An infection or inflammation of the sinuses, sinus infections – or sinusitis – is very common in America and affects over three million people every year. If you have a longstanding cold for over ten days, or it gets much worse before it improves, chances are that you have a sinus infection.
Here’s more information on the ailment and how our Jonesboro Chiropractors can help:
Symptoms
Pain in the ears, face, forehead, sinuses, behind the eyes or nose, are all some of the more obvious symptoms of a sinus infection. Other signs and symptoms include congestion, headaches, cough, yellow-green mucus, difficulty sleeping, sore throat, fever and/or fatigue.
Causes
Your sinuses are the hollow areas in your cheekbones, around the eyes and behind your nose, and they have an important role within the body; use mucus to filter, warm and moisten air as you breathe it in. When the mucus can’t drain due to a blockage, that’s a sinus infection.
Usually, it all starts as a cold. A virus or bacteria will stay inside you and infect the sinuses. If you want to determine whether its viral or bacterial, use the length and symptoms of the illness as a gauge. If the illness persists for less than ten days and you aren’t getting worse, it’s probably viral. It’s likely bacterial if you haven’t improved within the ten days, or have felt it get worse after it began to improve.
Chronic Sinus Infections
If the inflammation, not infection, lasts 12 or more weeks, it is considered chronic sinusitis. Common treatment for this is salt-water irrigation. Surgery is sometimes performed, but it’s important to exercise all options before going under the knife.
The Chiropractic Connection: Preventing Illness
Preventative medicine is often overlooked and ignored in the United States, but using a routine of healthcare based on maintaining wellness instead of fixing or treating an ailment is an important element of a wellness lifestyle. Chiropractic treatment is geared around treating subluxations to maintain a high-functioning nervous system. These malalignments of one or several vertebrae create stress and irritation on the local nerves, which hinders that optimal function of the nervous system.
The Chiropractic Connection: Boosting Immunity
The nervous and immune systems are linked to the adrenal glands, and evidence tells us that they are also connected in other ways. According to The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the “brain may send messages directly down nerve cells to the immune system.” This supports the theory that chiropractic care boosts the immune system, as the removal of subluxations from a chiropractic adjustment gives the body a chance to function the best it can.
With that said, our Jonesboro Chiropractors can help you. Make an appointment by calling (404) 602-0387.