Put The Kettle On, Duck!
Between trying to get as much outside work done before the forecasted rain, my own allergies acting up, and some technical difficulties with computers, this post took several days to complete. Today's topic may be a little self-motivated, since pollen is my nemesis and it's that time of year!
The sinuses are hollow cavities in our head that normally only have a thin layer of mucus. When we have a cold, sinus infection, have allergies, or are exposed to contaminated air (smoky or dusty - coincidentally the names of my childhood dogs), mucus production ramps up. The sinuses also become inflamed, causing pressure and pain. Did you know that the technical term for hay fever is allergic rhinitis? I don't know about you, but that gives me images of a sneezing rhino, give it lots of room!
When you look at a diagram of sinus placement, it really becomes apparent of why we have the symptoms that we do. If you have ever had a sinus headache, you can feel exactly where they are. Our head is a complicated structure and our skull holds a lot of important equipment in a relatively small space. Several large and important nerves criss-cross past the sinuses, and when those cavities get inflamed, they apply pressure to the nerves. Depending on the nerve, it can feel like an earache, a toothache or an ice pick being driven into your eye. If the culprit is your sinuses, your face will also feel tender and you will be congested. Migraines can cause similar pain in some people, but won't be accompanied by the inflamed sinus symptoms.
1. Frontal sinuses are just behind the eyebrows
2. Ethmoid sinuses are between our eyes under the bridge of our nose
3. Sphenoid sinuses are behind our eyes, close our ears
4. Maxillary sinuses are on either side of our nose, under our cheekbones
I'm sorry, we can't talk about sinuses, without talking about mucus. Mucus has two main purposes, and if we assist with those, our body won't feel the need to produce so much. It hydrates the air that we breathe and traps air born invaders. When we are so plugged up that we have to breath through our mouth, our throat gets dry and sore because it doesn't have this built in humidifier.
Removing the mucus by blowing your nose or using a saline spray, is like giving your car an oil change (every 30 seconds, it seems like). It's getting rid of all the dust and pollen that got trapped. The humidity that you add to the air thins things out and makes it easier to blow.
The pain in our sinuses isn't just an abundance of mucus. The mucosa is a layer of tissue in the sinuses that getting inflamed. Like any other inflamed tissue, it hurts, that's the body's way of telling us there is a problem we need to address. As I said before, that inflammation also pinches on nerves causing them to hurt. Misery loves company.
So What Can You Do?
There are a number of medications to help with the sinuses, both prescribed and over the counter. Talk to your doctor, nurse practitioner or pharmacist about those. Not my department.
There are many reasons to use non-drug solutions as well. You may not have access to a pharmacy at the moment. You may not be able to use them during the day because of side effects (operating machinery, or it makes you too sleepy to work). Medications can be expensive or you may prefer the natural route.
Hydrotherapy
Normally, when I talk about hydrotherapy, I'm talking about a wheat bag or ice pack on your muscles. Technically, hydrotherapy mean the therapeutic application of water (back in the day, the only way to apply heat and cold was to use hot and cold water). So today we are going to talk, not only about hot and cold pack, but we are going to expand that to other forms of H2O.
Increasing the humidity in our environment is one way to help - a steamy shower, a pot of water on the woodstove, a humidifier. You have to keep it scrupulously clean, standing water likes to breed those air born invaders.
A particularly good way is to do what I call a steam. Close yourself in the bathroom, turn the shower on all the way to hot and let it run to produce a room full of steam. Stay in this for 10-15 minutes. If you are a fan of aromatherapy, this is a good time to use your nebulizer. By the way, Vicks vaporub is aromatherapy. We just don't think of it that way because it's been mainstream for decades. Don't do a steam in this way if you are feeling lightheaded, have chills or a fever. The heat of the steam can make these symptoms worse. This is for congestion only.
