Can Yoga Cure Sinus Pain?

The Web is filled with articles which describe unorthodox ways that people have treated medical ailments at home. Some of these stories are dubious, to put it kindly, while others may contain a valuable grain of wisdom.

This article fits the bill: entitled “How Yoga Can Cure Sinus Pain,” it describes the efforts of one woman to relieve sinus pain and pressure through inverted yoga poses. The effect is something to behold:

I poured myself from my recliner and struck a pose — a few poses, actually: downward dog, child’s pose, and standing forward bend, to be exact.

Half an hour later, the pressure in my head had subsided from a nuclear meltdown to a mild headache. My ears were still infected, but the pounding that sounded like a marching band with nothing but bass drums had quieted to a more tolerable whoosh-whooshing, like ocean waves.

As the author discovered, inversions can indeed help sinus pain, even for people who may not consider themselves advanced yogis. The elements of yoga such as deep breathing, sweating and relaxation, along with an assist from gravity, can help get mucus moving again when it has become blocked.

What do you do when the downward dog can’t solve the problem? Visit a Los Angeles sinus surgeon to get diagnosed and treated in a medical milieu. We may be able to send you back to the mat in a matter of hours.