During the winter months, it’s very common for people to deal with nasal congestion. Whether you have a cold, live in a dry climate, or are just trying to get your body used to the changing weather, nasal congestion can be annoying to have to deal with and can make things like sleeping and breathing very challenging. Luckily, there are things that you can do to help alleviate this.
To help you see just how this can be done, here are three tips for dealing with nasal congestion.
Keep Your Nasal Passages Moist
One of the best things that you can do when you’re having nasal congestion is to try to keep your nasal passages as moist as possible.
When your nasal passages dry out, there can be more friction and irritation in your nasal cavity, which can make your congestion symptoms worse. So if you’re dealing with nasal congestion or you know someone that frequently has nasal congestion, try to find ways to keep the nasal passages moist. This can include things like using a humidifier in your house or the bedroom of your senior living home, using nasal sprays and washes, doing a sinus rinse, and more.
Reduce Inflammation
When you have nasal congestion, you likely also have a bit of inflammation taking place in that area as well. So with both nasal congestion and inflammation, you might not have a lot of movement through your sinuses. However, there are things that you can do to reduce the inflammation and get things moving again.
One thing that you can try to reduce inflammation is to take anti-inflammatory medicines that will help to bring this swelling down. You can also try using a cold compress on your nose and around your sinuses to hopefully bring even more of the swelling down and reduce the inflammation on the inside of your nose and nasal cavity.
Work To Clear The Mucus
When your nasal congestion is caused by a cold that produces a lot of mucus, the best thing that you can do to hopefully clear out your sinuses and allow you to breathe easier is to work to get rid of that mucus that’s built up.
To do this, you’ll want to drink a lot of water to help thin out your mucus so that you can cough or sneeze it out of your body. You can also use saline sprays into your nose to break up some of the blockages and get that mucus moving out of the way.
If you hate having to deal with nasal congestion and would like to get rid of it as soon as you start to notice it happening, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you find some strategies that work for this.