Seasonal Allergies and Sinusitis Can Be Prevented
Nasal allergy is a very common condition, and the numbers of patients seem to be increasing. This is most likely due to the increasing air pollution.
When you’re suffering from bad allergies, any chilling can cause symptoms – drink warm liquids and avoid ice. It’s very important to drink hot tea before getting out of bed. Spices found in teas add to the histamine already in your body which contributes to allergy symptoms and worsens sinusitis. Instead of warming up after getting out of bed by circulation, the body coughs and sneezes as part of the warming up mechanism.
With allergies, it’s important to avoid feeling chilly, as this will bring on symptoms. The plants pollinate about 5 AM and 5 PM, so it’s important to sleep with the windows shut to avoid the morning pollen. Driving in the late afternoon with the car windows closed is beneficial as well. When the allergy symptoms are severe, it’s crucial to avoid spicy foods such as hot mustard and hot peppers. This is because these spices add to the histamine already in your body and cause allergy symptoms.
Use Nasal Drops in Moderation
Nasal drops such as Afrin and Neosynephrine can be addicting, and the more you spray, the more constricted the nose becomes. This causes a rebounding effect, and the nose will become more congested. This may spark the need to use the nose drops every twelve hours instead of six, and the desire to use the nasal drops may occur more frequently from there. The systemic effect of all the medicine will eventually take over, and the person can become nervous, jittery, and find it difficult to sleep. This is called Rhinitis Medicamentosum. Once this happens, the best treatment is a short course of Prednisone combined with an antibiotic from your doctor.
After exposure to an allergen, such as ragweed, you should flush or cleanse your sinuses. This is similar to what you might do when you wash your hands when they get dirty. The pulsatile effects of the sinus irrigator using the saline irrigation will remove offending substances and reduce susceptibility to sinusitis.
Pulsatile Nasal and Sinus Irrigation Found to Prevent Allergic Response
Madrid, Spain (Sept. 1, 1999) – Researchers at the Dept. of Immunology of the Hospital Clínico San Carlos, Madrid, have determined that daily pulsatile irrigation of the nose with a device such as the sinus irrigator reduces or removes the response or “factor” from the pollen IgE, a common pollen which produces seasonal allergies. Pulsatile irrigation is a simple, inexpensive, at-home treatment in which a patient flushes out their own nose and sinuses. This research suggests that regular irrigation actually prevents the seasonal pollen allergy response of the body, which means avoiding the suffering associated with seasonal allergies.
Drs. Jose and Javier Subiza, in their clinical studies of allergic response, tested a sample of subjects with allergies to IgE, a pollen present during the grass pollen season. During this season, the sample who performed pulsatile irrigation daily were checked for allergic response factors in the nose and in the blood, and they were checked for inflammation in the nose. The patients who irrigated show a significant reduction in the allergic factors of IgE in the nose and in the blood, along with a reduction in inflammation. The observations show that the pollen had been washed out of the nose, actually preventing the allergic response.
People have washed out their nasal passages for centuries using salt water for health benefits. Although everyone reacts negatively to plain water in the nose, properly prepared saline, or water with a saltiness to match that of the nose, causes no irritation. We recommend the saline powder called Breath-Ease XL be used for this. A simple washing of your nose and sinuses with saline does have some benefits verified by medical research, but pulsatile irrigation with a device such as the sinus irrigator is quite different. It has been shown to actually improve the function of the body’s own machinery, which are the cilia, for removing foreign materials. With pulsatile irrigation, warm saline water is gently pumped into the nasal passages, not in a smooth stream, but in a pulsing one. This action is believed to stimulate the “sweeping” or “waving back and forth” motion of the nasal cilia. Tests have shown that the cilia work better after irrigation.
The pulsatile irrigation treatment requires only the use of a small device at home called the sinus irrigator. In many cases the treatment can replace the use of drugs, their side effects, and avoids their high costs. For comparison, two months of Claritin® can cost over US$100. Patient response to the pulsatile treatment was reported as positive.
The research was reported in the September issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
Drs. Jose and Javier Subiza are widely recognized clinical allergy experts from Madrid. Their excellent work will be of great help to allergy sufferers.
It should be emphasized that pulsatile nasal irrigation is a completely natural, safe, drug-free treatment which can be performed without recurring visits to the doctor’s office. The device we recommend for this is the sinus irrigator.