Sinusitis

… is a swelling of one or more nasal sinuses. It may be a com­pli­ca­tion of an upper res­pi­ra­tory infec­tion, den­tal infection, allergy, a change in atmos­phere, as in air travel or under­wa­ter swim­ming, or a defect of the nose. With swelling of nasal mucus mem­branes the open­ings from sinuses to the nose may be blocked, caus­ing pressure, pain, headache, fever, and local tenderness. Complications include spread of infec­tion to bone, brain, or meninges.

Clin­i­cal features

Sinusi­tis is an inflam­ma­tion of the nasal sinuses that accom­pa­nies upper res­pi­ra­tory infec­tion. More than 50% of all cases of sinusi­tis are caused by bacteria. The sinuses affected by this infec­tion include those  above the eyes, inside each cheek­bone, behind the bridge of the nose and in the upper nose.

Symp­toms of sinusi­tis include headache, earache, toothache, facial pain, cra­nial pres­sure, loss of sense of smell, ten­der­ness over the fore­head and cheekbones, and occa­sion­ally a high fever. The throat may be affected by prob­lems orig­i­nat­ing in the lungs, the nose, or the sinuses. A sore throat may take the form of ton­sil­li­tis, pharyn­gi­tis, or laryn­gi­tis. Some­times sinusi­tis pro­duces a swollen face fol­lowed by a stuffy nose and thick dis­charge of mucus. If the mucus is clear after a week you prob­a­bly do not have an infec­tion. If mucus is green­ish or yel­low­ish, you do. If the mucus is clear with­out a cold, you prob­a­bly have allergies.

Aeti­ol­ogy

Acute sinusi­tis is fre­quently caused by colds or bac­te­r­ial and viral infec­tions of the nose, throat and upper res­pi­ra­tory tract and can be extremely painful with headaches so severe that it is impos­si­ble to move the head with­out pain. Chronic sinusi­tis prob­lems which give rise to dull pain in the fore­head may be caused by small growth in the nose or injury to nasal bones.

Aro­mather­apy treatment

The use of essen­tial oils at the onset of a cold can often pre­vent the infec­tion from spread­ing to the sinuses.

Spe­cial tech­niques for facial mas­sage can be used to encour­age the drainage of mucus from the nose and sinuses. The tech­niques may be too uncom­fort­able to per­form dur­ing a severe attack. Mas­sage may be intro­duced after a day or two, or when­ever a steam inhala­tion has reduced the con­ges­tion enough for mas­sage to be tolerable.

Other treat­ments

• Herbs that are con­sid­ered effec­tive for reliev­ing the symp­toms of sinusi­tis include fenu­greek, elder flow­ers, eye­bright, golden seal, marsh­mal­low, and echinacea.
• Gar­lic is a valu­able immune stim­u­lant and nat­ural antibi­otic that keeps infec­tions in check.
• Bee pollen increases immu­nity and speeds heal­ing so a small daily sup­ple­ment of bee pollen is rec­om­mended, if you’re not aller­gic to it.
• A diet of 75% raw foods is recommended.
• Do not eat dairy foods because they increase mucus for­ma­tion. Soured diary prod­ucts such as yogurt and cot­tage cheese, how­ever, do not.
• Vit­a­min C should be taken to increase immu­nity against infec­tion and reduce mucus.
• Vit­a­min A increases the health of epithe­lial issue lin­ing of the sinuses.
• Acupunc­ture and acu­pres­sure are very effec­tive ther­a­pies for sinusi­tis and can be used along­side aro­mather­apy. The acu­pres­sure points com­monly sug­gested for the treat­ment of sinuses are LI4 and BI2 is located at the bridge of the nose and is help­ful for frontal headaches and sinus con­di­tions, while LI 20 and St 3, on the face, are the best points for heal­ing it with the max­il­lary sinuses located in the cheek area.

Meta­phys­i­cal Cause

Irri­ta­tion to one per­son, some­one close. Sin­gu­lar feel­ing of con­flict. Unre­solved issues.

The Mosby Med­ical Ency­clo­pe­dia, Revised Edition

The Com­plete Guide to Aro­mather­apy, Sal­va­tore Battaglia