What Causes Nosebleeds?

Light nosebleeds are quite common and can occur due to irritation (dry nasal lining) or colds, or a sharp knock to the nose.

The nose contains many tiny blood vessels and if the mucous membrane lining the nose gets too dry, or irritated (from colds, allergies, sinusitis, etc.), then bleeding can occur.

Most nosebleeds occur on the front of the nasal septum (tissue separating the sides of the nose) and these nosebleeds stop fairly easily by either sitting or lying still and allowing the blood to clot, or by pinching gently on either side of the nose above the nostrils.

home remedy for nosebleed

Natural Remedies For Nosebleeds

Children are usually more susceptible to nosebleeds than adults. I’m not referring to a nosebleed caused by a sharp blow to the nose – we all know why those occur. I’m talking about nosebleeds that occur when you have not sustained any injury to your nose, or perhaps only a light blow or jostling. Or perhaps you’ve only been running around. Perhaps they occur during sleep.

Whatever the circumstances, if you or your child is getting recurrent or chronic nosebleeds, there are a few things you can do about it. And trust me, I know what I’m talking about, as my daughter suffered this exact same problem!

1. Supplement with Bioflavonoids

Bioflavonoids (including Rutin, Hesperidin and Quercetin) are plant compounds that act synergistically with vitamin C to strengthen vein and capillary walls so they don’t tear and bleed so easily. They are produced by plants to protect themselves from bacteria, parasites and cell injury.

If your gums bleed when you brush your teeth, or your nose bleeds when it’s dry or you blow it forcefully, or you’re prone to anal or rectal fissures, or varicose veins, then you definitely need to supplement with Bioflavonoids.

Bioflavonoids have also been shown to reduce back and leg pain, promote circulation, treat and prevent cataracts, stimulate bile production, and lower cholesterol levels – so you’ll receive a lot of side-benefits too! Get a brand that contains at least 50 mg each of Rutin, Hesperidin and Quercetin. If you also suffer from Hay Fever, take 400mg of Quercetin per day as Quercetin regulates histamine release from the cells and you’ll see a big improvement (if not elimination) of your allergies.

2. Supplement with Vitamin C

As mentioned above, vitamin C works synergistically with bioflavonoids to prevent bleeding (and help bleeding clot faster) in all mucous membranes. Mucous membranes are the type of tissue on your lips, inside of your nose, genitals and intestinal tract. Vitamin C is an antioxidant required for at least 300 different metabolic functions in the body, including adrenal gland function, tissue growth and repair, protection against infection, and cancer prevention.

Vitamin C in its common ascorbic acid form can cause diarrhea in higher dosages. Therefore, you may want to get Vitamin C in mineral ascorbate form (e.g. calcium ascorbate). High doses of magnesium can also cause diarrhea so avoid vitamin C in magnesium ascorbate form, if you are susceptible to diarrhea. The mineral ascorbate form is also preferable as it’s more readily absorbed – ascorbic acid has to first be converted to mineral ascorbates by the body prior to absorption.

Another delicious way to get your daily vitamin C in mineral ascorbate form (for ongoing use) is by using Emergen-C– handy single-serving packets naturally flavored in a variety of yummy flavours. These are especially useful for kids since they are like drinking a ‘fizzy juice’ and kids love them. Raspberry, lemon-lime, and Super Orange are the favourite flavours in our family.

3. Apply Comfrey Salve Inside The Nose

Comfrey root in an herbal salve is the fastest wound healer I’ve ever tried. I carry a tin of Burt’s Bees Res-Q Ointment (comfrey salve)in my purse, keep one in the kitchen and have one beside my bed that I use on my lips every night. At the same time, my daughter coats the inside of each of her nostrils with a thick coat of comfrey salve. The comfrey salve not only keeps the lining of the nose lubricated (thus reducing the chance of tears) but it will heal any micro-tears or abrasions while you sleep. NOTE: Unfortunately, as so often happens, the company Burt’s Bees was bought out once it became successful, and the new owner is now downgrading the ingredients; they greatly reduced the amount of comfrey present and instead of actual leaf and root it now only contains ‘comfrey leaf extract’. So I went searching for something else that was just as good and I believe I found something even better from another company I’ve loved for a long time (still original owner!) called Herb Pharm. That can be found here Comfrey Salve.

