Do this now: Hold your breath until just before it starts to really become uncomfortable. Then slowly take a couple shallow breaths, preferably through the nose, then hold your breath again. Did your sinuses open up? If not repeat the above, only try to hold your breath a little longer. After this you should be able to breath easily through your nose. You should only breathe through your mouth when speaking.
If I avoid this bout of non-allergic rhinitis (which I can only conclude I have since I have not been able to pinpoint an allergy to anything over the years), then I will have to remember this technique of holding your breath until your body genuinely starts to fear for itself causing it to release its stranglehold on your airways. And no, taking anti-histamines is a no-go because they make me drowsy to the point of being non-functional and I'm not a fan of having to take a medication for weeks-on-end because it doesn't tell me if it's working as advertised. If the drug alleviates allergy symptoms, it should work when I take it for the current spell. I remember the allergist I used to see giving me Nasonex to try. I didn't want to use it until I had an attack to test it. Turns out I would go almost a full year before my next attack so what if I had been taking it? Would we have incorrectly concluded that the medication had been working and that my one attack was an anomaly or cause to increase the dosage? I don't know why that year was so nice to me and the year before I was getting one to three attacks a month. They're infrequent and random which is why I have self-diagnosed myself as having non-allergic rhinitis. I can't imagine a real allergy being so random especially when I live so static a lifestyle.
Already I want to breathe through my mouth and I am sure it will resume absent-mindedly. I haven't sneezed though (have come close though) and I've been sneezing a lot in the three hours I've been awake thus far. And I still feel like I'm being suffocated very slowly. If not breathing through my mouth is a part of the solution, I need to cover my mouth with tape that sticks fast to an oily face and removes with a minimum of pain :-)
3 comments:
destructobot64 posted this: I used to have this problem, then I read a book on it which had some very helpful advice. I will post it soon.
Edit: Okay, firstly this http://www.reddit.com/r/LifeProTips/comments/kr2pa/how_to_clear_a_stuffy_nose/ Secondly, let me explain; as you breath you inhale CO2. When you breath through your mouth you inhale more, and to stop you from inhaling too much CO2 your brain blocks up your nose. As you can see this is a downward cycle that leads to you always breathing through your mouth. Basically you have to break this habit, what I did was make a conscious effort to breath through my nose throughout the day and I also put tape on my mouth while I slept for a few months so I would only breath through my nose while sleeping. If you do those little breathing exercises and then continuously try to breath through your nose it will clear right up. Exercise is also incredibly helpful.
Sounds like folk science but I think I will do what I can to make a conscious effort to breathe through my nose because I can't see how using my nose for what it was intended could actually be a bad thing. The mouth is a supplement to breathing, not a replacement :-)
Funny that you'd post this now...I've been stuffy for a couple of years on and off (mostly on) and Brian was commenting on it just earlier when my ears were in pain during the plane landing.
It didn't last long. I'll have to try it again on a day I'm not sneezing a lot.
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