They may be resonant but dang these sinuses!

[folkmew]

As a voice teacher I often point out to people that your sinuses are part of "the mask" the area in your facial bones that helps to create a resonant tone. But right now!? I'd be happy not to have them

Comments

[tibicina]

Tea with mint or ginger. Because, yeah, moist heat is absolutely the way to go. And... yeah. last year was a really bad allergy year, and this year is shaping up to be as bad, at least out on this coast.

[cherydactyl]

I have no idea if it would help you, but trying to improve my sinus and upper respiratory problems is why I am (trying hard and somewhat succeding to be) non-dairy. It *is* difficult, and more so because my kids *love* milk and ice cream. ::shrug:: You might consider it.

[folkmew]

Good lord! The hell you say!?? Ahem. I mean - oh, does dairy badly affect sinus!?? Jolly bad news that!

I love dairy. I eat fat free cottage cheese, tons of yogurt, milk, and yes, ice cream is one of my absolute favorites. Oh dear. I used a lot less dairy for a while when I seemed to be lactose intolerant but after I had the kids that seemed to go away so I didn't look back.

Hmm. I suppose if this was a chronic thing I'd for sure consider that but I don't usually have this sort of problem. The timing just sucks right now.

[cherydactyl]

If it's not chronic, it's probably not worth it. It's really a pain in the neck, especially with kids.

As a singer, you know the old adage about not easting dairy before you perform, right? Dairy promotes mucus production...and if your mucus is screwed up for whatever reason, producing more screwed up mucus is not necesarily so good. I found that removing dairy from my diet has, on average, significantly reduced the duration and severity of the colds I get. Before I figured this out, I would regularly treat a sore throat by eating lots of ice cream, and I am convinced I did myself more harm than good that way.

J just recently decided to try to go non-dairy on the reccomendation of our family doctor, because *he* has chronic sinus problems too.

[folkmew]

That's interesting. I haven't ever had a particular problem with Dairy before singing. My voice teacher told me drinking enough water offsets it and it always seems to work for me.

But, if it aggrevates sinus trouble I wonder if it is the kind of thing where you need to have a dairy free diet all the time - or if it is "cut back on dairy when you're having particularly bad sinus trouble and it will help" because *that* I could for sure see doing.

[jecklar]

My big "secret" -- sinus irrigation. I do it nightly for my allergies, and find that even if it doesn't make a cold clear up faster, it sure makes things feel better.

Let me know if you want details.

[folkmew]

Sure. Is this the bizarre yoga thingy where you dump water in one nostril and out the other or something? I suppose I could learn that. I used to use saline spray fairly often as I know that is good for singers but haven't been lately. Hmmm....

[cherydactyl]

yes...it's called Neti. And I do it too, though not as regularly as I probably should. It feels really bizarre to do it, but man does it help!

[victorthecook]

Ahh... allergies. If the Claritin-D [claritin + time-release sudafed] hasn't done it, here are some other things to try

[folkmew]

Thank you, I shall try it using Ed's ear bulb. He said "I just don't want to know what you are doing with it!" (really, his imagination!)

Would boiling it work as well as dilute bleach? Seems like it would be much nicer on the nose later, any trace of cholrine can't be good to inhale. ;-)

[folkmew]

Wow! That was NASTY! Maybe I used too much salt? I used about a teaspoon (not a measured one) to what I was pretty sure was a cup of warm water. Wow my head felt like it would explode. Nasty. But, evenjust doing once on one nostril I will say it blew a big wad of GUNK out so it must do something. I'm just not sure I can stand it. Ewwwwwwwwwwwww. Do you get used to it? Shall I try it more dilute for now?? Yow.

[victorthecook]

Probably too much salt -- it stings like the dickens if there's too much.

Try half a (measured) teaspoon and see how that works. You can dilute it even more if it still stings -- the rinsing is the main benefit, and the salt is primarily supposed to prevent that 'just inhaled the swimming pool' feeling*.

On the cleaning front, boiling won't be as effective as bleach [I use 1 teaspoon bleach to 2 cups water and rinse about 10 times with fresh water afterwards], but boiling will still kill lots of bad stuff. And anything is better than doing nothing.

*OK, there's a school of thought that says a stronger-than-human-normal saline solution will draw fluid out of swollen nasal tissues, shrinking them and unstuffing the sinuses -- but if it stings so much you can't do the rinsing, what good is that?

[tigertoy]

"Hot rice socks"? Say what?

The drugs I rely on are pseudoephedrine (Sudafed) and oxymetalazone HCl (Afrin). If you can still buy Sudafed, stock up, because the anti-meth nazis are going to make it disappear from the market soon, and I dunno what I will do then.

[folkmew]

Heh. Wonderful things! YOu take an old clean sock - fill it with rice. Tie a knot. Stick in the microwave for oh, 2 minutes or so. TADA! A nice, slightly moise, heat source that lasts... well... a while anyway. Plus the weight feels good somehow. Great for sore muscles and sinuses.

Hmm - sudafed doesn't seem to work that well for me. Although I took a 12 hour sudafed once at night without realizing it and was awake (which was odd because I've never had that problem with regular old sudafed!). Oh well - maybe it was something else.

Bah. More trips to Canada clearly!

[tigertoy]

I tried the generic for 12 hour Sudafed once and it gave me the unpleasant feeling of chugging 6 grande espressos; I am convinced that the time-release part of the generic didn't work and I got the 12 hours worth all at once. The real thing helps a little bit with staying awake, but if I use it when I want to sleep, it doesn't keep me awake as much as the problems it helps with.