Remember how I told you about my favourite scalene muscles. Of course you do! Any muscle connected to your ribs can become sore if you have been struggling to breathe, sneezing or coughing for a long time. They are having to contract really hard, and sometimes almost spasmodically. Ease the ache in your upper back, chest and neck with a warm shower, bath or hot pack.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, drink water. Our body needs it to keep our nose, throat and sinuses properly lubricated. Caffeine can be drying, so herbal teas with lemon and honey can be soothing. I find that if my throat is scratchy, iced herbal or green tea is nicer.
A lot of people like to brew sun tea, you place the tea bags or herbs in a mason jar and set it in the sun to brew. Honestly, I don't have the patience for that, or I would forget it was there until it was moldy. A safer bet would be to brew cold tea. It's the same idea, but you put it all in the fridge right away, and it brews slowly and without encouraging bacteria growth.
Now that it's spring, it's a great time to experiment with some herbal tea blends. Many leaves are best when they are young and tender.
Wild Raspberry Leaf
Wild Strawberry Leaf
Red Clover Flowers
Wild Rose Petals
Yarrow Flowers
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| Cricket wanted to help blog today She even managed to turn on Spotify |
When you look at a diagram of sinus placement, it really becomes apparent of why we have the symptoms that we do. If you have ever had a sinus headache, you can feel exactly where they are. Our head is a complicated structure and our skull holds a lot of important equipment in a relatively small space. Several large and important nerves criss-cross past the sinuses, and when those cavities get inflamed, they apply pressure to the nerves. Depending on the nerve, it can feel like an earache, a toothache or an ice pick being driven into your eye. If the culprit is your sinuses, your face will also feel tender and you will be congested. Migraines can cause similar pain in some people, but won't be accompanied by the inflamed sinus symptoms.
1. Frontal sinuses are just behind the eyebrows
2. Ethmoid sinuses are between our eyes under the bridge of our nose
3. Sphenoid sinuses are behind our eyes, close our ears
4. Maxillary sinuses are on either side of our nose, under our cheekbones
I'm sorry, we can't talk about sinuses, without talking about mucus. Mucus has two main purposes, and if we assist with those, our body won't feel the need to produce so much. It hydrates the air that we breathe and traps air born invaders. When we are so plugged up that we have to breath through our mouth, our throat gets dry and sore because it doesn't have this built in humidifier.
Removing the mucus by blowing your nose or using a saline spray, is like giving your car an oil change (every 30 seconds, it seems like). It's getting rid of all the dust and pollen that got trapped. The humidity that you add to the air thins things out and makes it easier to blow.
The pain in our sinuses isn't just an abundance of mucus. The mucosa is a layer of tissue in the sinuses that getting inflamed. Like any other inflamed tissue, it hurts, that's the body's way of telling us there is a problem we need to address. As I said before, that inflammation also pinches on nerves causing them to hurt. Misery loves company.
So What Can You Do?
There are a number of medications to help with the sinuses, both prescribed and over the counter. Talk to your doctor, nurse practitioner or pharmacist about those. Not my department.
There are many reasons to use non-drug solutions as well. You may not have access to a pharmacy at the moment. You may not be able to use them during the day because of side effects (operating machinery, or it makes you too sleepy to work). Medications can be expensive or you may prefer the natural route.
Hydrotherapy
Normally, when I talk about hydrotherapy, I'm talking about a wheat bag or ice pack on your muscles. Technically, hydrotherapy mean the therapeutic application of water (back in the day, the only way to apply heat and cold was to use hot and cold water). So today we are going to talk, not only about hot and cold pack, but we are going to expand that to other forms of H2O.
Increasing the humidity in our environment is one way to help - a steamy shower, a pot of water on the woodstove, a humidifier. You have to keep it scrupulously clean, standing water likes to breed those air born invaders.
