7 Brilliant, Natural Ways To Clear Your Stuffy Sinuses

Reshot/Mona Liska

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If you’re someone who suffers from seasonal allergies or semi-regular head colds, you don’t need us to tell you how rough a day with stuffy sinuses can be. But since it’s that time of year when all of us start sniffling a little bit more than usual, we figured we’d offer up some tips for relieving that pressure and congestion you feel in your head — all without the use of major pharmaceuticals. Yep, the seven remedies below are au naturale and work like a charm.

1. Try a DIY facial steam.

Steam has a beautiful way of opening up and hydrating your sinuses almost instantly. Not to mention, it works wonders for your pores, too. If stuffiness has seriously got you down, we recommend creating your own herbal facial steam with your favorite dry flowers and herbs. The scent is soothing, the steam is medicinal and the entire experience will make you feel like you’re hanging out at a spa rather than shuffling around your apartment in the same yoga pants you were wearing yesterday.

2. Give a neti pot a go.

A lot of people are wary of neti pots because they’re, well, kinda gross. But if you use them correctly, they can provide a world a sinus pressure relief. Just be sure to stick with purified water for your health’s sake, and heat it until it’s warm but definitely not hot (because ouch). We suggest using it in the shower to minimize the mess and general ick factor, but leaning over the bathroom sink as you pour water in one nostril and watch it fall out the other also works. Told ya it was kinda gross!

3. Inhale the aromatherapy from eucalyptus oil.

Unsplash/Christin Hume

Seriously, eucalyptus is pure magic for stuffy sinuses, and you can find a little bottle for just a few dollars on Amazon or at your local health store. If we’re putting it on our temples, chest and wrists to create the Vick’s VapoRub effect, we mix ours with a carrier oil like argan oil or jojoba oil first to avoid unwanted irritation from applying pure essential oils directly to the skin. But if you prefer to dab a little eucalyptus oil onto a washcloth and inhale the vapors that way, then you can skip over the additional prep work.

4. Reach for some saline spray.

Similar to the neti pot idea, saline spray flushes out any irritants hiding in your sinuses and relieves pressure in the process. It also helps to rebalance the moisture levels inside that head of yours, which means your symptoms could subside for longer periods of time. If you don’t want to purchase saline spray at the drugstore, you can make your own with distilled water, baking soda and iodine-free salt. Pro tip: Try this one in the shower, too. We’re all about avoiding a mess — especially when we already feel blah and don’t want to do any extra cleaning.

5. Get moving.

We know that the last thing you feel like doing when your head is one big raincloud is go for a jog or flip upside down in a yoga class. But that’s exactly what you need to be doing. Research shows that getting your blood pumping is one of the best ways to re-open your sinus cavities and temporarily alleviate all of that pressure you feel from inflammation in the area. You shouldn’t sign up for an all-out, kickass boot camp class, but a solid power walk around your neighborhood is way better than collapsing on your couch.

6. Make dinner a spicy one.

Unsplash/Katherine Lenhart

When all else fails, reach for the heat at dinnertime. The capsaicin compounds in spicy foods like chili peppers not only make your eyes water, but also open up your stuffy sinuses in a matter of minutes. We can’t guarantee that clear-headed feeling will last just because you made a bowl of spicy stir-fry, but it certainly can’t hurt. Plus, it means you’ll get to enjoy a legit meal, and we all know how difficult that is when our congestion is killing our sense of taste.

7. Drink lots and lots of fluids.

It might sound counterintuitive because it feels like your head is already chock full of fluid as it is, but drinking as much water as possible is a sure-fire way to reduce inflammation in the body. Plus, sinuses often act up because they are dehydrated and trying to fend off an irritant at the same time. So brew all of the herbal tea you desire, opt for tasty soup broths at mealtime and keep reaching for that water bottle until you can breathe easy again.

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