I agree, but I wish to say that adding a little salt has done wonders for me in the past. I remember I sat on a beach once using sea water inhaled from my hand, and strings of yelllow mucus kept coming, and no, the water did not harm me at all - and it was the South China Sea, so certainly not the cleanest of sea water. but sufficiently salty that whatever was in it was neutralized so to speak).

Also, I have discovered that cutting all carbs is essential when one has an infection of any sort. Bacteria live on blood sugar, and your body produces mucus in response to those sugars, so it is a double whammy. For example many people react to lactose from milk. Personally I react to maltose from grain and sucrose. So, even when your congestion is due to a cold, the blood sugar problem worsens it.

Traditionally, we have been taught to drink lucozade or sweetened lemon drinks or something like that when we are sick. Some people turn to tonic water when they are sick. Although I approve of tonic water for the quinine, when people are actually running a fever, we are inundated with sweet stuff - some people even eat icecream to 'soothe' a sore throat.

Stop it.

Cutting all bread, dairy, pasta, sugary treats and sweet fruits can be hard, and you won't notice any improvement until your blood sugar drops sufficiently. Eat some fat: a spoon of real butter (just about pure fat, very low lactose) or some bacon if you feel a bit wobbly during withdrawal. But I promise, making your blood sugar go down will help with the congestion (as well as using the neti pot). If you actually feel like you are going to pass out when doing this, then have a teaspoon of honey in a little warm water, preferably manuka honey, but otherwise keep at it. I am not advising this course of action if one is diabetic - a radically dropped blood sugar can then be quite dangerous. But even then one should consider lowering the sugar intake, but slowly, while testing blood sugar often.