A particularly good way is to do what I call a steam. Close yourself in the bathroom, turn the shower on all the way to hot and let it run to produce a room full of steam. Stay in this for 10-15 minutes. If you are a fan of aromatherapy, this is a good time to use your nebulizer. By the way, Vicks vaporub is aromatherapy. We just don't think of it that way because it's been mainstream for decades. Don't do a steam in this way if you are feeling lightheaded, have chills or a fever. The heat of the steam can make these symptoms worse. This is for congestion only.
Remember how I told you about my favourite scalene muscles. Of course you do! Any muscle connected to your ribs can become sore if you have been struggling to breathe, sneezing or coughing for a long time. They are having to contract really hard, and sometimes almost spasmodically. Ease the ache in your upper back, chest and neck with a warm shower, bath or hot pack.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, drink water. Our body needs it to keep our nose, throat and sinuses properly lubricated. Caffeine can be drying, so herbal teas with lemon and honey can be soothing. I find that if my throat is scratchy, iced herbal or green tea is nicer.
To counteract the swelling in your sinuses, use cold from your forehead to below your cheekbones.
Wrap a flexible ice pack in a cloth.
Wring out a cold wash cloth.
Put an eye pillow in the freezer (like a wheat bag, but smaller, usually made with flax seed or gel)
Self Massage
In the case of sinuses we aren't massaging muscles, we are draining fluid. Deep pressure is not required and could be harmful, so throughout these techniques, keep a gentle touch, like petting an animal or combing out tangles. Self massage techniques work particularly well with the sinuses because it can be more about quantity. Since the sinuses are continuously getting congested during hay fever season or an infection, frequency of massage makes a difference. Fortunately it is not hard. Make sure your hands are clean, you don't want fingers close to your eyes if you just blew your nose!
Feel along side your nose, just below the inner corner of your eyes. It's best to use your ring finger because it won't apply as much pressure. The skin around your eye is delicate, we don't want to stretch it. With a gentle, sweeping motion, massage out towards your ears. Move down a tiny bit, and repeat, until you get to the bottom of your nose. Never massage towards your nose, that will move the congestion in the wrong direction.
Feel along your eyebrow, right along the edge of your eye socket. About a thumbs distance from your nose, there is a little dent in the bone on the edge of the eye socket. There are sinuses right behind that. Use your thumbs and put gentle pressure on that spot. I won't lie to you - it's going to feel like an ice pick to your brain. Hold for 10 seconds, then release. Follow with a few outward sweeps along your eyebrows.
With all four fingers, start at the center of your forehead and with gentle but firm pressure, stroke down to your temples. It's nicest to do both sides at the same time. Your fingers should start slightly splayed and come together as you get to your temples.
Feel behind your ear, just where the earlobe becomes cartilage, there is a bit of a hollow spot behind your jaw. Massage down your neck, very gently. I know we don't like to think about it, but the vast majority of the mucus we produce goes down our throat. After we clear it out of our sinuses, we want to encourage it to leave our heads.
Finish off with a nice, all-over finger tip massage to your scalp.
Iced Tea
My favourite herbal tea is a ginger and lemongrass. Once, when I was ill, we were out, so my hubby made a pot with fresh ginger, bottled lemon juice and honey. It was amazing, so fresh and flavourful, much better than a tea bag! To make iced tea, brew a pot of tea, (black, green or herbal) and let it steep a little longer than you normally would. Add any sweetener, like honey, while the tea is hot. For a pot of tea, I usually add about a tablespoon of lemon. Let it cool to room temperature. Transfer to a glass pitcher or mason jar and refrigerate.
My favourite herbal tea is a ginger and lemongrass. Once, when I was ill, we were out, so my hubby made a pot with fresh ginger, bottled lemon juice and honey. It was amazing, so fresh and flavourful, much better than a tea bag! To make iced tea, brew a pot of tea, (black, green or herbal) and let it steep a little longer than you normally would. Add any sweetener, like honey, while the tea is hot. For a pot of tea, I usually add about a tablespoon of lemon. Let it cool to room temperature. Transfer to a glass pitcher or mason jar and refrigerate.
