Why am I always congested? Why do I need tissues nearby 24-7?
While many people suffer from chronic congestion and are forced to take OTC meds daily, it’s important to understand why it’s happening.
Post nasal drip, feeling of phlegm in the throat, stuffy nose overnight, or a cough that just won’t go away. While some of these could represent serious health issues, many of my clients are given a ‘life sentence’ of flonaise or zyrtec when their ENT does not have anything more help to offer. Rarely is the real reason for the problem uncovered. While there can be anatomical reasons for this, including deviated septum or polyps, the real reason is both simple and hard to isolate. Your body is responding to something foreign to it, that represents a threat.
14 Sometimes Overlooked Causes of Post Nasal Drip and Congestion
- Leaky gut
- Poor gut biome quality
- Home cleaning products (allergic to poisons)
- Food sensitivities and food allergies
- Excess reliance on known inflammatory foods
- Lack of fresh air flow (home or bedroom)
- Dust mites (home or bedroom)
- Bedding not airing out overnight
- Older mattress
- Older pillows
- Diet unsuited to lifestyle or season
- Lack of sleep
- Poor liver detox overnight
- Medications including SSRI
Let’s get into a few lesser known causes
Leaky gut: its really what it sounds like and incredibly common. The colon wall is only one cell thick. The Large Intestine as it’s also known, has a big job maintaining the boundary between your feces and the abdominal cavity. It needs multiple nutrients and inputs to do it’s job well, including year round adequate Vitamin D, intestinal bio-flora, and sometimes mucilaginous foods to lubricate the passage. If your bile does not flow normally or you had your gallbladder removed, that lubricating surface is really important.
Leaky gut comes into the picture when tiny gaps open up in the intestine, failing to keep the inside contents sequestered. Even though it’s not near your nose, this incites an immune system reaction because even a slow leak of feces can erode health quickly. Your body may be responding to your gut but phlegm may also manifest in your respiratory tract.
Your Bedroom Environment
From our list, items 6-12 are mostly about bedroom hygiene so that’s another important area to look for allergens which can be causing your symptoms. If you’re congested when you wake up in the morning, it’s worth exploring your bedroom deeply.
- What’s under your bed? Have you looked lately? Do you store boxes there or is it carpeted? The best thing under your bed would be a wood floor, but something you can thoroughly clean is the theme. You may see dust collecting there if you have a smooth enough surface for it to collect on. It is made up of dead skin, textile fibers, and dust mites. If you never clean under your bed because it’s used for storage, you still have those three things under the bed. You just can’t see them. Weekly dust mite collection and removal should be on your new bedroom cleaning list. Also daily airing of your bed, covers, sheets, and pillows is a great habit to build into your routine. You’re not only shedding skin for 1/3 of your life in bed, but you’re making vapors and sometimes sweat overnight. Dust mites love warmth and moisture. Allowing the whole bed and covers to air overnight, makes their quest must less comfortable.
- Mattresses and pillows do not last forever. Even if they still feel comfy, you need to replace them. Do you air out your mattress periodically? You can wash some pillows but not all of them. Covering over the bed or pillows after they’ve been used, instead of replacing them, is not the same thing. There are helpful mattress covers to reduce things inhabiting the mattress, but they need to be vacuumed or their helpfulness is minimized.
- Medications, recreational drugs, fast and processed foods, are all irritants to your immune system. Medications and recreational drugs for the most part can be safely packaged through detox and your bile, but they add load to the Liver’s overnight detox process. Are you sleeping well? Are you feeling fresh in the morning? It not it could be hurting your body’s ability to clear toxins, so you never get that important fresh start to the day.
The most important point here is your body is trying to communcate with you. It has not gotten the wrong idea about an allergen, but you don’t know what irritant you’re being exposed to, so you haven’t eliminated it yet. Keep looking. Try things. Commit to your home care and your self care and really consider this list.