Dairy products and sinuses...

[Morgan]

Hi guys...

A couple of months ago I heard a program on the effects of dairy products on our bodies... I was thoroughly disgusted, and stopped using milk from then on. Didn't drink the stuff anyway - mostly cereal at breakfast. But I haven't been able to cut back on the cheese (no Canadian jokes, please!) - it's not like I eat slabs of it, just incidental amounts, like on pasta, in sandwiches, etc.
Lately I have been having unusual trouble clearing my left ear, and left sinus is bothering me a bit. I feel stuffed in my left side, but can breath clearly. I've been taking Sudafed like clockwork, which helps but does not clear fully. The only way I can equalize is head up, Valsalva, with enough effort to bug my eyes out .
Do you think it's that small amount of cheese in my system? Anyone quit dairy and notice a big improvement?

TIA

[Jon]

I was a vegan before I met my wife. She convinced me to start eating dairy products again while we were dating- I do live in Wisconsin.
Since that time I have put on over 20 pounds of weight. I am now cutting back my dairy consumption to just skim milk on cereal- no cheese at all. I may get to the point where I switch back to rice milk again as well.
The biggest difference I have known with dairy is weight gain. Since I live in the dairy state it is kind of hard to avoid it.

old joke: What do you call a 250 pound packer fan?
anorexic.

Another thing that might cause sinus problems is sugar.
Doughnuts are not the thing to have before you dive.
Orange juice does seem to help though.
Too much sudafed can back fire and actually casue swelling. Have you ever tried a saltwater sinus flush- on purpose? They can help to clear excess mucus out of your head. Check a yoga site for more details.
For me dairy=wieght gain. My ears have never been effected.
Jon

[Morgan]

Thanks for the info, Jon

Interesting what you say about the sugar. There goes my diet!
As an aside, are you sure the weight gain is from dairy foods, or just from being married?
(Although, the way my wife cooks, I must have dropped about 20 lbs...)

[Jon]

I sure hope your wife isn't reading over your shoulder!
Last winter I limited my dairy intake for a month or two and saw a loss of over 10 pounds. I took that as a liscence to eat what I wanted again and have put it back on.
I am not a strict vegitarian anymore. I don't think that eating lean meats will effect my weight. The dairy, especially cheese, does make a big difference. You can still be a fat vegitarian if you eat all of your veggies in a cheese sauce every night.
Sugar, like milk, builds up extra mucus in your sinuses- it could be the high sugar content of the milk that plays a part in this- I am not a nurtionist so have no idea. I do know that when scuba students have a hard time clearing their ears I always recommend skipping the sugar and dairy before their dives. I also recommend lots of water and orange juice- if we're not on a boat. This seems to make a big difference in most cases.
I would still be interested in the diets of Erick Fattah and other record holders. What amounts and types of food do they consume daily?
Jon

[Angus]

When it comes to dietary effects it is important to remember that not everyone is effected in the same way. But the real issue here is clearing. I seldom here of anyone taking about cleaning out their outer ear canal and yet this is often the region that is causing the problem with clearing. And the culprit is quiet, not associated with disease, and increases with age: earwax. We don't notice this build up or earwax because there is no noticable change in our hearing.

If there is enough earwax to partially occlude the outer ear canal water can be pushed behind the constriction under pressure but then doesn't drain out when the pressure is released because the openning is small enough that surface tension is sufficient to hold the water in. Under pressure again more water pushes in and the more pressure occurs. This results in an inability to clear as we dive.

I have found that if I regularly irrigate my ears with a solution of water and hydrogen peroxide I reduce and then prevent this build up and have not had any problems clearing in years and years, even when I am suffering from a mild cold. Of course there is nothing in the rule book that says that it can only be one thing. but this one is in our control. So anyway it just takes a minute once or twice a week to keep earwax eliminated.

[freediver48]

Hi,

Ear candles are another way to go with this. You will need ear candles, available from a health food store, a helper, and a pie plate. The ear candle rests in a hole in the centre of the plate, with enough of the candle in your ear to create a seal. The candles are made of beeswax and are hollow, such that heat and a draft are created in the outer ear melting and sucking the wax and other stuff from the ear. Most candles come with instruction, and cautions about not thermally stressing the ear for a few days, untile some amount of wax is re-established. I have not found this to be a problem diving with a hood with seals on it, but if the water is cold and you do not have seals on your hood you might want to get candled a couple of days before your next dive. A bit strange, but it works very well.

By the way I have horrible allergies, and have found a low dairy diet to help quite a bit.

Best wishes,

Doug

[andrsn]

my good friend(message therapist) candled my ears for me about 3 months ago. it was about a week before i went diving, and it was a tremendous help. first of all, i had no idea 28 years of wax build up could actually be that much! it was borderline disgusting! but, for the first hour of my diving i was able to do the delonca(sp?) technique. that's clearing by "allowing" air to pass where it's needed instead of "forcing". i just have the problem where i irritate the hell out of my eustachean tubes because i'm spearfishing for about 8 hours straight.

i definitely recommend the ear candling. also, if you have access to decent greatfruit juice, i suggest that over orange juice. same effect, less sugar.

also, i had posted another question in another thread. there's this stuff called clear-ease that's supposed to help quite a bit with ridding the mucous back in the inner ear. and, they're all natural. haven't heard from anyone who's had experience with it, though.


squeeky clean,
anderson

[Hennie]

Equalizing problems, ears and sinusses spoiling your dives, yip i think we all have had our share.

Solution, well ok it is working for me: CARROTS.

I have been troubled by clogged up sinusses almost my whole freediving adventure and have tried various medicines, Sudafed, Echinaforce, naem them, i have overdosed on them.
Have even tried the sal solution up the nose down the throat routine a couple of times but that only help for a dive time under 30min.

My cousin (non freediver) was also suffering from sinus problems and was placed on some kind of prescribed medicine, he then was told that eating CARROTS are the secret to clear up your sinusses.Treid it and it worked, told me and i started last week and gues what??????......IT ACTUALLY WORKS.

Who knows what carrots have in them that can help for sinus problems.........now that i think of it, they must be good for your eyes as well, come to think of it, i have never seen a rabbit with glasses !!!!!!!

[crazyfrenchmen]

Hi,
actually, carrot help because of the vitamin A that it contains. See http://www.healthlibrary.com/reading/diet/sinusiti.htm They also talk about alkalin vs. acid body, acid body tend to get more sinuses problems.

[paul]

thanks all for this thread , and Hennie for the carrot tip. I'm a real newbie to freediving so this info is really helpful. I attended an excellent freediving clinic in auckland last weekend, only thing was i had sinus trouble and "tooth squeeze" at 20 m which kinda took the shine off my day especially since my nose was making lots of shark bait (blood clots). Well i'll try the carrots, and thanks to last weeks dive ive found 2 fillings that need replacing. I'm not sure what hurt more tooth squeeze or the impending dentist bill.