Your nose is stuffy, you are coughing, you feel pressure around your eyes, cheeks, and forehead, your sense of smell and taste is diminishing, you feel tired, achy and feverish… You think you might be getting a cold. Medicines you have been taking to relieve common cold are not helping. You now develop a terrible headache. Unable to cope up, you finally drag yourself to your physician. After listening to the history of your symptoms, examining your face and forehead and perhaps after doing a sinus x-ray he announces “You have sinusitis!”

Your sinuses are four pairs of air-filled cavities located within the skull bones of your head surrounding your nose. They lie behind the eyes, nose, and forehead. Each of them is connected to the nasal passage to drain mucus and for the exchange of air.

These hollow spaces/cavities make your skull light for your neck to bear it. They provide some protection to your skull by absorbing the impact thus preventing or minimizing head injuries. They also provide resonance to your tone when you speak.

Most people usually have harmless bacteria in their upper respiratory passage which does not cause any problem until one’s immunity is lowered. Sinusitis most often results due to a lingering cold, allergy or underlying diseases like asthma which can impede proper nasal drainage. It can also occur due to a nasal polyp, deviated nasal septum, large inflamed adenoids, an abscessed or inflamed tooth or even a change in pressure from flying or swimming.

This congestion becomes a breeding ground for infection which causes inflammation and swelling of the lining of sinuses. It can be acute (lasting up to 4 weeks), subacute (4-12 weeks), chronic (more than 12 weeks and can continue for months or years) and recurrent (with several acute attacks in a year).

Air trapped within a blocked sinus along with pus or other secretions may cause pressure on the sinus wall. It can give intense pain of a sinus attack which usually increases when bending or lying down. Also when air is prevented from entering a paranasal sinus because of a swollen membrane at the opening, vacuum created can also give pain and you end up saying “My head is killing me!”

Pain can be in the forehead in frontal sinusitis, upper jaw, teeth or cheeks in maxillary sinusitis, between eyes and at times with swelling of eyelids and tissues around in ethmoidal sinusitis or in your neck with earaches and deep aches at the top of the head in sphenoidal sinusitis.

The conventional mode of treatment is generally antibiotics, expectorants, decongestants, pain killers, irrigation and cortisone nasal sprays. Obstructive chronic sinusitis can be helped by surgery.

A great advantage of homoeopathic treatment is that along with the treatment for sinusitis, it also strengthens the immune system preventing recurrent attacks. Treatment can lead to a significant reduction in the frequency and intensity of acute attacks and can gradually lead to their total elimination. Homoeopathy works at the root cause and helps remarkably in bringing down the allergies and even regressing obstructive growths like adenoids and polyps. Common remedies like Arsenicum, Belladonna, kali Bich., Silicea, etc. can do wonders. But your doctor can reach a true similimum by thoroughly taking your case which will give you maximum benefit.

You can control your allergies by avoiding exposure to known allergens, avoid sudden exposure to cold air, reduce stress and eat natural foods to boost immunity. Steam inhalation can be of great help in acute attacks. Drink plenty of fluids to thin the mucus so that it can drain out easily.

This changing weather, protect yourself and your loved ones from the agony and visit your Homoeopath at once.