I’ve had a weird little problem pretty much all my life. Essentially, I can’t breathe through both sides of my nose at the same time. One side is always “stuffed” while the other is perfectly clear. It switches sides randomly throughout the day. This happens 365 days a year, so I don’t think it’s a seasonal allergy issue, though I do have seasonal allergies.
I’ve thought this was normal all my life until very recently it came up in conversation with some co-workers who said that’s totally abnormal. It only really becomes an issue during hard cardio type work because I can’t effective breathe in through my nose at all.
I was curious about the opinions of some of the medically knowledgeable personnel on the board(Professor X etc) on what a likely cause of this might be.
Apologies in advance if this isn’t the right sub-forum for this, it seemed the most fitting choice.
It is pretty normal for the side-to-side switching of congestion. As one side deals with an irritant in the nasal passage, the other side is free to inhale/exhale (and inhale an irritant).
When the irritated side reacts and clears the irritant, the other “breathing” side inhales an irritant and the cycle goes on and on.
There are other causes of the cycling such as emotional excitment and others as well.
Hate to ask the obvious, but have you seen a good ENT doctor about it?
I was having pretty serious sinus issues about 3 years ago. The doctors kept trying to say I had bronchitis or allergies. Finally I saw an ENT guy and he found that I had a severely deviated septum that was causing a complete blockage of my right, frontal sinus. I had surgery to get it fixed and since then I’ve had no issues and can breathe much better.
Thats how your sinuses work. One is open and one is closed. I learned it from some meditation book. I would look for a resource but if you don’t believe me try it. Hold one sinus closed, and breath in 5 times through the other. Then hold the other one closed, and breathe in through the previously closed one 5 times. At different times of the day, one will be more open and the other will be more closed. Its like that for everybody.
The book was Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep. Great book, teaches you techniques to induce lucid dreams.
I have the exact same thing, and my doctor and allergist said it’s because of my allegies. It’s true, because when I’m medicated for them, it doesn’t happen.
[quote]Kromlic wrote:
I have the exact same thing, and my doctor and allergist said it’s because of my allegies. It’s true, because when I’m medicated for them, it doesn’t happen.[/quote]
Well, my issue was that medication wasn’t doing anything for me. I basically wasted a year trying different inhalers and antibiotics and nothing improved. Finally, I got a different allergist that didn’t think my issue was allergies and recommended to have an ENT look at me and do a CT scan and that’s when we finally found out about the sinus blockage and deviated septum.
Supposedly this is normal and your body switches nostrils approximately every two hours. Every Meditation and breathing book that I have every read has mentioned this. And it is all over the internet.
If you want to force your body to switch sides then lie with the side down that you want to open and hug a pillow under your arm. I have no idea why this works.
