Sinusitis Natural Treatment Oak Park IL

Alternative Medicine Cabinet - End Sinusitis Naturally

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By Sara Altshul

If you’ve got chronic sinusitis, you’ve probably bounced from doctor to doctor, trying countless antibiotics, enduring hellish sinus drainage—maybe even undergoing surgery. And more than likely, your headaches, congestion, and exhaustion haven’t improved. Fortunately, a number of alternative therapies can help you hop off the sinus-treatment merry-go-round.

Sinusitis is an infection in the passages behind your cheeks, nose, and eyes that often follows a cold or crops up during allergy season. Symptoms may include a green or yellow nasal discharge, postnasal drip, headache, or facial tenderness. A toothache, fever, or exhaustion can also signal an attack of sinusitis. So can decreased sense of smell. An infection can last a week, a month—even years.

The good news? You can cure sinusitis yourself, no matter how long you’ve had the condition—if you address its multiple causes. So asserts Robert S. Ivker, DO, assistant clinical professor in the departments of family medicine and otolaryngology, University of Colorado School of Medicine, and author of Sinus Survival (Tarcher/Putnam, 2000). Other healers, such as Roberta Roberts Mittman, LAc, a licensed acupuncturist and founder of the Park Avenue Center for Well Being in New York City, agree. In Mittman’s experience, natural approaches, including diet, acupuncture, herbs, and supplements can keep you free of sinus problems permanently.

Ivker blames air pollution for the rising number of sinusitis cases. “Most major cities are significantly polluted, and the problem is worsening,” he says. “Since our nose and sinuses are our primary air filters, every breath in a polluted environment introduces irritants that can cause inflammation, swelling, and increased mucus production.”

Additionally, says Ivker, when your immune system is sluggish, either from general neglect or frequent courses of antibiotics, fungi such as candida and yeast can overwhelm the body and trigger chronic sinusitis. “Stress can reduce our immune system’s ability to fight off infection,” adds Betsy Blazek-O’Neill, MD, medical director of the Integrated Medicine Program at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. “Stress management efforts are key to preventing sinusitis—and everything else that afflicts us.”

Acupuncture to the rescue

“Many of my patients have chronic sinusitis, and have tried other treatments first,” says Mittman, who combines acupuncture with diet, herbs, and supplements to blunt allergies. “There’s no one-size-fits-all treatment for sinusitis,” she says. “I use an eclectic approach to help the body heal itself.” Depending on their condition, Mittman’s patients generally start feeling better after three to five acupuncture treatments—or sooner.

“I’ve had sinus problems on and off for years, mostly due to seasonal allergies,” says Anne Shaner, a 33-year-old New Yorker who works in television production. “Last year, I had bronchitis in addition to sinusitis, and I was in a lot of pa...

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