MDM Health

Best Fruit Juice for Sinus Infection

There are a number of home remedies to help relieve sinus infection (also known as sinusitis). How about fruit juice? It is not only awesome in taste – but also good for your hydration. Fruits are great source of nutrients. Even some are high in anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties that can help a lot to cope with inflammation and infection of your sinuses.

Why is hydration important when you have sinusitis?

Keeping hydrated is important for your overall health and should not be taken lightly. In fact, the body is mostly composed by water.

Dehydration is associated with a number of mild and serious conditions. These include:

  1. Disc problems. The discs of the spine contain water. When you have dehydration, your discs can shrink and press on the sciatic nerve, leading to back pain arising from your spine. In severe case, chronic dehydration may lead to herniated and bulging discs.
  2. Headache, heaviness in the head, dizziness, or blurred vision – because the blood doesn’t effectively circulate to the brain.
  3. Heat injury. Dehydration may cause heat injury from mild (such as heat cramps) to serious (such as heat exhaustion and life-threatening heatstroke). The risk of heat injury increases when you’re exercising vigorously and you don’t drink enough water.
  4. Kidney disease. Keeping hydrated can help make your kidneys work more easily. Chronic dehydration is linked to increased risk of kidney disease, such as kidney failure.
  5. Severe dehydration may contribute to cause cerebral edema (swelling of the brain), seizures, coma, or even death.

You also need plenty of fluid to help keep the nasal cavities moist and lubricate your mucus membranes. In other words, good hydration is important to keep your mucus thin and loose – this is particularly important when you have sinus problem such as sinus infection.

Your urine is the easy guideline to tell whether you’re being hydrated or dehydrated. The lighter your urine means more hydrated you are. Just make sure to drink about eight-8-ounces glasses of water every day!

Best fruit juices to drink for sinus infection

Juicing may be one of fun ways to include more fruits to your diet, plus you can get more fluid to keep hydrated – this is especially true if you don’t enjoy eating whole fruits.

The next question, what is the best fruit juice to help treat sinus infection? Actually, most fruits are good when you’re feeling sick. But when it comes to help improve the inflammation and infection of sinuses, here are some you need to prioritize!

Grapefruit orange juice

The combination of grapefruits, orange, and limes could be your vitamin C monster. All of these fruits are rich in vitamin C, which is essential for immune system booster. Vitamin C is required by the body to promote the production of white blood cells and antibody so your body can help fight against the infection more easily.

On the other hand, vitamin C deficiency weakens your body immune system – leading to poor ability to fight infection, delayed wound healing, and impaired immune response. This deficiency can be a nightmare when you have sinus infection!

Carrot and apple juice

Carrots are high in beta-carotene, and your body breaks down it into vitamin A. Vitamin A is required for a number of functions such as to help regulate your body immune system by keeping enough T-cells (fighter cells). It is also a booster for the activity of white blood cells.

Apple is a great source of antioxidants such as quercetin, phloridzin, and catechin. It also has polyphenol properties. Apple polyphenol may help reduce pain and inflammation.

Carrot apple juice is not only helpful for your immune booster, but also rich in anti-inflammatory properties.

Fruit delight

If you’re looking for more satisfying about your flavor palette, a yummy fruit delight is a nice idea. For example, try tropical fruit delight with mangoes, strawberries, and lime – these fruits are rich in both vitamin A and C.

You can also add wheat germ to get vitamin E, an antioxidant which is essential to help protect cells of your immune system from dangerous oxidative damage.

Strawberries and kiwis juice

Another idea to get more vitamin C, make a tasty juice with kiwis and strawberries. If necessary, add mint – this will make this juice even better!

Mint can help increase the flavor, giving a fresh kick. Bonus, it is also loaded with some essential substances for your immune booster such as vitamin A and magnesium. Magnesium deficiency may weaken the immune system.

Pineapple juice

Pineapple is loaded with vitamin C and bromelain (protein-digesting enzyme), making it as a natural anti-inflammatory agent.

It is still not fully known whether pineapple can help treat sinusitis pain. However some studies have showed that the nutrient contents in pineapple are quite helpful to ease pain and inflammation. For example, one study suggests that pineapple bromelain may help ease mild knee pain in adults.

But it’s also important to consume pineapple in moderation. Excessive consumption could be counterproductive, especially for your stomach and digestive system.

What else?

Other fruits containing antioxidants, immune booster, and anti-inflammatory properties include; cherry, watermelon, papaya, pomegranate, tomatoes, or other berries (such as cranberry and acai berry).

What to remember?
  1. You should not rely on specific fruit /food. To gain the most benefit, choose a varied diet with a wide range of healthy foods.
  2. Pure 100% fruit juice is high in essential nutrients. But it is high in sugar and calories. It also doesn’t have the same fiber that whole-raw fruits have. Too much juice is bad for your weight control. That’s why, a single cup of pure juice a day is enough! If you crave more, sparkling water with juice may help. Drinking 2-3 cups of water-juice mixture a day is still OK.
  3. Go for more whole fruits! The most effective way to get more nutrients from fruits is to eat the whole fruit.
  4. What you eat can help (see also diet for sinus infection), but it should be followed with other home remedies so you can boost your recovery more quickly!

In general, sinus infection doesn’t pose to serious complications. It is usually mild and will heal in time. But if it doesn’t get better after 7-10 days, see a doctor! In a few cases, it also can be serious – especially true if it’s linked to particular health condition.

Article sources:
  1. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16373990
  2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19172691
  3. http://www.livescience.com/45487-pineapple-nutrition.html
  4. http://www.webmd.com/diet/ss/slideshow-juice-wars