A lot of people like to brew sun tea, you place the tea bags or herbs in a mason jar and set it in the sun to brew. Honestly, I don't have the patience for that, or I would forget it was there until it was moldy. A safer bet would be to brew cold tea. It's the same idea, but you put it all in the fridge right away, and it brews slowly and without encouraging bacteria growth.
Now that it's spring, it's a great time to experiment with some herbal tea blends. Many leaves are best when they are young and tender.
Tips for making your own
tea blends
1 tablespoon of fresh herbs = 1 tsp of dried (with a few exceptions,
like evergreens); per 1 c water
Black tea is make with boiling water, herbal teas should be not
quite boiling. You don’t want to lose all the aromatic oils.
Many herbal teas have to brew longer than a tea bag that you buy.
Start with 5-7 minutes and taste.
Some ingredients are easy to find in our gardens, like red clover
(which is really pink-purple). Others aren’t available in our area at all, like
elderberry. (Or you are not interested in foraging)These can usually be found
in health food stores.
Some plants have multiple parts you can use. Yarrow leaf and flower
are interchangeable. Rose hips and rose petals are available in different seasons.
They are both delicious, but with a very different flavour.
Personally, I never use my coffee travel cup or thermos for teas of
any kind, it ruins the flavour.
Tea baskets work really well for wild blends, it’s like a tea ball,
but about the size of a shot glass, so it holds a lot of leafy material.
French press coffee makers work very well for herbal blends.
Only collect herbs from safe, clean places. Ditches are often
sprayed for mosquito larvae, parks may use herbicides and insecticides. Busy
roadsides are polluted with exhaust and possibly salt. It is illegal to collect
in National Parks, but allowed on crown land a recreation areas. Shores of
lakes that allow motor boats can also be contaminated.
Once nettles have dried, they no longer sting.
If a particular plant triggers your hay fever, you should avoid eating it or making tea from it.
Only use plants if you are 110% sure of the identity.
Lay fresh leaves or flowers on trays with paper towel or the racks of a dehydrator. They can just air dry, the fan of a dehydrator would blow them around.
Label leaves while they are drying, once they are dry, it may be hard to tell them apart.
Both raspberry and strawberry leaves can only be used fresh or dried, wilted leaves can make you sick.
Dried berries can make your tea both colourful and aromatic. I periodically open my jar of dried wild strawberries, just to smell summer!
If you don't want your lemon strong or the acidity bothers you, used dried lemon peel or a lemony herb like lemon balm or lemongrass.
Try lime as an alternative to lemon, or use them both.
From last year's camping trip - we never use the oven in the trailer, so I put paper towel on the rack and used it to dry my collection. The dish has wild strawberries. Clockwise from the top left: wild rose petals, red clover, yarrow, arnica, yarrow leaves, raspberry leaves, juniper berries.
Wild Foothills
This blend comes from easy to identify wild edibles. Wild Raspberry Leaf
Wild Strawberry Leaf
Red Clover Flowers
Wild Rose Petals
Yarrow Flowers
Afternoon Floral
1 pt wild chamomile
1 pt fireweed
1 pt rose petals
1 pt raspberry leaf
Tea for Two
1 pt mint
2 pt nettle
4 pt raspberry
Nausea Relief
2 pt wild chamomile (also known as pineapple weed)
Rosehip
1 pt dried rosehips
2 pt water
Red Clover Tea-Aide
2 c fresh red clover blossoms
4 c water
½ c honey
1 c lemon juice
Simmer clover and water for 10 minutes. Stir in honey to dissolve.
Steep in fridge overnight. Strain
and add lemon.
Bearberry Tea
1 tsp fresh or dried leaves
1 c water
Love this heading a true Staffordshire saying .Put kettle on Duk .
ReplyDeleteThis was a great read