What is sinusitis?
When we get up in the morning feeling uneasy, with a heavy
forehead a feeling which Persists through the day,
feel head ache when there is a temperature change in
the environment, wanting
to sleep all the time, you're coughing and sneezing
and feel tired and irritated. You are sure that you
will get a cold. Later, when the medicines you've been
taking to relieve the symptoms of the common cold are
not working, you finally drag yourself to the doctor.
After the doctor, examining
your face and forehead, and perhaps doing a sinus
X-ray, he says you have sinusitis.
What are sinuses?
Let us understand where sinus
cavities exist in human beings. The sinus in general
means pocket or cavity. Here it refers to a number of
air-filled spaces in the skull as shown in the
picture. The frontal sinuses are above the eyes and
behind the forehead. The maxillary sinuses are behind
the cheekbones, the ethmoid sinus is a small area
within the ethmoid bone between the eyes, and the
sphenoid sinus is in the sphenoid bone under the
pituitary gland.
How Sinusitis is caused:
The sinuses are lined by
mucous-producing goblet cells. Mucous is quite
important in maintaining a clean and infection-free
sinus. Air moves into the sinus passages through
connecting passage-ways when we breathe, and if any of
these passages become blocked or narrowed, infection
of the inner spaces can occur since the mucous inside
can't drain out. Major cause is the allergies that can
cause inflammation which would lead to narrowing of
passages.
The inner lining of the sinuses are
covered in cilia, small hair-like protrusions into the
air and mucous filled space and serve to move mucous
out of sinus cavities. These cilia can be damaged by
all sorts of things, from air pollution to less humid
environment to viral infections. Damaged cilia leads
to stagnant mucous, and it leads to sinus infection
called the Sinusitis.
What are the symptoms of sinusitis?
The location of your sinus pain depends on which sinus
is affected.
Headache when you wake up in the morning is typical of
a sinus problem.
Pain when your forehead over the frontal sinuses is
touched may indicate that your frontal sinuses are inflamed.
Heaviness in the head while bending the head.
Infection in the maxillary sinuses can cause your
upper jaw and teeth to ache and your cheeks to become
tender to the touch. Since the ethmoid sinuses are near
the tear ducts in the corner of the eyes, inflammation
of these cavities often causes swelling of the eyelids
and tissues around your eyes, and pain between your
eyes. Ethmoid inflammation also can cause tenderness
when the
sides of your nose are touched, a loss of smell, and a
stuffy nose.
Although the sphenoid sinuses are less frequently
affected, infection in this area can cause earaches,
neck pain, and deep aching at the top of your head.
Most people with sinusitis, however, have pain or
tenderness in several locations, and their symptoms
usually do not clearly indicate which sinuses are
inflamed.
Other symptoms of sinusitis can include
Fever
Weakness
Tiredness
A cough that may be more severe at night
Runny nose or nasal congestion
what are some causes of acute sinusitis?
Most cases of acute sinusitis start with a common
cold, which is caused by a virus. These viral colds do
not cause symptoms of sinusitis, but they do inflame
the sinuses. Both the cold and the
sinus inflammation usually go away without treatment
in 2 weeks. The inflammation, however, might explain
why having a cold increases your likelihood of
developing acute sinusitis. For example, your nose
reacts to an invasion by viruses that cause infections
such as the common cold or flu by producing mucus and
sending white blood cells to the lining of the nose,
which congest
and swell the nasal passages.
When this swelling involves the adjacent mucous
membranes of your sinuses, air and mucus are trapped
behind the narrowed openings of the sinuses. When your
sinus openings become too narrow, mucus cannot drain
properly. This increase in mucus sets up prime
conditions for bacteria to multiply.
Recipe:
To relieve
symptoms…
* steam inhalation.
* Apply heat over the inflamed area.
* Medication
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