Relieve Running Nose/ Sinus with Acupressure

Last Updated on April 8, 2022

From young, I had always suffer from sinusitis. When I was schooling, I used to wake up with running nose and I remembered my mom will take some cold medication back for me. After feeling very sleepy and struggling hard to stay awake (as the effect of some of the medication), I’ve decided to stop taking it and use tissues instead.

I’ve constantly have recurring episodes of sinus, especially during house cleaning. And I’ve learned to use the more expensive durable 3 layer tissue instead of the customarily 2 ply for my running nose. About 2 weeks ago, I was suffering from constant occurances of the running nose and my dustin was fast filling up with wet tissues (and I refused medication)- so I decided to do a few experiment myself:

1. Drink lots of water

I drank insanely lots of water- gulping down about 2 glasses of water in one sitting. I did it from morning till evening.

2. Acupressure

I did some research to find out the acupressure points to clear the ‘wind’ and damp elements from my nose. Refer to the picture below-not my face but it’s taken from a photo from the net 🙂

Take note of 4 points in purple on the diagram. Press the lower points located outside your nose (same line with the nostrils) with your thumbs (both sides at the same time) for about 30 seconds. After that, move your thumbs up to the 2 points next to the bridge of your nose and press it for about 30 seconds.

I am not sure if it works for you- but after that incident- I need not use anymore tissues. A week later, I was driving and waiting at the traffic light- I achooo again and press the points. Then, it’s gone.

Of course, keeping myself hydrated, taking some rest and having a proper diet helps. Drinking water helps to move fluid around from your body.

I would love to know if the simple method works for you.

You may want to read my past articles also on How I Tried Curing Myself of Flu & Caught a chill & treating it without medication (note: if your fever goes high, please see a doctor as too high fever can damage your brain).

Update 2022: I redo another picture… hope you like it 🙂

This post was originally written when I was still working in the corporate world. In fact, I have worked in two different companies and suffered the same severe sinus. The acupressure point could help a little but I kept having recurring incidents. Not long after this article was written, I took up Wai Tan Kung, a kind of exercise to invoke the qi in the body. If I managed to attend the class in the morning before work, then I would not have the sneezing incident. The internal ‘qi’ regulation provided by the exercise does help to relieve the symptoms. You can try to look up free qi gong training in YouTube and if you do the exercises consistently, I believe you would find relief in your symptoms and the movements would also help you to relax.

However, in 2017, I resigned from the corporate world for good to be a full time caregiver for my mother who at that time was suffering from jaundice and swelling due to acute hepatitis B with liver cirrhosis. The strange thing is after I left the corporate world, my sinus episode become almost non existent even though we live in the city with lots of dust and I was doing household chores which involved a lot of dusting.

Maybe it is because that even though I am now much poorer, but I feel really at peace and realized I do not need a lot to be happy. It has been 5 years and I hardly get any sinus despite sometimes the weather becoming very cold. This is the second time I left the corporate world. In 2008, I did take my first break and also the same thing, my sinus then was almost non existent even though that time I did stay at the cold mountain areas of Mae Hong Son, Northern Thailand.

I have read books on mind body connection written by medical doctors who have treated patients with similar symptoms- ie ailments which conventional medical treatment could not help. In one of the books, I remember the mind body connection to sinus is thought to be ‘the body’s way of crying when a person could not bring himself or herself to do so’.

If that explains your current life situation, it may be a good opportunity to step back and evaluate your life. We all have responsibilities and financial commitments. Maybe you may feel trapped or sad at the current condition and may not be able to do anything about it. If that is the case, you can do what I did, make a promise to yourself that you would start to work towards the direction of the life that you want. We may not be able to quit our job but we can start to work to build alternative income stream by making time and cutting down the time we spent on social media. Also, please do not let other people get to us or push our buttons as we also give away energy to others and that causes energy imbalances in our body which may trigger the sinus attacks (I speak from personal experience).