We Kicked a Sinus Infection with Essential Oils

This post can be found on the Homestead Barn Hop #163

I am not a doctor, nor do I claim any medical training or knowledge.  I just want to share a story about some success that we had with essential oils a few weeks ago.  The information in this post is for informational and entertainment purposes only.

Let me just start by saying that his post is not a plug for one brand of essential oils or another. I totally respect the products of many oil companies, but I also feel that it is okay to use products from more than one company.  I may mention what brand I use simply because of the particular blend that I used, but I in no way want to contribute to the "essential oil wars." There, now that that is out of the way, let us move on….

I was introduced to Essential Oils (EOs from here on) by a friend of mine about 2 years ago.  She was trying to convince me to buy a membership or start a business, and I was a total skeptic from the get-go because, if you couldn’t tell from the above statement, I don’t exactly go in for MLMs (but I have many wonderful friends who do and I love them), even though I acknowledge that the MLM oil companies sell some pretty great and high-quality stuff.  She sent me some samples and I was blown away by the effectiveness of the lavender oil against my insomnia. But the oils were expensive, so I held off for a while. Long story short, another friend of mine introduced me to another, more affordable for me, brand with high-quality, pure essential oils that had no MLM strings attached.  I have been learning about oils ever since, and (as you can see from the photo below) I have started quite the collection:

A few weeks ago, my husband and I came down with a cold.  It was my fault.  Our youngest had a runny nose, but it wasn’t bad, so I assumed it was the onset of allergies for the season.  As a result, I wasn’t as paranoid as I should have been about hand washing and not sharing “bites” with him.  Oops.  I caught it, and passed it to hubster before I knew that mine wasn’t allergies either.  Poor hubster, he has some major sinus drainage issues because of several broken noses from his youth that were never set correctly.  About 3 out of 5 of his colds turn into a sinus infection.  And he suffers pretty badly through them.  It has been our routine that, as soon as he feels one coming on (and he has them so often that he KNOWS what they feel like), we rush him to the MD to get a prescription.  We love our doctor, don’t get me wrong, and I am not completely against mainstream medicine, but I had been using an oil blend to help my sinuses drain during this cold.  So when hubster told me he felt a sinus infection coming on, I thought, heck, why not give it a shot?  If it didn’t work, we would get him into the doctor the next day. If it did, we would save ourselves the out of pocket Doctor visit cost since our deductible has shot through the roof over the last couple of years (thanks, politicians!).

For my milder congestion, I had been diluting the EOs in carrier oil, and applying it over my sinuses: across the brow bone, the ridge of the nose, and on the bony area under the eye.  I would then rub the rest on my hands and cup them around my nose and mouth and breathe in.  Since hubster’s was worse and had migrated to the “infection” stage (whether viral or bacterial, who knows), we used a different protocol.  I boiled a few cups of water, placed them in a bowl and added about 5 drops of eucalyptus oil and another 3-5 drops of a Butterfly Express blend called Breezey (EDIT: the first time we did this, I added the oils and carried the bowl from one room to another allowing some of the oils to evaporate off before hubster placed his head over the bowl. The next time he did it immediately after adding the oils and it was far too strong so 2 drops of oils each may be plenty if you can get your head over the bowl straightaway.  If it is too strong, allow some air to come in from outside the towel so breathing isn't difficult).  We put the bowl on the table, and my husband hung his head over the bowl with his EYES CLOSED, with a towel draped over his head and covering the bowl the keep the vapors in.  We made sure to close his eyes because the oils may cause irritation.  He would sit there for a good 5-10 minutes, depending on how much mucous was loosened up and he could get out, and he would blow his nose every few minutes as he felt the mucous loosening up.  After the first round, he was able to blow his nose enough that the pressure was relieved, but the pain was still there.  We did it the first time at night right before bed, and he slept on the opposite side of the pain that night.  The next morning he was congested again, so we repeated the same treatment about 4 times that day.  By the end of the day, the pain had abated and we didn’t need to do any more treatments.  Yay for saving the cost of a trip to the doctor’s office, and for beating a problem WITHOUT antibiotics!

The key is to get a respiratory system blend that includes Ravensara, or at least that is the key for my husband and I (every-BODY is different!).  Both Breathe by doTerra and Raven by Young Living will work for this, too.  I have another respiratory blend by Butterfly Express that does not contain Ravensara, it is called Aspire, and it works well for other ailments, but not nearly as well for us on the sinuses as the Breezey.

Lets just say that I am falling in love with essential oils.  I have been using them to correct other problems that modern medicine just hasn’t helped me with, and to combat basic problems at home. Would it interest you to hear more of my EO journey, or no?