Aside from the formal research, there is clinical support for it: just ask your doctor. Most likely he or she will say, "Sure, go ahead. A lot of my patients do it." That's what mine said.
And finally, I've found on previous social network discussions (including on HN) that the practice is fairly widespread.
And don't paraphrase me ("So you are saying..."). I said what I said.
Don't get the downvotes. Sinus infections are a serious quality of life issue for some of us. I've had them drag on for weeks, then after a day of antibiotics, I feel like a new man.
I empathize as I had the same issues for decades. I grew up in the midwest and spent considerable time in NY too. I had three sinus surgeries before turning 30. I've been in SoCal for almost four years and my sinus issues rarely flare up.
Yeah and it'd help my sinuses too but at my age I'm used to taking the enzymes when I eat and they work well enough. Long term damage is basically my personality at this point, lol.
The problem with the medical world vs people who suffer from chronic illnesses is even the doctors who treat them don't seem to understand how bad it is to live with.
Last time I saw my ENT doctor he's like well it's not that bad and I just wanted to scream at him.
I liked how someone else on HN put it: your body is constantly sending an error code but there's no way to shut it off.
Do you also have chronically irritated, dry sinuses with no polyps?
I've tried nasal irrigation and a corticosteroid but nothing works.
This is a lot less severe than the others in this thread but to reflect on a far less worse issue: I try to hold the condition with compassion as much as I can meet it. I have chronically dry and irritated sinuses that started about five years ago and nobody understands just how difficult it is to bear this thing. The continuing, endless persistence of it and doctor after doctor just shrugging their shoulders has really contributed to a low-level rage at the futility of modern healthcare mostly.
Meditating on the essential impermanence of this body has helped to a degree. But it takes some highly exalted states to separate self from the suffering part of the body and I just don't have a lot of time nowadays to get up to those.
Spoken like someone who has never had severe nasal congestion. A week or two of not being able to sleep, taste, or speak with your normal voice would change your view of the importance of good decongestants.
Throughout my life I've suffered from significant allergies, so I've taken antihistamines for many decades (by prescription in my youth to OTC now). The allergies frequently cause sinus infections, which can include anything from minor pain around the ears and jaw, to heavy duty headaches.
It used to be the doctors would have me bomb my system with antibiotics, decongestants, and, yes, painkillers. Forty years on, we know a bit more, or at least I do, and I avoid as many medications (and the side-effects which increase with aging) as I can. I also suffered from tendonitis in the knees, so all of this put together meant I was regularly taking Tylenol or Advil for one or the other.
Then I stopped. I stopped using Tylenol unless I had a fever, or a really bad headache. When I got a sinus headache the first thing I'd reach for was a netty pot or sinus rinse instead of decongestants and painkillers. Physical therapy helped rehabilitate the knees, and when it rains, I just suck it up and limp for a day or two.
Those things and a few other medical issues add up to a steady catalog of pain that I just ignore for most of the day. In some cases, I stretch or exercise. I consider myself doing OK if I'm taking Tylenol or Aspirin once a quarter.
I'm happy you need no painkillers whatsoever for years on end. I think that's how it's supposed to be. For some people, it doesn't work out that way.
It took me almost 10 years to find out that I have Rhinosinusitis (confirmed by CT scan as well), most doctors wanted to send me to psychologist. Mucus goes to my airway when there’s air pollution, which makes it very hard to sleep, and of course it decreases my mental capacity and well being significantly as well.
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