Advice on stuffy nose and sore throat: why dont ANY medicines seem to do the job when i get a stuffy nose and sore throat??? when i get a sore throat, stuffy nose, and light head/dizziness, nothing seems to work!!!
The lack of effectiveness of the treatment that you are currently on is probably because you are resistant to the effects of the medicine or you are not addressing the real problem and the reason behind your stuffy nose. The most likely reason that comes to mind with regards to your problem is rhinitis.
Rhinitis is an inflammation of the nasal cavity. It is more commonly referred to as a running nose and the inflammation can be caused by allergies and infections like the common cold. The chances of an infection due allergies is extremely high in your case since the problem is persistent. An allergy is a reaction to an innocuous, everyday material that normally wouldn’t cause an immune response in the general population. The allergic reaction for most respiratory tract inflammations is caused by an irritant in the air like pollution, pollen, excretory material from dust mites and so on. When these reach the nose, the subsequent irritation causes the secretion of mucus and the characteristic runny nose. This usually also ends up being a medium for other infections to capitalize on. Sometimes a drug that contains antihistamine is administered to reduce the inflammation and mucus creation. Antihistamines are drugs that block the production of histamine that is secreted by cells called mast cells in an affected area. Histamine then triggers further inflammatory responses. Diphenhydramine is a tried and tested antihistamine that is used for allergies. It is famous for causing drowsiness and is nearly always taken as part of the regime of throat and nasal infections.
From a non-medical standpoint, you need to start treating this condition from a holistic perspective. Find out the root cause of the runny nose. There might be a certain trigger that causes your attacks and this could be a smell in the air, moving into a certain environment like when you sit on a specific couch, dust, walking by a park or a florist for pollen allergies, all these are potential places from where you are picking up irritants. Once you learn to avoid these places of allergic triggers, you should start a regimen of natural anti-inflammatory remedies like ginger tea and honey, add chili to your diet as this helps to decongest, steam treatments to decongest and sooth the system, and also take care to avoid major temperature fluctuations that you subject your nasal passages to. A nasal allergy untreated could lead to further throat and ear infections and these can be much nastier to deal with.
