Supplement Detective

By Curtis Alexander, Pharm.D.

Summary: The most common sinus infection treatment is antibiotics.  Ideally you should have the bug that is causing your sinus infection cultured as it could be viral or even fungal.  A natural – and very effective – natural treatment for sinus infections is sinus irrigation.  Especially at preventing chronic sinus infections.

Q: I get a few sinus infections every year.  Normally, they last for a week or so.  But this last one went on for weeks.  I’m miserable and am desperate enough that I’m considering the surgery.  Do you have any suggestions before I go that far?  I’d really be open to anything.

A: I struggled for about a year and a half to find a sinus infection treatment that really worked.

Actually, growing up and in college I had never had a sinus infection (to my knowledge).  It wasn’t until after the birth of my second son that I started to get them.

First there was the lack of sleep from a new baby in the house.  Then I got a cold that I just couldn’t seem to get rid of.  Finally, the cold migrated into my head.  It got so bad one night that when I was driving home from work I thought I was suffering from a migraine.

I couldn’t look at the sun at all and had to pull off to the side of the road.  By the time I got home I raced passed my wife and kids and straight to the darkest room in the house – a little windowless bathroom.  I sat there and just laid my head down with my eyes closed for a half hour.  My wife was obviously wondering what the problem was.

I explained to her that I was probably having a migraine.  Boy was my bubble burst when the doctor at the walk in clinic that night asked me to blow my nose.  He took one look at it and shook his head…”that’s no migraine…you have a raging sinus infection!”

Treatment Option #1: Antibiotics

Like most sinus infection sufferers the doctor immediately put me on Amoxicillin.  That did the trick…for a few weeks anyways.  When the sinus infection came back the doctor put me on a second course of a stronger antibiotic.

Same story.  Within a month or two the infections kept coming back.  Within 6 months time I was at the end of my rope because the antibiotics were more of a stop-gap measure and weren’t really taking care of the problem.

After searching around I came across information that was beginning to show that the cause of sinus infections really wasn’t the bacteria, or virus or even fungus.  It was the fact that my sinuses (and yours) weren’t able to properly drain.  When that happens you have bacteria and virus and fungus build up.

So, fix the drainage problem and you’ll likely fix the sinus infection.

Treatment Option #2: Sinus Rinse

Enter the sinus rinse.  The best thing about this is that the ingredients can be found in your cupboard and are extremely cheap.  Secondly, you don’t need a prescription for what I’m about to show you.

The only thing you do need to know is if it’s OK with your doctor to try sinus irrigation.  It most likely will be as most doctors and ear, nose and throat specialists are coming to agreement that sinus irrigation can be an effective treatment for sinus infections.

Ingredients You’ll Need:

• 1/4 tsp non-iodized salt
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 8 oz luke warm water.  I use tap water but you’ll want to adjust based on the water quality in your area.

How to Mix:

Real simple.  Measure out the ingredients being careful on your measurements.  You’ll know you screwed it up because when you spray it up your nose you’ll get that feeling of getting water up your nose at the pool.  It will burn a bit.

This solution is designed to be isotonic.  Which means you shouldn’t feel it at all if it is mixed correctly.

So, measure out the ingredients and add the luke warm water.  Be careful to make sure the water is not too hot or it will burn your sinuses – very painful and very dangerous.

When starting out you may find it helpful to perform your irrigations in the shower – that will ensure the water temp isn’t too hot.

Once the solution is measured all you have to find is a blue baby bulb syringe.  They sell them at grocery stores.  They are normally used to suck out a newborn baby’s nose, mouth or ears of debris.  They are usually blue in color.

I’ve used bottles before with a narrow tip.  It really doesn’t matter what it is as long as it has the capability to ’spray’ water.

Technique

There are two different techniques I’ve used.  I’m only going to give you one right now as it is much easier to perform and should help you.

Simply hold your head over a sink or somewhere where you don’t mind water dripping (another reason I do this in the shower).  Place the bulb in one nostril and simply squeeze the solution.  The solution will go up your nostril into your sinus cavity and eventually out your other nostril.

Sounds weird (and it does feel weird the first time you do it) but it works.  Particularly with warmer water you can eventually start to loosen up and remove some of the ‘gunk’ that has built up in your sinuses.

As I said above.  This is the sinus infection treatment option that worked best for me.  Of course, this was in conjunction with a complete change in my eating style which helped a lot too.

But, mechanically, I think the sinus rinse worked better because it addresses the root cause of the problem rather than just treating the the byproduct of poor drainage.