Herbal Aromatherapy™ for Sinus Congestion

To effectively address sinus congestion with herbs and aromatherapy, it is important to also address any underlying contributors to the person’s symptoms. Do they have seasonal allergies? Are they sensitive to dairy products, yet still consuming them in abundance? Do they have a respiratory infection of some sort? Ultimately, a sustainable long-term approach to addressing symptoms will involve addressing whatever it is that is causing those symptoms. In the moment, however, sometimes you just want relief so you can feel like you can breathe again. It is for finding acute symptom relief that the strategies in this article will work best.

My Favorite Types of Remedies for Sinus Congestion

Respiratory Steams

Last week, I shared a video on our new(ish) YouTube channel about how to prepare a respiratory steam with either herbs or essential oils to help relieve sinus congestion. You can find that video here.

I love working with respiratory steams to help loosen up mucus to make it easier to expectorate. I usually find that I still feel a bit congested for a few moments afterward, as holding the head in the position necessary to do a steam application can make your nose run a bit (keep a handkerchief handy!), but about 10 minutes after having finished a steam application, I am always pleasantly surprised that I can breathe through my nose again!

Quick Tips:

When doing respiratory steams, make sure to keep your eyes closed the entire time.
Take breaks to sip some water or blow your nose as needed.
Keep your face close enough to the bowl that you can feel the steam, but not so close that it feels uncomfortable or as if you will burn your skin.
Choose aromatic herbs if you are working with fresh or dried herbs for your steam. You need those volatile molecules to be present in the plant material if you want an herbal steam to be more effective than just a plain water steam. Speaking of, plain water steam applications work too!

Personal Inhalation Blends

Essential oils can be used to make a number of personal inhalation blends to help address sinus congestion. I like to work with smelling salts the most, but you could also create diffuser blends (my favorite diffuser for sinus congestion applications is a nebulizing diffuser) or personal inhalers.

Choose essential oils that have been proven to have decongestant or expectorant qualities (or to contain constituents that have been found to have those effects) for best results.

Caution: 1,8-cineole and menthol are often constituents that are present in essential oils that can have decongestant or expectorant effects. Essential oils that contain these constituents have been found to be able to cause breathing trouble with young children, (1) so take care not to apply them too near the face of your littles. I do not use essential oils that are rich in these constituents in diffuser blends or respiratory steams for young kids.

Herbal Teas and Tincture Blends

Herbal teas and tinctures are perhaps my favorite means of addressing sinus congestion because they offer such versatility and really allow me to customize a blend to both address sinus-related symptoms as well as the underlying causes of those symptoms.

Tinctures are alcohol extracts of fresh or dried herbs. They have a long shelf life, are taken in small doses diluted in water, juice or tea, and are exceptional at both preserving your herbs and extracting the alcohol-soluble therapeutic constituents from your herb into an easily administrable form.

Teas can be made with fresh or dried herbs. When addressing sinus congestion, I am usually working with dried herb teas.

Teas and tinctures are both available commercially both as individual herb products and as pre-formulated blends for respiratory support.

Chest Rub Ointments

It is easy to make a petroleum-product-free chest rub ointment at home. They can be effective preparations for nighttime application just before bed. Chest rub ointments can be applied to the chest so we can breathe in the aromatic molecules present in the remedy throughout the night and thereby get enough relief to be able to sleep (and perhaps even breathe through the nose whilst doing so!).

You can find my favorite DIY chest rub ointment recipe here.

Herbal Plasters

A more old-fashioned remedy for sinus congestion is the herbal plaster. Truthfully, I do not utilize them nearly as often as I do the other preparations I have mentioned, but they can be effective. One of the most well-known is the mustard plaster. Mustard plasters have long been used to help relieve sinus congestion, particularly when accompanied by a junky-sounding cough. The mustard seed is applied warm to the chest, wrapped in cloth to help protect the skin both from the heat of the preparation and the constituents in the mustard seeds that could burn the skin if left in place too long.

Energetics Matter

How your symptoms are presenting will impact which herbs you will want to choose. No one wants to choose the wrong herb and accidentally end up making their symptoms worse, but it is so easy to do just that if you have not yet learned how to interpret your symptoms and match them to the herbs that will be most beneficial.

The important thing to remember about sinus congestion and how it can manifest energetically is that there are four main categories symptoms tend to fall under: hot and dry, hot and damp, cold and damp and cold and dry. More simply, symptoms will usually either be hot or cold and either damp or dry. If you can decipher which categories your symptoms fall into, you will be better equipped to choose your remedies accordingly.

If you feel like your nose is leaking and you can hear that your lungs are full of junk when you cough, your symptom patterns are leaning more toward dampness. If you feel stuffy (and maybe even have a sinus headache) but nothing comes out when you blow your nose or cough, the pattern is more dry.

If the mucus you see in your handkerchief is clear or white, that tells you that your symptom pattern is energetically cold. If it is yellow, green or a bit brown, that is a sign of energetic heat.

You would not want to choose a very drying herb to address congestion that is manifesting as dry, just as you would not want to choose a moistening herb to try to relieve a junky cough and a runny nose. You would be exacerbating your symptoms rather than bringing relief. Nor would you want to choose a warming herb if your symptoms are pointing toward signs of heat.

Learn More About Which Herbs to Choose

If you are the DIY type and want to become proficient at herbal / aromatic formulation and study this subject on a deeper level, consider joining me in our Herbal Aromatherapy Certification Program™. In it, we study more than 100 aromatic plants, learn how to formulate effective and safe remedies for a wide variety of common health concerns and symptom patterns (including respiratory ailments), and work with aromatic herbs from the garden to the still to the apothecary.

Not quite ready for that level of study, but still not sure which herbs to try?

Traditional Medicinals’ Breathe Easy herbal tea blend has been found to help relieve symptoms of chronic rhinosinusitis. When participants drank two cups of the tea (prepared as directed) per day for six weeks, they experienced reductions in nasal congestion, headache and facial pain and reported improvement in their ability to fall and stay asleep. The Breathe Easy tea blend used in the study contained licorice, eucalyptus, fennel, pleurisy root, and a mixture of Chinese herbs. (The formula is a little bit different now and includes peppermint and ginger but leaves out the pleurisy root.) (2)

If you are in the United States, you could also try Herbalist & Alchemist’s line of pre-formulated herbal tincture blends. They have formulas for each of the symptom patterns above in their respiratory system collection. My clients have found them effective at offering relief.

References

Essential Oil Safety, Second Edition, Robert Tisserand and Rodney Young
Hipps, Y. G., Hacker, Y. E., Hoffmann, D. L., Brinckmann, J. A., Socci, R. R., & Rogers, D. (2009). Self-reported quality of life in complementary and alternative medicine treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis among African Americans: a preliminary, open-label pilot study. Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.), 15(1), 67–77. https://doi.org/10.1089/acm.2008.0163