It is hard to find someone who is not affected by sinusitis during at least some part of the year. Spring brings pollens that can irritate sinus tissue. Summer brings dust. Winter produces dryness. Autumn brings more pollens.
Any seasonally-influenced inflammation of the sinuses can cause them to swell and close off, making a warm, damp and mucus-ridden environment that is perfect for bacterial or fungal overgrowth.
While these environmental situations and conditions don’t cause sinusitis, they can most assuredly facilitate it. There will always be pollens, molds, bacteria and virus in the air. They will always land in your sinuses. If the conditions for their growth are good, they will multiply and cause trouble.
Indeed, most sinusitis sufferers fear environmental factors that can cause flare-ups year round. Those who are prone to sinusitis have often endured multiple courses of antibiotics. They have tried steam and saline mists, even surgery, all to no avail.
They are all too familiar with the side effects of antibiotics, the short-term benefit of neti-pots rinsing with salt solutions and have suffered the blame of medical practitioners for “not eating right;” as if it were that simple.
Yet these infections can cause pounding headaches, unbearable head pressure and sleepless nights. Antibiotics can have awful side effects like diarrhea, usually lead to yeast infections and can badly compromise the immunity system with overusage. Sinus surgery is painful, expensive and often provides poor results. What’s a breather to do?
We’re all breathers.
First let’s consider what may be the active instigator of a sinus infection. While there are many dietary issues that can affect how the immunity system performs, and everyone’s immunity system is in a different condition depending on their history of antibiotic usage, there would be no infection and subsequent immune response without a pathogen such as bacteria or fungus.
Let us assume for the time being that no one eats perfectly, breathes perfectly pure air or maintains a constantly positive mental outlook. After all, we’re human. Even if your aura is imbalanced, we have to lay some blame on bacteria and fungus. In the end, they may be exploiting an imbalanced host, but an imbalance without pathogens is a debilitated state, not a diseased state.
A diseased state occurs when the normal fauna and flora (resident bacteria and fungus that live in your sinuses) reaches such a level that your immunity system cannot keep it from growing out of control.
In this state, the toxins produced by the fungi and the damage caused by the bacteria can reach a point where the sufferer experiences significant swelling and pain. This pain can appear in your forehead, your jaw and even your teeth as the sinuses are in or near all of these areas. A diseased state is an imbalance where the bacteria and fungus are growing out of control and causing sickness and pain throughout your body.
Unfortunately and too often, many sufferers wait until the diseased state gets so bad that it is unbearable. At this point, medical intervention becomes inevitable. Until you are suffering from a serious sinus infection it is difficult if not outright impossible to get an appointment with a medical doctor or a prescription for an antibiotic. Having to wait until your health has degraded to the point where the current medical establishment will finally treat you is unacceptable.
However, discussing the current health care options in the United States today is the subject of another book. If your stove catches on fire, do you stand back and wait until the house burns so that the fire department will come to your aid?
Or do you do something about it? One needs to act in a preventative manner and be proactive before the infection gets to the point where medical intervention is the last resort. Furthermore, one needs to find a healthier and more appropriate means for dealing with the recovery and maintenance of sinus health than the antibiotic standard of care.
It is our goal with this chapter to empower the reader with an understanding of what causes the sinuses to become infected and then to provide them with the information and tools to deal with an arising infection before it becomes a problem.
Furthermore, it is important that the reader gain an understanding of how to maintain their sinuses in a healthy manner so as to avoid future problems.
While certain suggested products are mentioned in this book that can act as tools to deal with the condition, these tools are archetypes and by no means the only ones that will work.