine if I was sensitive to these foods.  I was a teenager, and tried for a little while, but in my situation at the time, it seemed impossible to eliminate these foods so I gave up.
Interesting indeed, I have also eliminated wheat and gluten from my intake.  About 8 or so years ago I went on a low carb diet, basically eliminated sugar and bread for a couple of months.  Up until that time I had been experiencing chronic types of knee and elbow joint pain.  Then, I was shooting Baskets with my, youngest daughter, and I was moving around pain free. So I did some research on the internet and found some associations between wheat, gluten and joint pain.

I have been both wheat and gluten free since, and relatively pain free in the knees ever since.  At one point the knee pain was so bad I had to wear 2 knee braces to work, or when trying to excercise.  At the time I was unable to even jog a quarter mile without stopping due to the pain.  Gratefully, and many years later, by gradual training over the years and by a run walk method by Jeff Galloway, I am able to run again.
 The elbow pain has also disappeared.  

Anyway, everybody has a different genetic makeup, different things go better with different bodies.

Psi
Eva Nie, modified 8 Years ago at 1/13/16 11:38 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 1/13/16 11:38 AM

RE: Sleep / Anxiety / Congestion

Posts: 831 Join Date: 3/23/14 Recent Posts
I will second Psi' recommendation.  I used to be allergic to various things, cats, pollin, dust etc.  And I had fairly bad asmtha, triggered by the allergins and also exercise.  I had to take a lot of asthma meds just to exercise.  I was also often tired and slept a lot.  I often got sinus infections and headaches and I also had acne.  It was some time before th ewhole 'gluten free' fad kicked in and although I have wonderful digestion and am clearly not celiac, I finally decided to try it for a stint since it was free and lack of gluten for a week is not a healthy risk or anything.  Ironically, my goal was to try to find out what was causing headaches, the rest I thought was just genetic.  First thing I noticed is that wheat causes cravings so the first day is hardest, I craved wheat, but that abated after a few days.  Second thing I noticed is that asthma was much better after 24 hours.  Improvement continued, after a few days, I was meds free.  After a few months, the last few traces of chest tightness at night were gone.  I had never experienced life without asthma so it was amazing.  In the first months, I noticed if I ate wheat, I woudl noticed some asthma symptoms trying to sneak back, but now, years later I can occasionally eat wheat with no side effects.  Apparently for me, it's something that builds up so small amounts occasionaly do not show symptoms.  I also noticed shortly after I started the no gluten that all my other allergies went away, I can handle cats, eat a food I used to be allergic to (raw apples), sniff in tons of pollin etc with no probs.  Chronic low back pain was also gone.   It seems wheat was doing something that made me over reactive to other things, once the wheat was gone, the over reaction was gone.  Avoidance of wehat was not a huge prob, I eat rice noodles, when I eat out, i get steak, potatoes, and salad, etc.  Tiny molecules of wehat do not cause a prob so I don't have to be super paranoid if any is hiding somewhere.   But wheat itself has little flavor so I don't miss it, lots of replacements taste as good or better.  

But I still had fatigue and sinus infections.  I thought they would go without wheat but they didn't.  I finally tried cutting out dairy, just recently actually and feel a whole ton better.  I sleep less, more energy, no sinus infections, no illness, acne clearing up.  There is something about feeling tired and ill that makes everything seem harder and more of a hassle, it really effects outlook.  Now that I feel better, I look at things differently, various chores just seem less of a big deal.  Emotions are more even keel, I get more done, etc.  Might be a bit early but seems like some tendonitis probs I have are getting much better too.  Dairy is tasty but thinking about feelign like I have the flu has been enough to deter me.  Iv'e experimented with dairy/no dairy enough to know it's definitely the dairy though.

The suspected prob proteins in dairy (betcasomorphins) and those in wheat (gluten exorphin) both bind to opioid receptor throughout the body and hence are mildly addictive and have side effects reminscent of opiates (congestion, slow gut motility, sleepiness, etc).  And both are similar in molecular structure and require the same enzyme to break them down, so it' s not really a surprise that many people have probs with both.

Anyway,they make super tasty coconut mik icecream and other nondairy snacks and some junk foods have neither dairy no wheat so peopel could still eat junk and be dairy and gluten free if they wanted.  The only thing I really miss is eating tons of cheese as they don't have a good sub for that but cheese is not worth having the flu.  ;-P