Sinus Infection Treatment- Without Antibiotics?

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A gentleman named Jason H. recounted to me recently how he managed to treat a sinus infection without the use of antibiotics. Jason has a long history of 15 years of chronic sinus problems, and he has undergone 4 sinus surgeries. He is happy about his last operation to remove polyps and fix a deviated septum, and he has also begun using pulsating nasal irrigation with the Grossan Hydro Pulse® device. Nonetheless, he recently managed to come down with another sinus infection. Concerned that he has taken too many antibiotics in his life, he decided to attack the problem using the nasal irrigator. At this point a disclaimer is in order. Neither Jason nor the author of this article are doctors or medical professionals, we are both just sinus sufferers. As such neither of us is qualified to offer medical advice. I would personally urge anyone with a sinus infection, particularly those with chronic problems, to see an ENT specialist.

In any case Jason used his nasal irrigation system 6 times on the day he realized he had an infection, which is a lot, but the next day he felt a lot better. He continued to use the system once or twice a day thereafter, as he normally would, and after three or four days he felt like he was completely over the problem. It was the first time he had ever dealt with a sinus infection without resorting to the use of antibiotics.

I personally know it is possible for the body to heal itself with sinus infections although the process can be long and painful. When I was much younger I used to say “when I get a cold it is really a lulu”, and I would typically be sick for 2 to 3 weeks. It wasn’t unusual for me to be bedridden for 2-4 days with severe headaches and nasal discharge and tearing in the eyes during that period as well. Of course colds don’t last that long, and I now know that what I was experiencing was a sinus infection.

Clearly the body will eventually heal itself, but the healing process can be much faster using proper medications, such as antibiotics in this case. However, I too began to wonder if I was taking too many antibiotics after a number of years. At present I’m pleased to say that my nasal irrigator keeps the amount of antibiotics I use down to a low number.

The main benefit of pulsating nasal irrigation is for prevention, however, rather than treatment of sinus infections that have already taken hold, as Jason used it. I’m personally coming to the conclusion that this procedure would benefit almost everybody. I used to be a person who would become sick fairly regularly, but now I almost never become ill. I’ve gone over 1 ½ years without a cold or sinus infection, and it only happened on that occasion because I was exhausted before a long overseas flight. At that point I simply could not hold the infection off. I sometimes hear about people who don’t have chronic sinusitis and who come down with colds, and this tends to surprise me. I used to be the one who got sick all the time, but now that is almost never the case. If I do feel a cold coming on I’ll use my nasal irrigator two or even three times a day for 1-2 days (I normally use it twice a day in any case). If I feel a possible infection coming on I’ll also take 5 mg of prednisone, and I normally also use a steroid spray, flonase, although there are a number of such products on the market. For about five years now this regimen has worked well for me. One needs to be careful with prednisone, however, as it can cause harmful side-effects. I use it sparingly, and my doctor says it is not an issue.

Once again, I would recommend that most people seek advice from their doctor when they begin to fall ill. People like Jason and I, who have long histories battling sinus infection, can tell when we have one, but that is not the case for most people. There is no doubt, however, that pulsating nasal irrigation with a saline solution is a huge help, and I’m convinced it would help lower the number of colds caught by most people, even those who do not have chronic sinus problems. And it can be used even for treatment of a sinus infection, as Jason did, although it might be best to try this under a doctor’s supervision.

Walt Ballenberger is founder of http://www.postnasaldrip.net a resource web site for sinusitis sufferers like himself. For a free report entitled “Sinus Treatment Success Stories”, visit http://www.postnasaldrip.net and click on the Free Report link. This resource can be of significant help to chronic sinus sufferers.

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You feel terrible and your cold just won’t go away. Is it really a cold or has it turned into something more? Unfortunately, it can be difficult to tell the difference. Please be aware that you are not alone. Sinus infections affect millions of Americans every year. Depending on which of the four sinus cavities are affected the symptoms of a sinus infection may vary.

There are also different types of sinus infections, one being acute and the other being chronic. Interestingly, in 1999, the Mayo Clinic released its findings that fungus is likely the cause of nearly all cases of chronic sinusitis.

While acute sinusitis will normally last less than ten days and not longer than eight weeks, chronic sinusitis will normally last longer than eight weeks or occur more than four times per year with symptoms usually lasting longer than twenty days.

There are several different symptoms of an acute sinus infection, which may include nasal discharge, postnasal drip, facial pain, fever and possibly headaches.

Some common symptoms of a chronic sinus infection may include chronic soar throat, chronic nasal discharge, bad breath, prolonged facial pain, discomfort below the eyes or across the bridge of the nose, toothaches and even low-grade headaches.

It is quite easy to confuse a common cold with a sinus infection. One symptom that is common to both colds and sinus infections is a stuffy nose.

Thankfully, your health care professional is able to diagnose sinusitis using different methods which may include a physical examination, listening to your symptoms, taking X-rays, and quite possibly performing an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) or CT scan (computed tomography).

Many people have reported positive results when using a colloidal silver mineral supplement as a part of their treatment program for recurring sinus infections.

Michael Harader is an expert author who writes on various subjects including sinus infection, sinus infection treatment and sinus infection symptoms as well as other related and non-related topics.

