Sinusitis

[marmaduke]

How can you treat sinusitis?

[woofgang]

otc decongestant tablets or sprays, steam inhalation with or without aromatherapy, netti pot (never tried it) may need antibiotics if the infection takes hold, accupressure

[AB Editor]

For all medical questions, we strongly advise you to seek professional advice from your doctor or a healthcare professional.  Please do not rely on, or wait for, advice from Answerbank users.

[smudge]

If you suffer from chronic sinusitis like me, your best bet would be to visit your GP for medication. If it's mild, you could try Sinutab or Sudafed tablets.

[Wraith]

I suffer with acute sinusitis. Before it was diagnosed I thought it was just catarrh and just took decongestants. Whenever I went to see my doctor I would say catarrh again and he would give me antibiotics.

The sinusitis would often build up so badly that it would start a migraine. When this happened I would often take more and more painkillers to ease the pain. They would work for a while, but wouldn't last long. I gave up in the end and went to see a new doctor. He examined me and sent me for a head x-ray. His diagnosis was acute sinusitis.

He gave me a few good tips.

 

1) Sinusitis is often triggered by an outside agent. i.e. fumes of some sort, dust, pollen etc. By finding out if I had a trigger and avoiding it I was able to reduce the number of attacks. I found that smoke often set it off.

 

2) Cut back on dairy products. My doctor told me that the lactose in milk helped to increase mucus production and could often make the problem worse. I don't drink milk now. Instead I use soya milk. It has made the biggest difference to me.

 

3) If I get an attack use steam inhalation. I find this only works for short periods of time, but it is effective. Alternatively I find that lying back in a hot bath of water, allowing my head to submerge without my face going under, helps to drain the build up of mucus.

 

Another thing I tried was to change to drinking green tea. It is lower in caffeine than normal tea and is great without milk.

[smudge]

Wraith - I do sympathise with you. I also had an x-ray which showed I had scarred sinus tissue. I must confess, apart from short term relief like sprays, (which is not recommended for long term use), anti-biotics is the only thing that works for me, especially when I get yet another painful debilitating flare up. It has plagued me most of my adult life. My GP told me that sinus operations aren't always successful, so I shall just soldier on.

[Kay]

A tried and trusted method. 1 pint luke warm water in a small bowl add 1 teaspoon of salt and stir. Make a "Cup" of one hand and inhale the water into one nostril whilst pressing the other.Dont swallow,repeat on other nostril,the do both sides again. A bit messy but it really clears the sinuses and those headaches.

[Vasquoy]

I used to suffer badly from sinusitis and a rather mad friend of mine suggested cutting down on caffeine, dairy products and wheat (the cure for everything, I know) and to also protect the nose when going from cold to hot environments, by wearing a scarf or snood or similar

 

Whether there was any truth in them, I don't know but I have only had one attach in 5 years???

[tracymort]

i definately would go with cutting back on dairy, it's responsible for so many health problems!

If you get it often you might want to find out if you have an allergies or intolerances.  My husband found relief in using hopi ear candles (found in good health shops).  I know it looks weird but they really helped!