Lemon juice is a very powerful decongestant! If your congesting, drink lemon juice with filtered water.

If you want to prevent congestion, stop al dairy products. Dairy products are the most mucus forming, congesting thing out there. Also, try and avoid grains, and of course, all processed food.

Kailiaman, im curious, what is your diet, if i may ask?

modified paleo, i eat very small amounts of raw dairy. no glutinous grains. i hold a certification from a two year program in holistic nutrition (i'm an herbalist, nutritionist, bodyworker by trade) and have experimented with most every diet trend that's come down the pike since macrobiotics back in the early 70's. it's my opinion that what works best for a person usually changes over time....and that no one diet is right for everyone. i help clients figure out what works best for them. a large percentage of my clientele have metabolic disorders, primarily insulin resistance and related problems including congestion, a personalized paleo program is often a great way to turn them around pretty quickly. i'm naturally insulin resistant as well and personally thrive on it.

i encourage my clients to take control of their health when they can by using homemade food as medicine remedies, and since its cold and flu season thought i'd just share it here too, hence this post. thanks for asking.

This post was edited by kaliaman on Tue, Dec 17, 13 at 19:18

I share your enthusiasm. I bet you if you get off all the dairy, and animal products, and just eat fruits and vegetables, you would be less congested and breath better.. Not trying to be pushy, but thats my advice.

thanks natures nature. i agree your dietary recommendations would be good for some but after a lot of experimentation modified paleo is what my body likes. i do not personally have a problem with congestion unless i contract a rare cold.

did you know that just eating fruits and vegetables can generate lots of mucus in the bodies of certain people?

digestion/metabolism is a fire that must burn strong and hot for best health, putting lots of cold wet things on a fire can diminish it. fruits and veg's are both energetically wet and cooling. when we put cold wet foods into a cold wet digestive system it gets colder and wetter (congestion). folks who digestion is impaired in some way can actually get worse on a diet high in cooling wet foods.

there are few hard fast rules when it comes to diet, its what works for the person. for best results herbs and food must be energetically matched to the person using them. cheers!

This post was edited by kaliaman on Wed, Dec 18, 13 at 12:31

Nasal congestion is not typically caused by an overabundance of mucus, but is due to swollen/congested blood vessels.

There's a lot of mythology about foods supposedly increaseing mucus production. The idea that dairy products are responsible has been debunked. You can find people arguing that fruits and vegetables either increase or decrease mucus, but evidence for this is lacking as well.

And that business of "mucoid plaque" supposedly coating your gastrointestinal tract is nonsense.

Apart from addressing bona fide allergiez* , non-drug solutions for nasal congestion include drinking more fluids, saline rinses and using a vaporizer/humidifier.

*deliberate misspelling to thwart auto-ad for drug product.

Here is a link that might be useful: congestion - causes and solutions

This post was edited by eric_oh on Sat, Dec 21, 13 at 14:10