Once the heavy blood flow from a nosebleed has subsided, I will “plug” my daughter’s nostrils with comfrey and this will help the blood to clot much faster. After bleeding has completely subsided, we wait a few hours and then apply another liberal coating (gently) inside the nostrils.

4. What’s Your WiFi Exposure?

Here’s something most people don’t know: Nosebleeds are one of the top symptoms caused by microwave radiation; cell phones, wireless internet, cordless phones, Wii, Playstation, ipads, etc. etc. A friend of mine’s daughter used to have hemorrhagic nosebleeds at night. The first time she came into her daughter’s room in the morning and found her lying in a pool of blood (all over her pillow, pyjamas, down the side of the bed), she nearly had a coronary! They gradually escalated until she was getting them every night or two. If she was lying on her back, she would choke on the blood and wake up, if on her side, she would just sleep through it. That’s when her Mum got serious about finding a solution. She removed all the cordless phones from their house, and replaced them with corded phones, switched their WiFi internet to cable internet and made sure all cell phones were turned off in the house. Presto. No more nosebleeds.

I have a similar story. My daughter had always been prone to nosebleeds when knocked on the nose. Then, one fall, she began getting them numerous times a week, even though she had not been hit on the nose. Here’s what changed: although our house is free of WiFi, cellphones and cordless phones, her school had WiFi, so she was being irradiated for 6 hours/day at school. Then she was training competitive gymnastics (3 hours/day, 3 days/week) and her gymnastics studio was only 100 metres away from a huge powerline with 5 cell towers mounted on top of it. Through experimentation, we learned that if we kept her home from school at least 2 mornings/week (on the days she went to gymnastics) then she would not get any nosebleeds!

So, this is definitely something you want to test by removing it from your environment. If you’re not ready to get rid of all your wireless conveniences. You can do a test-run by unplugging everything from the wall before bed every – it is not enough to turn things off (we have tested this) you actually have to unplug everything from the wall.

Admittedly, if you live in an apartment in New York, even if you remove all microwave radiation from your own apartment, all your neighbours are likely irradiating you anyway. So in that case, you’d need to purchase a ‘radiation tent’ that encloses your bed, so at least when you’re sleeping you are shielded. Do not forget to also shield underneath the bed, to protect against radiation coming up from the floor.

Reducing your radiation is also one of the best things you can do for cancer prevention (brain tumours and leukaemia are now the top two causes of death in children). If your radiation exposure is not so high, you may just need to use radiation-blocking curtains, or window liners in your bedroom instead. People with severe symptoms will often buy a radiation meter so they can test specifically, or they use it when looking for a safer place to move to!

5. Best Ways To Stop A Nosebleed

So until you’ve implemented all the steps above to prevent nosebleeds from occuring, what is the best way to stop a nosebleed once it has started? Through frequent experimentation – until we used the tools above to stop them – my daughter found it did not make any difference to the rate or duration of a nosebleed whether she sat up, or lay down, whether we pinched the upper septum (above the nostrils), or not. The best thing we found was for her to sit or recline in the position that felt best to her and just hold tissues under her nose until the blood clotted and then she had to slowly remove the last tissue, to prevent breaking the clot.

We also discovered that if (often at the end of the day) my daughter needed to blow her nose, it was best for her to go in the shower first (we have a chlorine filter on our shower – very important) to loosen the mucus and snot and moisten the tissue (from the steam) and then go ahead and blow. On winter days, we would also apply the comfrey salve inside her nostrils – and rub it in a bit – before she got in the shower. Then liberal application of comfrey salve again, after the shower as well.

If she got a cold, or stuffy nose, then using a Neti Pot before bed was the absolute best thing – to both keep her nose from drying out and also so she could breathe more easily at night.

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