Better Living Through LESS Chemistry: Our Food

Posted on19. Aug, 2010 by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD.

Despite being banned in this country in 1972, the pesticide DDT can still be found in many foods in this country. Even “safe” pesticides that are allowed and widely used, are proven carcinogens and have other horrifying effects on our children. This post brings you the GOOD NEWS – some of our food seems to be relatively free of these poisons. Here is how to eliminate 90% of the pesticides from your food!

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What is the Unified Airway?

Posted on29. Jul, 2010 by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD.

In practical terms the Unified Airway Model predicts that challenges affecting one anatomic area of the aero-digestive tract will also likely affect one or more of the other components. Here is the evidence for he UAM, and how to use it to get your kids better.

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Use Plants to Purify and Detoxify Your Air

Posted on15. Jul, 2010 by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD.

Interesting story: We have NASA and an asthmatic in India to thank for finding the right plants to detoxify our air for us. That’s right, NASA – the space people, and a business man with severe asthma. And plants also provide us with oxygen as an added benefit. Here’s the story …

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The Human Pollution Experiment …

Posted on08. Jul, 2010 by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD.

“… OK then, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, we’ll put your little Sally in this box for 6 months, and pipe industrial waste smoke into the box to see how that affects her nose and lungs and stuff. Oh, and we’ll need to take some surgical biopsies occasionally. You’re cool with that, right?
Just sign here …”

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The 8 Basic Principles to Control Your Child’s Sinusitis

Posted on10. Jun, 2010 by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD.

For most of my sinusitis patients, the doctors have tried everything to treat their sinus troubles. Their parents feel like their kids are an ongoing experiment for those docs. Chronic sinusitis is a challenge. Everyone is frustrated: the child, the parents, the docs. There is no easy answer. No quick cure. Even so, you CAN make things better with a few simple rules. Here are the 8 basic tips that you can follow to improve the quality of life for YOUR little boogor-head.

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Sinus Rinses: if once/day is good, is 4x/day even better?

Posted on03. Jun, 2010 by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD.

And other stuff on my mind …

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Saline Sinus Rinse Poll Results

Posted on25. May, 2010 by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD.

We had 66 votes total – not a huge number, and probably not enough to do statistical analysis (thank goodness), but interesting results nonetheless. Here are the results, and some recommendations:

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Saline Sinus Rinses: What Good Are They? 4/4

Posted on13. May, 2010 by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD.

If you insist on making your own saline solution …

Before I switched over to the store-bought, Nasopure saline rinse system, this is the recipe I used for years:

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Saline Sinus Rinses: What Good Are They? 3/4

Posted on06. May, 2010 by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD.

It’s one thing to have someone suggest that you should do saline sinus rinses. They usually won’t tell you how to do them, like it’s something too indelicate to discuss. Well, let’s discuss it now …

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Saline Sinus Rinses: What Good Are They? 2/4

Posted on29. Apr, 2010 by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD.

Medical Evidence to Support Sinus Irrigations: A study from the University of Michigan (well-designed, and executed as a randomized, controlled trial of over 100 people with chronic rhinosinusitis) found that symptom severity and symptom frequency were significantly reduced in those who used sinus rinses on a daily basis compared to those who did not. Similar [...]

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Saline Sinus Rinses: What Good Are They? 1/4

Posted on22. Apr, 2010 by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD.

I have been personally coping with allergic rhinitis from the age of 6 or so, and with recurrent and chronic sinusitis for at least 20 years now. Although I was fortunate that allergy desensitization (allergy shots), gave me great relief, somewhere around age 8, I am not completely symptom free. Antihistamines, the standard conventional treatment, were not much benefit. And I hate the side effects. So, about 10 years ago I began using the home remedy of nasal-sinus irrigation using a weak salt water (saline) concoction. This is a method of cleansing the nasal and sinus cavities.

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3 Year Old Boy Hospitalized For Severe Sinusitis: Simple Cure

Posted on08. Apr, 2010 by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD.

There are good scientific studies that have evaluated the efficacy of saline sinus rinses. But seeing is believing. At a time when I was only sporadically doing my own sinus rinses (have I mentioned how I detest doing them?), a distant children’s hospital asked me to help them treat a seriously ill little boy, who was hospitalized with sinusitis. Here is what I recommended. Here is how it turned out …

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Can Your Child’s Allergies be Cured with Drops Under the Tongue?

Posted on05. Apr, 2010 by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD.

Allergic Rhinitis will affect nearly half of our children. Treatment options include: medications that risk changing brain development and sleep or behavioral problems; “allergy shots,” but nobody likes needles, especially kids. So, are “drops under the tongue” an option? Here’s the scoop …

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What to Look for in a Humidifier: the Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Posted on31. Mar, 2010 by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD.

A dry nose leads to 2 things: nose bleeds, and sinusitis. In order to avoid nose bleeds and sinusitis, the lining of your nose needs to stay moist. Keep those cilia happy! That’s where your humidifier comes in. There are many choices, but only 1 great choice…

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STOP BREATHING: Your Air Is Killing You (and what to do about it)

Posted on26. Mar, 2010 by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD.

We Americans spend nearly 90% of our time indoors. We take for granted that our indoor air quality is safe. Certainly, our air quality indoors is better than that polluted stuff outside. Isn’t it? Wrong. The EPA says that air pollution indoors may be 100 times higher than outdoors. So unless you can stop breathing, here are 8 simple tips to keep your air from killing you.

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What is Sinusitis ?

Posted on15. Mar, 2010 by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD.

Strictly speaking, sinusitis is inflammation of the sinuses ― air-filled cavities in the skull and facial skeleton. Sinusitis often follows infection in the nose (virus, bacteria, or mold), or inflammation in the nose (rhinitis) from some other cause, such as from allergies – allergic rhinitis. Here are the details, with figures.
There will be a pop quiz …

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