How do nasal decongestants work?

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How does it make it seem as though your nose isn’t stuffy anymore? How come I can breathe through one nostril and not the other when I’m congested? How does fixing your positioning (I.e.) putting your head higher help with congestion? 🙂 ur welcome for my 18273729101 questions & ty for ur answers 🙂

In: Biology

5 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

When you are congested, think of it as your nose becoming more swollen and less air is able to go through the smaller gap.
You can use drops/spray that help make that gap larger, allow easier breathing, by making the swelling go away temporarily.

That’s also what makes decongestants dangerous (coming from life long user who had this explained by ENT specialist). After using decongestant, the swelling will become worse, especially when you use it longer and more often than recommended.
The only alternative after that is a surgery, which can help relieve the swelling, by shrinking/burning the capillaries with laser, for a year or two (or longer if in you’re lucky).

Now, the way I understand it, but this is just my assumption based on experience, the swelling is a kind of allergic reaction, and mucus gets produced as a result (stuffy swollen nose). So decongestant not only reduces swelling but also seems to reduce your reaction to whatever is causing the swelling in the first place. Which probably isn’t that good either, considering it would be bacteria/viruses, which your body is tried to respond to and have them removed.

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