These easy home remedies to get your taste back after a sinus infection are tried and true! My family has a history of sinus problems! We have chronic nasal inflammation, nasal infections, deviated septum, and allergic reactions that cause loss of our ability to breathe well through our noses, smell well, and thus decreased ability to taste!
One of the most annoying things about sinus infections, and a stuffy nose, is the loss of taste! The loss of taste is caused by inflammation that prevents air (and air-born particles) from reaching your olfactory nerve (which is responsible for smelling.) And since your ability to taste depends on your ability to smell, that lack of airflow also reduces your ability to taste!
Sinus infections can be caused by viral infections and bacterial sinus infections, allergic reactions, or runny noses from a cold. If your sinus infection is caused by a bacterial infection you may need to seek medical treatment for antibiotics. You’ll need to get that bad bacteria (or underlying cause) under control first, then you can work on getting your taste buds working again!
Home Remedies To Get Your Taste Back After a Sinus Infection
The best place to start is to reduce inflammation in your nasal passages. When you open up your sinuses and facilitate drainage, your sense of smell (and therefore your senses of taste) will return faster. The good news is there are so many home remedies and natural treatments that can bring your relief and speed up your recovery!
Manual Home Remedies
Neti Pot with saline irrigation is helpful to wash out signs of infection. Nasal irrigation helps clear inflammation. You can purchase over-the-counter options like NeilMed Sinus Rinse at any pharmacy.
*For my little kids, I always keep the little remedies saline nose drops! They are a life saver to keep nursing babies able to breathe through their noses well!
Mix 1 cup warm water and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt till salt is dissolved to make the saline rinse. Use a Neti Pot or squeeze spray bottle or eye dropper to get the saline solution into your nostrils. Repeat 4 times a day to relieve stuffiness and get air flow = taste!
*Refrain from dairy! Don’t eat dairy foods till your taste is back, and things are normal again. Dairy products increase mucus production.
*Drink lots of distilled water, fresh veggie juices, broths, bone broth, and herbal tea! Drinking these liquids helps to get mucus flowing and increases airflow! (Airflow will increase your ability to taste!) Adding cayenne pepper to your broths can bring relief even faster!
*Do not blow your nose with force. Force pushes mucus back into your sinuses.
*Eat a mucus-reducing diet of raw foods, eliminate sugar, and dairy, and lower your salt intake!
Over The Counter Treatments
Nasal sprays like Flonase, help to reduce inflammation and nasal congestion. However, you can become dependent on these sprays too… So they may not be your best option. Beware* Nasap sprays have side effects, you must follow directions, and do not overuse!
My son used too much of a good nasal spray and it caused an uncontrollable bloody nose that required medical packing (think nose tampon) to stop. Some nasal sprays are nasal steroids and can only be used a few times before they cause swelling in the nasal passages. (Have you experienced that too?)
Herbal Home Remedies to Get Taste Back
There are so many good hers that fan help you get air flowing well through your nose and sinuses!
Start taking flax oil! Flax oil reduces inflammation in our bodies, nasal cavities, and sinus cavities!
Fenu-Thyme from Natures Way relieves sinus congestion so the air can flow, and thus taste!
Fresh Ginger Root can be crushed and used in a poultice on the forehead and nose to stimulate nasal drainage.
Grape Seed Extract is a powerful antioxidant that also reduces inflammation! (Less inflammation = more airflow = ability to taste!)
Herbal Teas: Anise, Fenugreek, Marshmallow, and Red Clover all help to clear sinus congestion.
Horehound herb helps relieve symptoms.
Garlic – Garlic extract or concentrated garlic (like Garlinase 5000 (my favorite) stimulates your immune system and has anti-bacterial properties that help fight infection! (This is good for you in so many ways… Including your heart, blood pressure, and cholesterol!)
Mullein reduces inflammation and soothes irritation!
Breathe Easy Tea by Traditional Medicines
Turmeric Extract has strong anti-inflammatory properties to reduce inflammation.
I always keep a couple of boxes of Breathe Easy Tea from Traditional Medicines in the cupboard! This is great if someone in your home has allergies, a cold, or just can’t breathe well! Plus sipping hot tea just helps on its own!
Vitamins
Multi-Vitamins – Multivitamins and minerals help your overall health. I like the Kal brand whole food multivitamins! they’re packed with so much good stuff, and easy for your body to use! It’s a little more expensive than what you’d get a Walmart, but when it comes to vitamins, you get what you pay for, and it’s worth the price to feel good!
Vitamin A & beta carotene will enhance your immune system, and protect against colds, flu, and infections. Plus they help maintain healthy mucus membranes.
Vitamin C with bioflavonoids at 3000 mg per day boosts your immune system and actually decreases mucus! (Rosehips are a good herbal source of vitamin C) I like to keep Ester C on hand.. It’s combined with calcium to be easier on the tummy, but it also stays in your system much longer than regular vitamin C! This is the kind I use, and I take 3 per day when I need it:
Vitamin E! Vitamin E speeds your healing. This will be in your multi-vitamin, but if you’re not taking one, get a good vitamin E!
