Are you the one with the honking nose that drives people to sit far far away from you? Is the cost of Kleenex hurting your bottom line?
You and Jane are almost identical. You both went to the same school, ate the same bad foods, and grew up in similar households. You both loved dogs and slept with them. You even exchanged shoes and cosmetics. Jane has seldom had a cold. She says the only time she saw a doctor was for the baby shots. Why is there such a difference?
Turns out that Jane was breast fed according to the old world way of continuing at least to when the teeth are out. Your mother probably had to work and bottle fed you very early. Also, your mother was more modern and started feeding you table foods too early; foods started too early can cause allergy. Plus, your mother had the best health insurance and, early on took you to Dr Jones, who, to be on the safe side, prescribed the latest antibiotic at almost every visit. Jane's mother was a believer in tea, lemon and honey and bed rest.
What we know today is that too much antibiotic for children can alter the normal immune response; instead of the good white cells and immune globulins, we get an allergic type of reaction- even asthma!
We found this out when, before the fall of the Berlin wall, the West German kids got antibiotics with every sniffle; the East German kids did not. The West German kids got the asthma.
But what can you do today? Your nose is raw, stuffed, runny and you can feel this thick glop going down your throat. You worry about your breath too. The answer is your nasal cilia.
In the healthy nose there are millions of tiny cilia, which act like paddles. These paddles propel bacteria, pollen and dirt out of the nose to the back of the throat. There they are swallowed and dissolved in the stomach acid. The persons who don't have chronic sinusitis have cilia that move with precision, in rhythm, to move the bacteria out. If they don't, you may get a sinus infection because the bacteria remain in place and multiply.
Once upon a time, there was a list of products that slow or impair or stop nasal cilia movement. Unfortunately many products can impair normal cilia movement including diesel exhaust and perfumed lipstick.
Today there is a new chemical being produced almost every day that can affect your cilia. If you are using a new product and it causes excessive sneezing and coughing, it probably is affecting your nasal function.
Unfortunately, although companies are required to test their new product for toxicity- if it will kill you- they don't test for effect on nasal and chest cilia. This is why you need to be sure your cilia are at full speed and effectiveness.
Once your cilia are impaired, your nose burns, you sneeze, your nasal airway is congested, and you lose sleep. Then you start getting thick yellow discharge and eventually there is sinus pain. These are signs of impaired cilia. The sooner you get them back to moving to remove bacteria, pollen and dust, the fewer changes will take place in your sinus cavities. Humming, tea, and pulsatile nasal/sinus irrigation are used to restore the important nasal cilia.
What exactly does pulsatile irrigation do? Pulsing saline at a frequency that maximizes cilia movement is a common approach. As the nose is irrigated with saline - in one nostril and out the other, that frequency of the pulse wave "harmonizes" and vibrates the nasal tissue to restore good movement. For example, the Hydro Pulse is "tuned" to maximize cilia movement. The pulsing action acts to physically remove bacteria and pollen too. The massage action moves out stale lymphatic products and brings in fresh blood, which is therapeutic too. For any illness, relaxation is beneficial. The pleasant pulse wave is relaxing for many persons and helps them relax for better healing. However caution is needed. The directions on the irrigators state a stream less than one inch high. But there are machines that project with extreme force; these can harm the nose. The high pressure can force infected material from the nose into the ear. The high pressure "beats the cilia" instead of gently waves them back to normal speed. Again, the stream should be adjusted so it is less than one inch high. Anything higher is too much.
Remember Jane who didn't get postnasal drip? She probably has normal intestinal good bacteria that help manufacture the immune products because she didn't take excess antibiotics. For you, taking yogurt and probiotics is important for raising your immunity.
Other factors are good sleep. Try to set your sleep clock so that you have a complex set of steps: brush hair, brush teeth, warm bath, oil the face, etc. The more steps to wind you down and look forward to sleep, the more your sleep clock is set. Go to bed with a teddy bear? Absolutely, if you travel a lot, that can help you sleep in different time zones. I prescribe this for men too!
Although your nasal problem may be due to allergy, checking the pollen calendar can tell you if your sneezing is coming due to the oak trees in bloom. Then you may want to use pulsatile irrigation to remove pollen, and the IgE in your nose that combines with the pollen to plug up your nose. In the later stages of acute allergy, your nasal cilia are impaired and need to be restored.
Remember your grandmother kept telling you to drink tea, lemon and honey, as well as chicken soup? Today's scientist have found that these both contain chemicals that can restore cilia movement and help your immunity!
I hope this discourse into you vs Jane will help. You are not alone in having sinus problems. Fortunately you can be as free of sinus and postnasal drip as Jane is.
No comments:
Post a Comment