Andrey
Jedi
Hello. Let me preface this post by mentioning that I was born with Choanal atresia which is basically a congenital disorder where the nassal passages are blocked due to bone obstructions. I had two surgeries done as an infant. Then I got another major surgery done for this when I was around 11-12 years old. Since then, my nasal passages were unblocked and I was able to breathe through my nose whereas prior to this, I mostly breathed through my mouth. Throughout my early childhood prior to the last surgery, I always had an extremely stuffy nose and breathed through my mouth. After the last surgery, this was kind of solved but not completely.
Because I was so used to mouth breathing, I continued to breathe mostly through my mouth throughout my teenage years; even to this day (at 34) I mostly breathe through my mouth.
I really want to habituate myself to breathing through my nose, but the problem is that my nasal passages are blocked almost all the time with mucus, and only in rare occasions do my nasal passages open up completely and I can breathe normally. I always have a handkerchief or tissues on me all the time because I have to blow my nose constantly. You could call it sinusitis, but I don't know if that's the right term for my condition, because my only symptom is a stuffy nose and nothing else.
I have been doing some research on how to fix this, which ranges from sinus rinses, to certain medications to surgery to more holistic solutions to yoga exercises, etc. I plan on starting experimenting with some of these methods, but I think the root cause is inflammation in general due to poor diet.
I am currently doing some research on the connections between diet and sinusitis and inflammation in general. Some messageboards mention switching to keto helped relieve their sinus symptoms. I am guessing it reduced overall inflammation in their system which helped with the sinus problems.
As a side note, I am also a smoker which I am guessing contributes to this problem, though I am unsure of this because years ago I was doing daily yoga exercises and sri sri ravi shankar's sudharshan kriya exercises while continuing to smoke and I found that I was able to breathe through my nose much better regardless.
I recently became sober after many years of drug and alcohol abuse (about 2 months sober now) so I have been eating a lot of junk food as stimulation to cope with sobriety. Lots of carbs, lots of sugar, lots of fast food, etc., but am ready to starting working on myself and getting healthier.
One of the first things I want to focus on is just basic meditation, which is why I want to stop this sinus problem. I know there are many meditation techniques besides breathing in and out through your nose, but I want to do it this way as I feel it would be the most effective for me right now.
Anyways, besides looking into diet and some specific treatments for this issue, I wanted to ask you guys if there is anything else I should look into or anything I should read to gain more knowledge about how I can solve this problem at the root, rather than merely treat the symptoms. I feel like I need to learn more about inflammation in general, but maybe there's something I don't know about that I should be looking into.
Thanks for reading.
P.S.- I didn't want to start a public thread about this. Rather I wanted to speak to someone on this forum who is more medically inclined than I am. For future diet and health related issues, are there some forum users I could possibly contact privately who know their stuff? Other than this specific issue, I have a million questions related to diet and health, but I didn't want to spam this board with my questions so wanted to find some people I could talk to privately than can guide me a bit. As mentioned, I am newly sober, and though I've been doing research on various topics for many years now, I am still more or less a beginner and have a lot to learn. Definitely could use some people to network with for help in starting with some basics and acquiring knowledge efficiently, starting with diet and health first which is something I want to focus on right now.
Because I was so used to mouth breathing, I continued to breathe mostly through my mouth throughout my teenage years; even to this day (at 34) I mostly breathe through my mouth.
I really want to habituate myself to breathing through my nose, but the problem is that my nasal passages are blocked almost all the time with mucus, and only in rare occasions do my nasal passages open up completely and I can breathe normally. I always have a handkerchief or tissues on me all the time because I have to blow my nose constantly. You could call it sinusitis, but I don't know if that's the right term for my condition, because my only symptom is a stuffy nose and nothing else.
I have been doing some research on how to fix this, which ranges from sinus rinses, to certain medications to surgery to more holistic solutions to yoga exercises, etc. I plan on starting experimenting with some of these methods, but I think the root cause is inflammation in general due to poor diet.
I am currently doing some research on the connections between diet and sinusitis and inflammation in general. Some messageboards mention switching to keto helped relieve their sinus symptoms. I am guessing it reduced overall inflammation in their system which helped with the sinus problems.
As a side note, I am also a smoker which I am guessing contributes to this problem, though I am unsure of this because years ago I was doing daily yoga exercises and sri sri ravi shankar's sudharshan kriya exercises while continuing to smoke and I found that I was able to breathe through my nose much better regardless.
I recently became sober after many years of drug and alcohol abuse (about 2 months sober now) so I have been eating a lot of junk food as stimulation to cope with sobriety. Lots of carbs, lots of sugar, lots of fast food, etc., but am ready to starting working on myself and getting healthier.
One of the first things I want to focus on is just basic meditation, which is why I want to stop this sinus problem. I know there are many meditation techniques besides breathing in and out through your nose, but I want to do it this way as I feel it would be the most effective for me right now.
Anyways, besides looking into diet and some specific treatments for this issue, I wanted to ask you guys if there is anything else I should look into or anything I should read to gain more knowledge about how I can solve this problem at the root, rather than merely treat the symptoms. I feel like I need to learn more about inflammation in general, but maybe there's something I don't know about that I should be looking into.
Thanks for reading.
P.S.- I didn't want to start a public thread about this. Rather I wanted to speak to someone on this forum who is more medically inclined than I am. For future diet and health related issues, are there some forum users I could possibly contact privately who know their stuff? Other than this specific issue, I have a million questions related to diet and health, but I didn't want to spam this board with my questions so wanted to find some people I could talk to privately than can guide me a bit. As mentioned, I am newly sober, and though I've been doing research on various topics for many years now, I am still more or less a beginner and have a lot to learn. Definitely could use some people to network with for help in starting with some basics and acquiring knowledge efficiently, starting with diet and health first which is something I want to focus on right now.