Health Food Home Remedies To Get Your Taste Back
Probiotics:
Acidophilus and other probiotics replace good bacteria in your body that antibiotics kill, and help to balance bad bacteria in your body. All the good bacteria in your body will be killed if you were taking an antibiotic to get over a sinus infection. And if you have a build-up of bad bacteria in your body, adding good bacteria will help balance it out!
(I like to make Kefir, a source of acidophilus and so many other strains of healthy probiotic bacteria. Kefir is packed with good guys (good bacteria) that keep bad bacteria from overgrowing in our bodies! I like to think about it as fighting fire with fire! Learn more about kefir and how to make it with Lisa at farmhouse on boone!)
Quercetin with Bromelain
If your sinus infection or chronic sinusitis is caused by allergins… You’ll like this one: Quercetin is a bioflavinoid that is extremely helpful at protecting your body against allergins.
And, if you take Quercetin with bromelain (a digestive enzyme) it will make the quercetin much more powerful. This combination helps reduce allergic responses in your body & nasal passages.
Other Options:
Raw Thymus Glandular supplements protect immune functions and also promote healthy mucus membranes!
Local Bee Pollen – This increases your immunity and speeds up healing. (If you’ve never taken bee pollen before, start small with 1/2 a teaspoon a day and work your way up to a tablespoon a day.)
Essential Oil Home Remedies to Regain Taste
Use essential oils in a humidifier, defuser, or in a bowl of steaming hot water to inhale to relieve sinus pressure and increase airflow!
Eucalyptus Essential Oil – Eucalyptus oil opens up capillaries and really helps you to breathe through your nose and sinuses!
I keep this in my medicine cupboard always! It’s so comforting to rub on your kids’ feet (gets absorbed through feet) when they’ve got a cold or stuffy nose. I also put it in the defuser and on the fan pad of my humidifiers always. Plus it makes the house smell so good! This is the one I use:
The 2 other main essential oils that help to breathe and get air flowing through your nose and sinuses to include:
- Peppermint Oil
- Rosemary Oil
Home Remedy Tools You May Need To Regain Taste
Use a COOL MIST humidifier by your bed to help clear your sinus passages while you sleep. Dry air can be your worst enemy, the humidifier makes a huge difference!
I always make sure to have at least 2 humidifiers in my house… Because when someone has a stuffy nose, chances are another person will too! These make such a huge difference in nasal air-flow!
Use a small diffuser with 100% eucalyptus essential oil in your home or office. (Eucalyptus oil is also anti-bacterial, so it’ll help keep you healthy in multiple ways!
*No cost option here… You can always take a hot shower to steam your sinuses out and get air flowing! This is also a great time to clean out your nose!
How Long Will It Take To Regain Your Sense of Taste?
We all heal at different speeds, so, unfortunately, there’s no set time in which you will regain your sense of taste. But we do know that the faster you open your sinuses, clear the infection, and reduce inflammation, the faster your healing occurs. With proper treatment, you could be enjoying your food again within a few days, but it can also take a few weeks :/
Unfortunately, sometimes it takes several months to regain your taste… This is usually because of chronic sinus infections (because they’re harder to overcome.)
How Can I Prevent Loss of Taste in the Future?
Keeping your sinuses healthy is key to preventing taste loss in the future!
Preventing sinus infections from happening in the first place is the best way to keep your taste buds working and enjoy your food.
If you’re like my family and get seasonal allergies, make regular sinus irrigation with a neti pot a regular routine during allergy seasons!
You may also want to go see an ENT doctor about treatment options for allergies. They can treat you more with prescription allergy medications that prevent sinus and nasal inflammation.
Lost Your Sense of Taste?
If a sinus infection has caused a nasal blockage and loss of taste, then reducing inflammation is key to getting your taste back. However, If you’ve tried Home Remedies to Get Your Taste Back after Sinus Infection, and you’re still not finding relief, it’s time to see an ENT specialist.
I hope you’re tasting your food better after following suggestions on Home Remedies to Get Your Taste Back after Sinus Infection. You may also enjoy these Natural Remedy posts!
After high school, I worked at Placerville Health Foods for 3 years while going to college. It was my dream job, and I learned so much about taking care of our health naturally! I hope you enjoyed this article, and these posts:
How To Prepare and Use Medicinal Herbs
Most Important Medicinal Herbs Uses & Where They Grow
How To Grow Beets & Why You Want To
How To Help Babies With A Cold Get Better
It’s lіke you read my mind! You seem to know so much about getting your taste back after a sinus infection like
yоu ѡrote the book in it or something. Could use more pictures, but excellent blog.
A fantastic read. Ӏ will definitеly be back.
Losing smell & taste is no joke. You don’t realize what wonderful senses they are until you’re missing them! Love these suggestions!!! Thanks for sharing!
I love the natural ideas to try! And practical tips like refraining from dairy. Thanks for sharing 😁
I needed this! Although it wasn’t a cold that took my smell away haha I haven’t had the same smelling abilities since I had covid. So, this is great anyway and I will try some of these. Thank you!
Thank you for all the wonderful tips!