A deviated septum – where the bony partition between the nostrils veers slightly to one side – is common and should not cause a major Problem unless there is an infection as well. I believe its prevalence is because a newborn baby sleeps on the side the mother tends to favour when she finishes a feed. If you look at a baby sleeping in bed with its mother, its face is often buried in the mattress, and I suspect the problem of a deviated septum starts then, while the bones and cartilage are still soft and malleable. So it’s best to lie the baby face up from the start so that the septal bone can grow straight.
Your problem, however, is connected more to your vetibulitis, an infection of the area (the vestibule) inside the opening of each nostril. There are several reasons why the nasal tract, the vestibules, and/or the sinus lining may swell up, become inflamed and discharge mucus. One is indeed a bacterial or viral infection settling on the mucosal lining of the nose causing inflammation and the other symptoms. The constant discharge and thickened lining of the nasal tract (brought about by the inflammation and over activity) narrow the passage, and the situation can be compounded by a deviated septum (which tends to Push into one side, making it narrower), so that one nostril may become totally blocked.
Nasal inflammation can also be a reaction to airborne allergens, such as dust particles, house dust mites, Pollen, the vapours from aerosol sprays and chemicals such as pesticides. Additionally, the body may use the nose to expel toxins that can’t pass through the kidneys’ filter system. Culprits here may be gut toxins, foods to which the body is intolerant including dairy mould or fungal types of foodstuffs, and constipation, which causes excess mucus discharge.
My treatment starts by cleansing the gut so that we can be certain that this is not contributing to the problem, then focuses on clearing the nasal ‘tract’ allowing you to breathe through body nostrils at once, an important feature in Ayurvedic medicine.
Here are my suggestions:
- Avoid dairy foods, also citrus fruits, spicy food, excess carbohydrates (sugar, bread, Pasta, etc.), ice cream, chilled drinks and bananas, which all produce excess mucus.
- Avoid all yeast products, mushrooms, mould-related foods such as cheese, alcoholic drinks and vinegar, and also prolonged courses of the contraceptive pill and HRT, as they tend to trigger candidiasis (overgrowth of the candida fungus), which is a cause of leaky gut syndrome, where toxins push into fie bloodstream.
- Make sure you are not constipated. Take two tablets of Herbolax or one tablet of Qurs Mullayan at bedtime for one month.
- Clear your nose with two drops of sinus oil in each nostril at bedtime for one month.
- Take the Unani supplement Lauq Sepistan: half a teaspoonful twice daily for one month, to help dry up the nose.
- Try the yogic method of nasal douching fill a neti pot with 250ml of lukewarm-water. Add half a teaspoonful of table salt and stir. Tilt your had to one side and, breathing gently through your mouth only, insert the nozzle into the upper nostril and gently pour in the water. This will trickle and then flow stead if out of the lower nostril bringing mucus with it. Repeat with head tilted to the other side. Then blow your nose thoroughly. Expel any residual water by doing the cleansing breath routine that I describe in my books. The Integrated Health Bible and Therapeutic Yoga (co-written with Jiwan Brar).
- To combat allergies, try a homoeopathic desensitising Program. (l recommend Dr Ray Choy at the Nightingale Allergy and Nutrition Clinic, tel 020 7436 2135).
- Try acupuncture.