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Sinus Drainage? What Is It?

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Annoying Sinus Drainage is a common complaint of people all over the world. The causes are many.

It will occur with bad colds, sore throats, flu, allergies, esophageal reflux, infection in the sinuses in one’s head, with temperature changes, eating and exposure to irritating fumes to name a few. Sinus drainage may be thin and watery and last only a short time or it may be thick and glue like in its nature and last for weeks or months. Chronic sinus drainage symptoms may occur mostly early in the morning when first awakening or last all day. Except when related to bad colds or infectious sore throats, it usually is not associated with pain. When thick, sinus drainage may cause problems with swallowing or present as a lump in the throat.

What people generally do not realize is that sinus drainage is present and necessary in every living human being. What is abnormal is sinus drainage symptoms. The average adult consuming adequate amounts of the right kinds of fluids at the right times during the day and night, will make approximately ½ gallon, (2 quarts), of mucus and saliva in their nose, throats, lungs and sinuses every day. You might think that you would drown in all of the liquid but obviously you don’t. The reason that you don’t is that the mucus and saliva are produced all the time (increasing in quantity around meal times) and we swallow it constantly.

You will swallow 5 to 6 times per minute and generally do not even think about it. Each time that you swallow, you swallow ½ to 1 teaspoon of mucus and saliva (your sinus drainage). If you do some calculations, 5 or 6 swallows per minute, 60 minutes every hour for 18 hours, you realize that a lot of stuff goes somewhere and you don’t even know it as long as the saliva remains thin and watery.

Dr. Gorden T McMurry http://www.yourdoctorondvd.com/ is a physician with over 30 years experience in the practice of medicine, seeing and treating patients on a daily basis. Through a series of informational DVD’s, The Guides To Healthy Living series, he is providing sound advice to people on health and life style issues to help them control, maintain and improve their health and well being. He developed the series for use in his practice and they were so successful that he decided to significantly expand the list of available titles and make them available to the public at large. You can contact Dr. McMurry at gorden@yourdoctorondvd.com

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Sinusitis and Biofilms - An Introduction - Part 2

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Properties of Biofilms

As mentioned, the scum layer produced by the biofilms seems to form a sort of protective barrier for the bacteria and other microorganisms it encases. The literature states that the bacteria in biofilms can be up to 500-1000 times more resistant to antibiotics than normal free-floating bacteria, and research is ongoing to determine the exact mechanisms to explain this. In addition, biofilms occasionally release a portion of their bacteria, and this discharge can migrate and cause infection at a new location. At present there are no simple methods available to test for the presence of biofilms, so it is not an easy task to determine if they are present in a patient’s nasal system. The slime or scum layer looks a great deal like normal mucus.

Status of Biofilm Research as it Pertains to Chronic Sinusitis

Research regarding biofilms and sinusitis is still in its early stages. Most scientific papers describing research into the subject have been attempts to prove the theory that biofilms are present in chronic sinusitis patients and that they are a factor in the condition. We are a long way from seeing studies that might test how beneficial a certain treatment might be, or even how an ENT could easily determine if a patient has biofilms in his nasal passages.

Available Treatments

Some people suggest that nasal irrigation can be beneficial for people with biofilms, and this is certainly a good idea for other reasons as well. In fact it may be the single best thing that people with chronic sinus problems could do for themselves in the opinion of this author. Some studies seem to indicate that the only cure at present is debridement, or physical removal of the substance by an ENT. Again, we are in the early days of research into the theory, so it will be years before it becomes main-stream and other treatment therapies are developed and tested. If I were desperate with sinus problems and had tried every known therapy with no success, (including topical fungal therapy, which is also a relatively new approach) I think I would try to contact one of the medical schools at the universities that are doing research on this topic and see what I could learn or if I might be included in one of their formal studies. Among these are the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, West Virginia University in Morgantown, the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, the Universite of Montreal in Canada, the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, Cambridge in England, Dartmouth College, the Center for Biofilm Engineering at Montana State University, and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, among others. I easily found extracts of papers written by all of these entities with a simple internet search on “biofilms”.

Conclusion

Research thus far shows a strong correlation between chronic sinusitis and the presence of biofilms in the nasal cavities of chronic sinusitis sufferers. Much more research to prove the theory definitively and to see it become a main-stream diagnosis remains to be done. At this point people are not even talking about such treatments as nasal sprays or other medications. Sinus sufferers should at least be aware of the issue and keep an eye on what research is being reported, as well as irrigating their noses with a saline solution daily. As noted above, there are a good number of research labs studying all aspects of biofilm research around the world, both medical and non-medical, so hopefully we will have some day an answer to the question posed at the beginning of this article and be able to effectively treat the group of people who continue to suffer from sinusitis despite years of treatment and multiple surgeries that do not bring permanent relief.

Walt Ballenberger is founder of http://www.postnasaldrip.net/ a resource web site for sinusitis sufferers like himself. For a free report entitled “Sinus Treatment Success Stories”, visit http://www.postnasaldrip.net/ and click on the Free Report link. This resource can be of significant help to chronic sinus sufferers.

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