Cures for Sinusitis
If you suffer from sinus infections you are not alone. More than 40 million Americans suffer from acute or chronic sinusitis. Just like you they are all looking for cures for sinusitis.
Curing sinusitis depends upon two things. The first is killing off the infection in your sinuses. The second is removing any blockages in the sinus and nasal areas to allow proper drainage. These constitute the short term cure. The long term cure depends upon what caused your sinusitis in the first place.
The short term cure is one that you should tackle in concert with your heath care professional. The usual regimen is antibiotics and decongestants. The antibiotic kills the infection and the decongestant opens the blockage. While there are many natural and alternative treatments you can administer along with conventional treatments that can enhance and speed up recovery, the medical cure is still the front line method recommended.
It is the long term cure and prevention that you need to take the primary role in. You should work with your health care professional to determine the root cause of your sinusitis. It could be a one time occurrence brought on by a cold. It could be due to allergies. It could be that you have a specific physiology that promotes conditions that increase the possibility of getting sinus infections.
Sometimes you may need to be insistent with your professional to determine the root cause. Often your practitioner may only be concerned with treatment of your immediate symptoms and be less concerned with what actually caused the infection in the first place. You need to be persistent in finding out the root cause. If you don’t, you may be repeating this scenario over and over.
Once you determine the underlying cause of your sinusitis, you can make some specific changes to your environment to decrease the chances of sinusitis returning. There are two parts to changing your environment. The first is to make some general changes that will decrease your propensity to get sinus infections no matter what the root cause and the second to address the conditions specific to what caused your sinusitis.
Water, water, water. One of the best ways to change your overall sinus health for the better is by using the cheapest resource available, water. Dry sinuses make it easier to get sinus infections. The mucus gets thicker and this makes it harder to drain. To keep your sinuses healthy you need to promote easy drainage. Making sure you keep your sinuses wet enough will help immensely.
There are two ways to keep your sinuses from getting too dry. Keep your body hydrated and keep your environment at healthy humidity levels. The first part is the easiest. Drink a lot of water. Keeping your body well hydrated by drinking at least 8 glasses of water during the day will keep your mucus thin and allow it to drain better. The easier it is for your mucus to drain the less chance you will have of getting a sinus infection.
You also want to keep your nasal passages moist for the same reasons. Indoor air, especially in the winter tends to be very dry. That dry air dries out not only your nasal areas but tends to suck moisture out of your whole body. The optimal humidity in your indoor environment should be between 35 and 45 percent relative humidity.
The heating system in your home, unless it has a built in humidifier will dry your air out. It is no wonder that the highest number of sinus infections occur between November and March. That is the time your heating system is working the most.
The best way to humidify your living space is to get a humidifier. If that is not in the budget, you can humidify your space by putting out containers of water and filling your bath tub and hanging wet towels. Not as efficient as a humidifier but certainly more economical.
You can easily tell if your living space is too dry. Do you get frequent static electric shocks in your home environment? If you do then your humidity levels are low. If you can introduce enough moisture to eliminate those shocks then you probably have brought your humidity up to an acceptable level.
Reduce your exposure to allergens. If you have determined that it is allergies that were the root cause of your sinus problems then you need to remove those allergens from your living environment.
Clean your air ducts. Air mites, dust, pollen, mold, bacteria all live in your air ducts. All the air in your home travels through these ducts many times during the day. Your air is being inundated with all of those allergens every time it recycles through your heating and ventilating system. Thats the air you are breathing into your body all day and night. Cleaning those air ducts will increase the quality of the air in your home and decrease the number of allergens.
Clean your carpets. The biggest allergen trap in your home could be your carpet. Some experts advocate taking all of the carpeting out of your home altogether. If you don’t want to get that extreme you should have your carpets cleaned by a reputable cleaning company. Check to see if the company uses processes that are good for you indoor environment. You want them to use cleaning agents that won’t add to the allergens in your living space. Things to avoid are petroleum products, ammonia and alcohol. Ask them to explain what cleaning agents they use and what residual may be left in the carpet.
Add some green. One of the best ways to improve the quality of air in your home is to grow plants. Plants naturally clean air. They are natural filters. Common house plants such as dwarf date palms, chrysanthemums, spider plants, English ivy and Boston ferns do a great job of removing many allergens and toxic substances from the air. It is recommended to have a minimum of two plants per 100 square feet of floor space.
These are just some of the ways you can improve your living environment. By increasing the quality of air in your home, removing allergens and keeping humidity levels in the good range, you will go a long way to prevent and lessen your sinusitis problems.
