A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, or in my case, a teaspoon of unpasteurized honey mixed with a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and a cup of warm water helps ease a sinus infection.  Thanks to seasonal allergies that started almost four weeks ago with the local oak tree population and is currently still going with mulberry and hickory, I went from just blowing my nose a lot to blowing my nose a lot, not sleeping well and a headache accompanied by exhaustion.  (Probably from not sleeping well.)  Last Sunday I went through over two full boxes of Puffs Basic tissues… the BIG boxes.  I looked like I stumbled out of a Nyquil commercial, my hair awry, still in my pajamas, nose bright red and breathing?  Good Luck.  I now have at least a little bit of an idea of what my cousin, who has Cystic Fibrosis, goes through when she has to be on oxygen AND eat at the same time.

I am not a fan of overmedicating, and I’m really not a fan of taking antibiotics unless I really, really have to, therefore I searched the Internet for home remedies for sinus infections.

First up – steaming my miserable face over a giant pyrex filled with boiling water and “healing” herbs.  In this case, garlic, onion, rosemary and oregano.  It smelled good, what little scent I could get – which was mostly tasted as I was lodged in “Mouth Breather” territory.  Then as I felt my eyelids burning off of my face, I opened my eyes and started to watch the sweat drip off of my face and into the bowl.  Needless to say, the garlicky concoction didn’t seem all that appealing after my mini sweat-lodge session.

Next up – apple cider vinegar and honey in warm or hot water.  Since I wanted to drink the mixture right away, I opted for hot tap water, and while not the most pleasant tasting thing in the world, it wasn’t bad.  The apple cider vinegar is supposed to loosen up the gunk in the sinuses and the honey has antimicrobial and antibacterial properties to it (that’s only for raw or unpasteurized honey).  I downed three or four mugs of that during the day.

Finally – eating raw onions.  I was slicing them to caramelize for my burger anyway, and again, antimicrobial/antibacterial properties in the onion (not to mention anti-kissing) and I could barely taste or smell anything anyway at that point so I noshed a few slices of the raw onion as I cooked the rest.

By bedtime, I was feeling a little bit better, could breathe out of one nostril and was getting pretty full of myself and my brilliance at hitting up the home remedies.

Then Monday happened and I woke up feeling pretty damn good even though I had to sleep sitting up most of the night.  I could breathe out of both nostrils, I flushed gunk out with the neti pot and then I headed off to work where I felt wonderful again all day.  I even rode my 6.8 mile bicycle circuit when I got home!

Tuesday morning came and blame – all clogged up again on one side.  I laughed in the face of the home remedies on Monday and was paying for it Tuesday.  Wednesday found me using them again as much as I could, Thursday was busy and I forgot again and now it’s Friday!

So today, I’ll hit the vinegar/honey concoction again.  I’m also using Veramyst (prescription steroid to help with the allergies) and I’m feeling pretty good!  I’ve even slept horizontal the last few nights!

Here is hoping to having a snot-less (or even better a snot-free) weekend!

Do you suffer from seasonal allergies?  Which allergen hits you worst?

What is your go-to treatment: over-the-counter medicines, prescriptions or home remedies?